Microsoft plans Vista's replacement

Vista may not be out yet, but Microsoft is already talking about what will replace its upcoming operating system.

Speaking to The Venture Forum conference, Bryan Barnett, a manager for external research programmes in the Microsoft Research group, said that one of the areas being looked at was how to better use multicore processors.

He said that it was important to take full advantage of the processing power that those multicore architectures potentially make available. This requires operating systems and development tools that don't exist today.

While Vista does run on multicore processors, it is not fully optimised for them, he admitted.

But Barnett said there is no timetable for Vista’s successor right now.

Early work includes five or six projects being undertaken in the company’s labs. He said that finding a replacement for Vista was going to be incredibly hard work, despite the resources at Microsoft’s disposal.

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Microsoft dreams of Vista's successor