This is the VOA Special English Economics
Report.
This week, with
dancers and other events, Microsoft launched the general release of its new operating system
for personal computers. Windows Vista became available in more than 70 countries.
This is the first new version since Windows XP in 2001. But the long-delayed
release did not create nearly as much excitement as there was twelve years ago
for Windows 95.
Vista is designed to make it easier to search for files on a computer. The
appearance has also been improved. And Microsoft says the new system offers
better security. Just how much better remains to be proven.
Most PCs use Windows. But people who may want to buy the new version for an
existing computer first have to make sure that the machine can support it. This
is true especially if a computer is older than a year or two.
Apple plans to release its new operating system, called Leopard, this spring.
But many industry experts say the future of software may be in providing
services over the Internet, the way Google does now. That means a move away from
loading lots of programs onto individual computers.
Vista is not the only news in computer technology right now. Engineers have
discovered how to use new materials to make the brains of a computer.
On January 27, Intel announced the biggest change in 40 years in the way
processors are made. The company says the transistors in its next generation of
processors will be made using hafnium, a kind of metal, instead of silicon.
Intel says it will also use a secret combination of metals.
Transistors control the flow of electrical current. The new transistors will
be the smallest yet, just 45 nanometers, or 45 billionths of a meter. Two
thousand of them could fit across a human hair. Hundreds of millions will go
onto the new processors.
Intel says the new technology will increase performance and use less power.
It says it expects to begin production in the second half of this year.
Intel's new design uses what is known as "high-k metal gate" technology. But
IBM made a similar announcement on the same day as Intel.
IBM said it has developed such technology for use in chip circuits as small
as forty-five nanometers. The company worked with Intel's biggest competitor,
AMD, along with Sony and Toshiba. IBM says products with the new technology will
go on sale in two thousand eight.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm Mario Ritter.
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