This week at the 2011 Computex computer show in Taipei, Taiwan, software giant Microsoft previewed the next version of Windows operating system to its hardware partners. Internally code-named “Windows 8,” the preview is intended to help its partners build devices that can take advantage of the new user experience, Microsoft said.

As part of this technical preview, Mike Angiulo, corporate vice president of Windows Planning, Hardware and PC Ecosystem at Microsoft, demonstrated how “Windows 8” is optimized for newer touch-centric hardware, including tablets, while still delivering the flexibility, connectivity and power that people have come to expect from Windows today.

With a variety of early prototypes shown running the new operating system, the technical demonstration also highlighted the new operating system’s ability to work across both x86 and ARM-based architectures. Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) and silicon chip makers AMD, Intel Corp., NVIDIA Corp., Qualcomm Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc. initially announced plans in January to work together on the next version of Windows.

“Our aim with ‘Windows 8’ is to make the user experience a natural extension of the device, from the time you turn on your PC through how you interact with the applications you know and love,” Angiulo said, in a statement.

He added, “This represents a fundamental shift in Windows design that we haven’t attempted since the days of Windows 95, presenting huge opportunities for our hardware partners to innovate with new PC designs.”

The new user experience also extends to how applications will run on “Windows 8,” with controls naturally fitting into the device experience. Developers also will be able to use common Web technologies, such as HTML5 and JavaScript, to create applications for the PC, further easing integration and adoption, the software giant said.

To aid developers in building applications for the new operating system, Microsoft formally opened registration for its new developer conference, BUILD. The conference will take place Sept. 13–16, 2011, in Anaheim, Calif. More information and online registration for BUILD is available at http://www.buildwindows.com.

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