MICROSOFT'S TECHNICAL DEPTH AND BREADTH

by Denise Caruso and Janice Maloney

c. 1994 Technology & Media


In addition to the many investments, ventures and partnerships external to the company, Microsoft continues to maintain a controlling presence in the office environment with its internally developed software products. Here's an overview of the main technologies the company is selling or developing today:

Operating systems:
Microsoft Windows is the de facto standard operating system for personal computers, and more sophisticated versions of Windows -- known as NT (for New Technology), Chicago, Daytona and Cairo, respectively -- have become available or are in development. The Tiger "continuous media server," mentioned below, is based on the Windows NT Advanced Server architecture.

PC application and networking software: 
Microsoft offers hundreds of application programs and networking products. This application empire is one of Microsoft's most profitable businesses and its Word and Excel programs are industry standards. It is also one of the areas in which Microsoft is most fiercely competitive.

WinPad:
Announced in 1993, WinPad is a software architecture for hand-held computers based on Windows. Although no timeframe has been announced for the arrival of WinPad-capable devices on the market, seven hardware manufacturers have announced plans to develop WinPad computers, including Compaq, Motorola, NEC and Sharp. No software application developers have been publicly announced. Microsoft's investments in wireless communication ventures that support WinPad and other wireless devices are listed on page 4-5.

At Work:
At Work is a Windows-compatible software architecture that turns formerly "dumb" telephones, copiers, pagers and fax machines into smart devices that can be controlled from desktop PCs in real time (i.e., perform functions exactly at the time they're requested). At Work will be used in the analog-digital cable converter box being designed by Microsoft with box manufacturer General Instrument. It is also the technology to be used in a TCI-Microsoft-Pacific Gas and Electric energy management trial set to be rolled out this fall in Walnut Creek, CA. In addition, At Work will be deployed as an operating system in Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) such as those being built as part of the General Magic alliance (which includes Sony and Motorola).

Softimage:
In late June, Microsoft acquired this authoring tools company and gained immediate recognition in Hollywood, where Softimage already has a strong reputation. As do many other companies, including AT&T, Microsoft wants to provide the de facto standard for the authoring software that creates interactive programming for CD-ROM, online multimedia services and interactive TV.

Tiger:
The company's most recent and highly publicized product announcement is a continuous-media server architecture, code-named Tiger, based on a version of the Windows NT Advanced Server architecture. It uses standard PC and telecommunications hardware to deliver video, audio, animation and information services -- either to an individual or in broadcast mode -- over a switched broadband network serving a metropolitan area.

Settop boxes: 
Microsoft's software solution for the first generation of settop boxes is based on its At Work architecture, but for next-generation, all-digital devices, it is rumored that Microsoft will use a customized version of its Chicago operating system.

ITV applications/programming: 
The Broadband Media Applications Group is a "secret" division inside Microsoft's Advanced Technology Group that's working on creating interactive programming (i.e., content) and navigation systems. Some group members were absorbed into Microsoft from another Gates startup, Continuum Productions Corp., which is attempting to build a database of digital art.

Marvel:
Marvel is the code name for the online service, a la America Online and Prodigy, that Microsoft has been developing for three years. The company's Complete Baseball CD-ROM and a banking application called Money 3.0 were both designed to be linked to online services, and it's expected that Microsoft is sufficiently committed to online that it will build links for Marvel software directly into the Chicago operating system, thus encouraging a fast ramp-up of customers. Microsoft also plans to build into its Chicago software the TCP/IP networking protocols for the Internet, and has already specified a Windows connection to the Internet called WinSock.

Content.
The Microsoft Home division, its new consumer software unit, is now shipping 45 CD-ROM and diskette-based titles and has hired the country's largest wholesale book distributor to sell its software to bookstores. Microsoft has been distributing interactive CD-ROM titles since the earliest days of the medium, but it has only been in the last two years that its internal CD-ROM organization has been recognized by the industry as a force to reckon with. The division, which began by purchasing products -- including BookShelf and Beethoven -- is now a several-hundred-member development team doing all-original content.

In addition, Microsoft has announced plans to codevelop with TCI a cable TV show on personal computers. Although details on the PC channel are sketchy, Microsoft has announced that it will develop some of the programming for the channel, which is expected to roll out in 1996.