Windows 7 will change the ways you interact with your PC. How you ask? Windows Touch.

Touch refers to the way Windows lets you interact directly with a computer using a finger. Compared to using a mouse, keyboard, or pen, touch can be much more engaging, natural, and convenient.

The Windows Touch technology in Windows 7 is an evolution of the technology that is rooted in Windows Vista. In Windows Vista, single-touch input improved the interaction when using the pen stylus and the mouse of earlier Tablet PC platforms. With Windows 7, users can directly manipulate their computer environment through multitouch for the first time. Users can use a variety of gestures directly on their computer screen to move data, including:

• Touch, or mouse-such as behavior: tap, double-tap, right-click, drag, and select.
• Touch gestures- such as Flicks (navigational and editing).
• Multitouch gestures-- such as zooming in, zooming out, panning, and rotating.

A Windows 7 PC powered by NVIDIA GPUs will deliver faster, more engaging Windows Touch experiences. NVIDIA GPUs are well known for accelerating 3D interfaces. The Windows 7 Aero desktop, now designed using the DirectX 10 API and designed for Windows Touch, is no exception. From the new taskbar previews to Aero Peek, Flip, Snap, and Shake, NVIDIA GPU provides a snappy 3D experience. Windows 7 also uses the GPU to reduce memory consumption by half by eliminating the need to keep a second copy of each window in system memory. This frees up system memory for other applications and keeps your PC responsive.

Multi-touch capability was designed into the core of Windows 7 and is a perfect fit for the new highly visual GPU-accelerated applications like Cooliris and Super Loiloscope. Cooliris lets you browse the web in 3D and now with the addition of Windows Touch, the experience becomes even more immersive. With Super Loiloscope you can have fun creating videos and applying effects with the touch of your finger.

Touch input does not replace the keyboard and mouse, it enhances them. Touch is a natural and intuitive way to interact with you PC when you are doing common computing tasks such as:

• Web browsing
• Interacting with photos
• Playing games
• Organizing music and video (creating playlists, sorting media, and organizing content)
• Reading and sorting e-mail
• Using documents
• Managing a Windows workspace

As you can see, your Windows 7 Touch experience will be faster, smoother, and more immersive with an NVIDIA GPU in your PC.

Just in case you’ve missed it (where have you been?), today is the day the first PCs with Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system and VISION Technology from AMD hit the shelf. Yeah!

Many of us have been looking forward to this day for quite a while. I’ve blogged about the synergy between AMD technology and Windows 7 on a number of occasions before. I’ve talked about how AMD’s latest graphics cards are the only graphics cards on the market to fully support the DirectX 11 API, the API released with Windows 7. And that’s a big deal, because it will enable richer visual experiences and speed up other tasks like converting video files for playback on a portable media player.

I’ve also discussed the importance of a complete PC experience, where hardware and software interact seamlessly so that everything “just works.” With greater usability and an increasingly intuitive interface in Windows 7, your PC works the way you want it to, faster and easier.

I’ve been lucky to be a beta tester for Windows 7, and have personally benefited from a couple of the improvements in particular.

For example with Windows 7, you can drag video to enabled portable media players and transcode the clip automatically. If you’re searching for a file, Windows 7’s integrated search function helps you find what you’re looking for faster than before, even when you only remember a phrase or snippet of what you’re looking for.

And now the wait is over. Today is a culmination of a long effort by Microsoft, and with their new OS, consumers can enjoy a better computing experience right now. Windows 7 is a winner.

This is also a day where consumers can experience VISION technology from AMD – technology which we announced last month. Developed with the goal of enriching users’ digital lives, VISION also helps simplify the PC buying process, by aligning PC models with the ways consumers use their systems. Depending on whether you just want to watch videos and view photos, or create and edit HD movies, VISION helps you easily identify the PC that’s right for you. At a time when consumers have more options than ever, we understand that choice alone does not provide value. The right choice provides value, and VISION helps buyers make the right choice.

From product development to point of purchase, AMD and Microsoft have worked together to ensure a painless decision process and intuitive user experience.

And with Windows 7 on VISION, everyone WINs.

Nigel Dessau
Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at AMD

His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links sites and no endorsement is implied.

As we discussed in our earlier blog, at the core of Windows 7 for the first time is the inclusion of the graphics processing unit (GPU) for computing. The GPU is no longer just for graphics. In Windows 7, the CPU and the GPU create a co-processing environment. As a result, Windows 7 PCs with the right balance of CPU and GPU offer a faster, more visual Windows 7 experience.

NVIDIA’s President and CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang talked about GPU Computing in Windows 7 during a keynote presentation at Computex 2009.

What makes this co-processing possible is one of the most significant additions Windows 7 brings: DirectCompute. DirectCompute enables applications in Windows 7 to take advantage of GPU Computing to accelerate applications. DirectCompute will be distributed as part of the DirectX 11 API and is fully supported by NVIDIA’s current lineup of DirectX 10 GPUs. Murray Vince, General Manager of the OEM Division at Microsoft was at Computex to discuss the new DirectCompute API in Windows 7.

DirectCompute will enable great consumer visual and interactive experiences such as new high-quality video and photo entertainment, simplified ways to interact with your devices, faster, more responsive PCs, and even new realistic gaming effects. DirectCompute is accelerated by today’s 200 million+ DirectX 10 GPUs and future DirectX 11 GPUs.

Below is an example of the co-processing environment (CPU + GPU) in Windows 7 for applications that operate primarily on sequential (or serial) codes, such as email, office applications (like Word), and basic web browsing. In this case, the CPU does the majority of the application processing and the GPU is used to display the graphics on the screen.

The second example below demonstrates the co-processing environment (CPU + GPU) in Windows 7 for applications that take advantage of parallel  processing, such as video playback, video editing, video conversion, and PC gaming. In this case, DirectCompute is used to leverage the processing power of the GPU to dramatically accelerate the application processing speed.

Windows 7 is also well positioned to be the new ultimate power gaming platform. Next generation PC Games are moving towards much more dynamic and immersive worlds that literally come to life: walls can be torn down, glass can be shattered, trees bend in the wind, and water flows with body and force. The ability to transform static environments into dynamic, physical worlds is powered by GPU computing. By performing the physics calculations on the GPU, game developers can offer real-time effects that have never been seen before. The following is an example of next generation game effects using DirectCompute to perform a real-time dynamic ocean simulation demo.

The incredible looking wave crests are made possible by using DirectCompute to perform the Fast Fourier transform calculations on the GPU and bring this demo to life. This is a great example of new realism that GPU Computing will bring to next generation games for Windows 7.

DirectCompute will be distributed as part of the DirectX 11 API and is fully supported by NVIDIA’s current lineup of DirectX 10 GPUs.

Windows developers who are interested in learning more about developing with DirectCompute and NVIDIA GPUs can get more information here. Consumers already running a GeForce GPU with Windows 7 can download the new WHQL-certified drivers supporting DirectCompute directly from www.nvidia.com/drivers.

We look forward to showing more examples of the power of GPU Computing and DirectCompute.

Chris Daniel
Product Manager for Software at NVIDIA