Microsoft wants to get into chip design

Stan Beer
Monday, 23 October 2006 08:32

Opinion and Analysis

Microsoft the software company appears to be morphing at a great rate of knots into a hybrid software-hardware company, with the latest move being the establishment of a chip design laboratory. According to a report in the New York Times, a new Microsoft chip design group will have teams in both Silicon Valley and Redmond.

Apparently the evolution of computing into multi-processor chips and devices other than desktop PCs, such as games consoles, music players and mobile phones, is leading Microsoft into areas where it needs to more tightly control the integration of its hardware and software.

The result is the Computer Architecture Group lead by one of Silicon Valley's computer engineering pioneers Charles P. Thacker.

According to Mr Thacker, one of the first projects of the new design group will be to look at the next generation Xbox platform and voice recognition will be one of the areas of exploration, taking advantage of the power of multi-core processors.

Some reports have raised the question of how Microsoft's move into chip design will affect its long standing relationship with chipmaker Intel.

Microsoft has already shown that it is prepared to use the chips it believes are best suited to individual platforms, moving from Intel to PowerPC for its Xbox 360 console.

However, the so-called Wintel alliance would seem to be firmly cemented for Microsoft's desktop computing software and the new chip design group is unlikely to effect any change in that area. Even the archetypal hardware and software integrator, Apple Computer, acknowedges that Intel architecture is the most suitable platform for desktop computing.