Four of Japan's major PC makers have signed up to support
Microsoft's Mira technology, which allows users to access their
Windows XP desktop from a portable, wireless-equipped
terminal.
Japan's largest two PC makers, NEC and Fujitsu, along with Sotec
and Matsushita Electric Industrial, will all be releasing PCs that
support Mira, said Keith White, senior director of marketing at
Microsoft's embedded and appliance platforms group. The PCs are
expected in stores before the end of this year, he said.
The Mira system extends the Windows XP desktop to a portable
terminal that is linked to the main PC through a wireless LAN.
Users have full access to their desktop applications and files from
the terminals, which do little more than display processing. The
applications run on the main PC and the information is sent across
the wireless LAN to the device for display.
"What this enables me to do is have complete access to everything
running on the PC," said White, demonstrating a prototype of a Mira
device. "I have full access to browse the Web, full access to my
applications. It is basically remoting the display presentation
using wireless networking to this device."
"Everything is processing [on the main PC]. When I mouse click [on
the display], it actually goes across the wireless network and
executes on the PC and displays back here what I do. It's not like
there is a PC running on this. Because of that there is no fan, no
heat, much longer battery life."
The portable devices run Windows CE .net and Microsoft has defined
a basic specification for them. They are required to have a minimum
screen resolution of 800 by 600 pixels, 16Mbytes each of ROM and
RAM, a touch-panel display and support for wireless LAN networking.
They can run on processors such as Intel's XScale, Hitachi's SuperH
and those from Mips Technologies.
But while Microsoft has received commitments of support from
Japanese companies on the PC side, it has yet to get any similar
commitments for the production of Mira-based terminals. Developing
these requires more time and money than integrating wireless LAN
and installing Windows XP Professional on a desktop computer and
White said Microsoft is still talking with Japanese computer makers
about Mira devices.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, where the
Mira concept was unveiled, Microsoft announced support from display
manufacturer ViewSonic, which said it will produce a Mira-enabled
monitor that can be carried around the home, and Intel, National
Semiconductor and Wyse Technology, all three of which will produce
Mira reference designs that other companies can buy, manufacture
and sell.
Mira terminals are expected to sell for between $500 (£350) and
$800 (£560), according to White.