From: alistair@microsoft.com (Alistair Banks)
Subject: Re: Offical Windows NT information from Microsoft!!! (right)
Date: 11 Apr 92 01:25:33 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corp.

In article <3500@cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us> aki@cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us writes:
>In article <1992Mar31.080811.11472@uunet.uu.net>, ms-isv@uunet.uu.net (Microsoft - ISV Archive) writes:
>> This note is neither official, nor accurate, but rather bad reporting
>> from a talk about hardware directions. The hardware reported will
>> one day be mainstream, but was never mentioned as a requirement, nor
>> even a "desirement" for Windows NT.
>
>So what _IS_ the suggested Windows NT hardware?

Windows NT is designed to be the higher end compliment to Windows
for MS-Dos. We intend Windows NT and Windows for MS-Dos to
co-exist for a very long time. We believe that if we were to offer
only one product to the computing community, that since all
products are the result of compromise & you can't ever be all
things to all people, that we'd cover the total market less well.
So we're on a strategy of providing various products under the
"Windows" banner, with extensions and features for different
users. Thus Windows for Pens extends Windows 10 million users into
a new hardware market, Windows with MultiMedia extends the reach
further, and Windows NT brings Windows to the security
concious, performance & scaleing concious & those who demand 
utmost robustness.

Windows for MS-Dos delivers ultimate compatibility and is
tuned for uni-processor x86 environments, where local security
is not a compelling issue. Windows for MS-Dos & Windows NT
will share the same user interface, the same APIs and the
same application base. If a user is "happy" running a word
processor & spreadsheet on Windows for MS-Dos, then Windows NT
is not for them, and we're not trying to "force" the market. We
will be improving Windows & MS-Dos to take full advantage of
386 level processors, but we won't be sacrificing compatibility
with block or stream device drivers, with TSRs or applications
that exist today for either the operating system iteself, or
applications which run on it. We will be improving the user
interface of Windows & Windows NT "in-synch" and we will be
bringing them both compatible implementations of the Win32 API,
starting with Win32s for Windows 3.1, and delivering the full
Win32 API in Windows for MS-Dos over time.

So with the above being said, the kind of person who'll
use Windows NT has at least one requirement not met by Windows for
MS-Dos, the kind of person who today constantly runs many
applications, has sophisticated multiple co-resident network
requirements, who requires more performance than he can get from
his PC today, or the kind of person who requires a secure environement
and can't get that from Windows for MS-Dos. That kind of person
will already have a "good" PC, and we'd expect not to see
Windows NT on a machine with less than a 386/33MHz, 8Mb
memory & 100Mb hard disk, although it will in fact work on
a 386sx, with less than 8Mb and a smaller hard disk (but
we'd expect that a user with such hardware today, won't
demand any of the features of Windows NT, and therefore
won't be a candidate for an upgrade)

With Windows for MS-Dos & Windows NT, a company can standardise
on Windows for the largest part of their computing needs, from
286 machines up to x86 & RISC workstations, to scaleable
multi-processor architectures, with only one training investment,
with one set of applications and with one environment for 
internal development.

At this Spring Comdex a.k.a. Windows World,
we showed Windows NT running on uni-processor 486 machines,
on a 50MHz R4000 RISC processor with 1Mb second level cache
deliverring 65 Specmarcs performance, also on a two processor
systempro, on a 4*50Mhz 486 "under-the-desk" NCR computer, and
an 8*486 "fridge" computer - each one running MS-Dos,
Win16, Win32 & OS/2 16-bit character applications (we will have
POSIX support by public pre-release in July.) We showed the
built-in client & server networking, with security and audit
control built into the file manager, with print control in the
print manager, and most importantly with **52** 3rd party applications
already ported to the Win32 API of Windows NT. These apps were
from major companies accross the broad range of applications
including oracle & ingres databases, including x-server &
others tcp/ip utilities, including autocad & excel & imaging
and development tools, and SNA networking through 3 3rd party
front ends to real "live" mainframes running via the DCA/Microsoft
Comms Server APIs. The full list will likely be printed in
the various trade papers over the next few weeks.

Clearly our investment in Windows NT is to build a very sophisticated
platform for our long term growth, and we're not trying to force
the world to switch to it immediately, but with the number of
applications being developped for it, and with its similarity
to Windows for MS-Dos, as hardware improves so it will become
the dominant implementation in time.

Hope this helps,

Alistair Banks, Microsoft Systems Division
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms