Microsoft is no stranger to hardware. Its computer mice and
keyboards have been among the best for over a decade, and now the
company is trying to take the lead in communication devices such as
headsets and Web cams.
While it would be ridiculous to compare Microsoft's
hardware know-how with that of Dell, who manufactures or brands nearly
anything PC-related, it would also be wrong to say that the software
giant has no experience in producing and selling a PC. In fact,
Microsoft made one of the most successful 'PCs' in recent memory with
30 million sold worldwide.
That's right, we're talking about the Xbox. Although the original
Xbox was composed of mainly off-the-shelf parts, it demonstrated that
Microsoft knew what it was doing. The Xbox 360 took it a step further
with more custom components designed to Microsoft's specifications.
So then, what's the next step for Microsoft? Believe it or not, it could be in-house chip design.
The New York Times interviews industry veteran and Microsoft engineer Charles P. Thacker, who tells about joint-labs in Redmond and Silicon Valley tentatively named the Computer Architecture Group.
Thacker
points to the Xbox as one of the main reasons for Microsoft's interest
in bringing chip design in-house. The first Xbox sourced a Mobile
Celeron 733 from Intel, which was adequate; and for the Xbox 360,
Microsoft tapped IBM to produce a custom triple-core PowerPC CPU.
Legend has it that AMD was the original choice for the original Xbox,
but was outbid by Intel at the 11th hour. On the graphics side the
equation, NVIDIA supplied a GeForce 3.5 of sorts for the first Xbox,
and ATI put its Xenos "R500" into the Xbox 360. NVIDIA also supplied
audio and networking technologies for Xbox.
Clearly,
Microsoft relies heavily on outside help to produce its console
product. While the specialized hardware makers have helped to create
powerful machines, outsourcing exposes Microsoft to certain levels of
instability and risk. A prime example would be NVIDIA's dispute, which
eventually lead to arbitration, with Microsoft over a supply agreement
for its Xbox chips. Microsoft's Computer Architecture Group may be an
effort to reduce its reliance on other companies.
Thacker,
who stepped into the Xbox 360 design team after a key engineer on the
project became ill, says that Microsoft is looking at other
technologies besides strictly gaming, such as voice recognition.
“Voice is big,” Mr. Thacker said to the New York Times. “You can throw as much technology at it as you want to.”
Another
aim benefit of Microsoft designing its own chips is that it will have
greater control over how its software and operating systems interact
with the hardware. By overseeing both, Microsoft may be able to
accomplish feats that a company like Intel, who now has to produce
chips for Apple computers and software, cannot.
“We are at an
inflection point in the industry,” he continued. “Our friends say
computers are not going to get faster, we’re just going to get more of
them.”
Instead of taking a traditional approach, Microsoft likely will look
towards parallel processing, which is where most of the industry is
currently pointed.
“This is a historic time in the computer industry,” the story quotes David A.
Patterson, a computer scientist at the University of California,
Berkeley. “We’re in the middle of a revolutionary change toward
parallel computing that will absolutely involve both hardware and
software.”
By
utilizing a system designed by UC Berkeley, Computer Architecture Group
can design and reconfigure chips without actually producing them, thus
reducing a potential barrier to entry into chip design.
A possible starting point could be in-house design for chips in laser mice, Web cams, fingerprint readers, and other Microsoft-branded hardware.
But
fear not, hardware loyalists! Even with this its new endeavor at
Computer Architecture Group, Microsoft is far away from producing chips
at the
caliber of specialists Intel, IBM, NVIDIA and ATI. Then again, the
next-generation of consoles isn't due for another four years. With the
seemingly limitless resources available to Microsoft, it's entirely
conceivable that the next Xbox, which is already in the planning stage, will have a whole more in-house inside.