From the Editor With BUILD behind us and the Windows 8 beta release ahead, we continue to focus on the next version of Windows, code-named Windows 8. Earlier this month, the Windows Ecosystem Summit training event in Taipei provided industry partners with a closer look at the new technologies and opportunities in Windows 8. Windows team members presented on such topics as the new Hardware Certification Kit, the new Windows Driver Kit, developing and debugging drivers in Visual Studio, optimizing performance and battery life, enhancing code quality and error reporting, and plenty more. The session videos and slides from this event are available on Channel 9. The article in this issue about sensors and location responds to a direct customer question that we received through an online forum: "What's happening with the sensors and location platform for Windows 8?" We thought the development team's reply would be of interest to many of our readers. Finally, in addition to a recently published paper and a couple of recent blog highlights, this month we introduce a new feature, "Industry News." The intent is to gather and share some of the current, relevant news from the Windows and Microsoft hardware industry. We hope you find it informative and useful. Thanks, ~The Windows Hardware Content Team
Top Story Windows Ecosystem Summit: Prime Your Hardware for Windows 8 Microsoft hosted a successful Windows Ecosystem Summit training event in Taipei, Taiwan, November 8¬ 10, 2011. More than 550 attendees heard about the fundamental changes coming to the Windows 8 platform and how these changes provide hardware partners the opportunity to reimagine their possibilities for success. The training content for this event includes information that will help partners develop and test systems, devices, and experiences that are primed for Windows 8. View session content: http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Windows-Ecosystem-Summit/2011Taipei
News for Hardware Developers What's Happening with the Sensors and Location Platform for Windows 8? The sensors and location platform is at the core of some of the coolest experiences for Windows 8-based systems, devices, and applications. Following are resources from the Windows development team that provide insights on what's happening with this platform for Windows 8. Architecting and Integrating Sensor Drivers Windows 8 provides an extensive and feature-rich set of developer tools, documentation, and drivers to simplify sensor integration and provide rich user experiences. With this level of support in Windows, manufacturers can quickly bring systems to market that take full advantage of light, motion, and other sensors. This session provides the information necessary for device and system manufacturers to integrate their sensors with Windows and take advantage of this rich platform. Chalk Talk for Sensor and Location Support in Windows Windows 8 introduces a new sensors and location platform that enables the creation of new apps and experiences. This chalk talk covers sensor design, board placement layout, calibration, and validation tools. We also cover in-box sensors, location experiences, and drivers. Introduction to Low-Power Buses for Windows 8 The world of system on a chip (SoC) has changed the way devices are connected inside a PC. Windows 8 introduces support for low-power internal buses such as I2C, SPI, GPIO, and high-speed UARTs. In this session, we demonstrate the end-to-end story on how to integrate a device on the new buses and create a driver. You will learn how to write ACPI to enumerate your peripheral and get started writing and testing a peripheral driver. What's New in Sensors This topic summarizes the new features and improvements for sensors in Windows 8. Integrating Motion and Orientation Sensors This paper is intended to help original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), original device manufacturers (ODMs), and independent hardware vendors (IHVs) understand motion and orientation sensor capabilities and requirements for Windows 8 and also to document how these capabilities are engineered and implemented on PC hardware platforms running Windows 8. This technology area involves three-dimensional (3-D) accelerometer, 3-D magnetometer/compass, and 3-D gyrometer sensor hardware.
Telling Us What You Think During the two weeks following BUILD in September, the Windows Dev Center for Hardware received more feedback than in the previous six months combined! We appreciate this feedback and are working every day to adapt our site and content to address your issues and suggestions. Our goal is to address all of your feedback by the Windows 8 beta release. So, please keep your input coming. Every page under the Learn tab includes a link to rate and provide specific comments about the content on the page. The more specific your feedback, the more accurately we can address it. 
Windows Hardware Development: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/hardware/
Recently Published for Hardware Developers Link Power Management in USB 3.0 Hardware This paper provides information about certain limitations of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0 selective suspend mechanism. It provides guidelines for independent hardware vendors (IHVs) and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to implement power management for USB devices by using USB 3.0 Link Power Management (LPM) in conjunction with selective suspend. It also provides information about common pitfalls in LPM implementation in USB controllers, hubs, and devices. Read more: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/hh533443
What's New in Blogs for Hardware and Driver Developers "Improving the setup experience" in "Building Windows 8" Blog by Steven Sinofsky and Christa St. Pierre, 21 Nov 2011 Installing Windows is a complex operation that provides an incredibly unique capability-the ability to run a new version of Windows on a vast array of hardware configurations and combinations that were designed with no knowledge of a future Windows, even a version with substantial re-architecture of the Kernel. While most people do not experience the full code path of setup/upgrade (because they buy new PCs and choose to get a new version of Windows that way), even orchestrating the new PC "out of box experience" (OOBE) is a complex technical challenge. Our aim in improving setup is to reduce the time from start to finish so that customers can get to Windows and use the full power of Windows to further customize and ultimately enjoy their new Windows experience. This post was written by Christa St. Pierre on our Setup and Deployment team. Read more: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/11/21/improving-the-setup-experience.aspx
"Minimizing restarts after automatic updating in Windows Update" in "Building Windows 8" Blog by Steven Sinofsky and Farzana Rahman, 14 Nov 2011 Before the Internet, updates such as service packs and "patches" were impossibly hard to come by. You ordered upgrade "media" or maybe bought a magazine with a CD in it. Of course, the Internet changed all that. In fact, when ftp.microsoft.com was first set up, among the first services was the ability to get updates for MS-DOS and Windows. With the introduction of Windows Update, we invested heavily in building not just a software delivery service, but a commitment to delivering high quality updates in a timely manner. It took some time to get to the point where customers trust these automatic updates, and we're proud of how far we've come. Today Windows Update is one of the largest services on the Internet by several measures, and of course we're using Windows 8 development as a chance to improve the experience of product updates too. This post was authored by Farzana Rahman, the group program manager of our Windows Update group. Read more: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/11/14/minimizing-restarts-after-automatic-updating-in-windows-update.aspx
"What to Try When Your USB Device is an 'Unknown Device'" in "Microsoft Windows USB Core Team Blog, 14 Oct 2011 Here are some common causes and solutions for users facing an "Unknown Device" problem. This post is a follow-up to "Why is my USB device not detected or comes up as 'Unknown Device'?. Read more: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/usbcoreblog/archive/2011/10/15/things-to-try-when-your-usb-device-is-an-quot-unknown-device-quot.aspx
Industry News Popular Science Puts Microsoft Surface on "Best of What's New" List Popular Science, 16 Nov 2011 Popular Science magazine has included a thin tabletop computer from Samsung Electronics and Microsoft that uses new Surface technology in its "Best of What's New" list for 2011. Read more: http://www.popsci.com/bown/2011/product/samsung-sur40-microsoft-surface
Qualcomm Chief Discusses Windows 8, Windows Phone Plans Forbes, 15 Nov 2011 Qualcomm president Steve Mollenkopf sees promising opportunities in Microsoft's Windows Phone mobile operating system and Windows 8. Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/elizabethwoyke/2011/11/15/qualcomm-president-talks-windows-8-windows-phone-plans/
Intel CEO: Big Focus on Ultrabooks Running Windows 8 CNET News, 15 Nov 2011 Intel CEO Paul Otellini said today at an Intel conference that touch-based ultrathin notebooks running Windows 8 will be a big focus for the company in the coming 12 months. Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-57325491-64/otellini-windows-8-touch-based-ultrabooks-a-pair/?tag=mncol
HP Unveils Its First Business Ultrabook IDG News Service, 15 Nov 2011 HP has introduced its first business ultrabook, offering nine hours of battery life, a solid-state drive, and a security chip that protects data in email and information on the hard disk drive. Read more: http://www.pcworld.com/article/243956/hp_unveils_its_first_business_ultrabook.html
Ultrabook Conga Line Preps for CES 2012 All Things Digital, 18 Nov 2011 Shawn DuBravac, chief economist and director of research for the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), says we'll see a flood of ultrabook unveilings at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Read more: http://allthingsd.com/20111118/ultrabook-conga-line-preps-for-ces-2012/?refcat=news
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