Apple has updated its MacBook Pro family with next generation processors and graphics, high-speed Thunderbolt I/O technology and a new FaceTime HD camera. Featuring the latest dual-core and quad-core Intel Core processors, the entire MacBook Pro line is up to twice as fast as the previous generation, the company claimed.Starting at US$1,199, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro offers value and performance in a compact design. The highly portable 13-inch MacBook Pro features Intel Core i5 and Core i7 dual-core processors up to 2.7GHz and Intel HD Graphics 3000. The 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro models feature quad-core Core i7 processors up to 2.3GHz and AMD Radeon HD graphics processors with up to 1GB of video memory for high performance gaming, pro video editing and graphics intensive applications.MacBook Pro is the first computer on the market to include Thunderbolt I/O technology. Developed by Intel with collaboration from Apple, Thunderbolt enables expandability never before possible on a notebook computer. Featuring two bi-directional channels with transfer speeds up to 10Gbps each, Thunderbolt delivers PCI Express directly to external high performance peripherals such as RAID arrays, and can support FireWire and USB consumer devices and Gigabit Ethernet networks via adapters. Thunderbolt also supports DisplayPort for high resolution displays and works with existing adapters for HDMI, DVI and VGA displays.The MacBook Pro now includes a built-in FaceTime HD camera with triple the resolution of the previous generation for crisp, widescreen video calls. With Apple's innovative FaceTime video calling software, the new camera allows high definition video calls between all new MacBook Pro models and supports standard resolution calls with other Intel-based Macs, iPhone 4 and the current generation iPod touch. FaceTime is included with all new MacBook Pro models and is available for other Intel-based Macs from the Mac App Store for US$0.99.Every Mac comes with Mac OS X Snow Leopard and iLife. Apple new MacBook Pro notebooks specifications Model CPU HDD VGA Price (US$) 13-inch 2.3GHz Intel dual-core Core i5 processor 320GB Intel HD 3000 (IGP) 1,199 13-inch 2.7GHz Intel dual-core Core i7 processor 500GB Intel HD 3000 (HD) 1,499 15-inch 2.0GHz Intel quad-core Core i7 processor 500GB AMD Radeon HD 6490M 1,799 15-inch 2.2GHz Intel quad-core Core i7 processor 750GB AMD Radeon HD 6750M 2,199 17-inch 2.2GHz Intel quad-core Core i7 processor 750GB AMD Radeon HD 6750M 2,499 Source: Company, compiled by Digitimes, February 2011Apple new Sandy Bridge-based MacBook Pro notebooksPhoto: Company

The rise of cloud computing services brings in an increasingly shorter life cycle of various smart end-user devices, and this is a great business opportunity for hardware and software companies as they will be able to provide a rich yet familiar user experience by integrating a range of innovative applications and services. In response to such a trend, Microsoft recently hosted a smart cloud platform and application development symposium at the Taipei International Convention Center. The symposium invited Jochen Siegl, manager of ODM Business Development, Microsoft, and Doug Burger, director of Client and Cloud Applications, Microsoft, to respectively deliver speeches on Microsoft's strategies for developing cloud applications and devices as well as Microsoft's observations and research directions of the limit. They also shared with the more than 100 symposium attendees their hands-on experience in the cloud applications of Windows 7, Windows Phone 7, IE 9.0, and Windows Live based on two major categories: development of cloud applications and smart cloud system design.Many companies and government organizations have been investing in cloud computing but, according to Davis Tsai, general manager of Microsoft Taiwan, most of them focus on Cloud applications and technologies instead of Client. In fact, however, the development of Cloud and Client should be equally important in order for consumers to enjoy the richest and very diverse cloud computing experience.Therefore, Microsoft - supported by Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs - established its Software and Services Excellence Center (SSEC) in June 2010 in Taiwan. Since then, the SSEC has been integrating advanced ODM and R&D resources at Microsoft, bringing in the energy efficient, environmentally sound Microsoft datacenter technology to Taiwan and cooperating with Taiwan hardware and software companies to develop natural user interfaces (NUI) for various end-user devices to help narrow the digital gap resulting from the inconvenience of traditional keyboards and mice."As touch-control screens and sensors are becoming a standard for various smart user-end devices, NUI input methods for body movement, gestures, and voice will mushroom," said Doug Burger. In particular, NUI applications will be increasingly prevalent in webpage browsing, accessing photo and audio-visual files, as well as entertainment and recreation such as game playing. According to Limin Zhang, a senior consultant for Microsoft Taiwan, computer users will become increasingly used to touch control and they will also want multi-touch control. Therefore, when software developers select development tools in the future, they should factor in whether the tools support various gestures as well as whether the applications to be developed for touch control can be increased, integrated into different platforms, and have common modules that can be readily used by other programs.For example, it took less than one week for Arock's development of a cross-desktop, mobile, and web application similar to Lovely Time, a time-telling widget. According to David Dong, technology director of Arock, using Visual Studio 2010 as the development tool as well as Silverlight and C# for design accounts for the successful development, which would have been otherwise impossible. Moreover, the application crossing "three screens and a cloud" was developed at a relatively low cost.Moreover, IT hardware manufacturers need to change their PC-oriented design thinking. For example, the screen resolution, sampling rate per finger, ghost point, noise, and touch accuracy standards for a touch screen should all be consistent with the Windows 7 Human Interface Device requirements, according to Youwei Tsai, software development manager of the SSEC, and the screen and frame should have an all-in-one, seamless design to enable effective touch control at screen corners and edges.The demands for frequently used touch control functions of consumer tablet PCs and high-end professional tablet PCs are different, according to Wade Tsai, a senior consultant for the SSEC, and different business and entertainment purposes should be clarified first, including whether a touch control function can help enhance a given application service, and which levels of touch control, e.g., single-touch control, multi-touch control, gesture control, or other special effects of touch control, are required. "Developers should not single-mindedly pursue the most wow effect regardless of cost," added him. "They should consider whether the input/output ratio is worthwhile."Moreover, because of continuous computing in Cloud, both Cloud and Client need powerful computing capability in order to effectively provide the content-oriented, personalized service that users need while enabling smooth system switching and assessing computing resources anytime. "Continuous computing in Cloud needs collaboration between Cloud and Client in order to deliver the best user experience," said Sam Chang, program manager, Windows Planning and PC Ecosystem, Microsoft Taiwan. "Therefore, Microsoft's integration of Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9, and Windows Live is an attempt to develop the best and personalized cloud platform."As nontraditional computing devices are replacing desktops and becoming a mainstream product for consumers, Jochen Siegl noted that Microsoft's marketing for Windows 7 - doing without the company's traditional PC operating system positioning - emphasizes the operating system's support for different platforms for cloud computing as well as ARM, Qualcomm Snapdragon, and Nvidia Tegra 2 processors. "Windows is a very ideal operating system for client devices," said Jochen Siegl. This is because no further learning is required, while Windows supports Mobile Broadband, DriectAccess, and VPN, and there is also a wide variety of Windows-based user-end devices for consumers to choose."The Taiwan IT industry is the global OEM and ODM leader, and I believe that our cooperation with Taiwan hardware and software partners is going to rapidly resolve all the issues facing Microsoft in developing cloud computing products," said Davis Tsai. According to Alan Chang, general manager of ViewSonic Asia Pacific and Europe, since Microsoft launched Windows 7, ViewSonic has been working with Microsoft and Intel for the development of many models of tablet PCs, helping the public understand how tablet PCs in conjunction with cloud services will enhance work efficiency and enrich life. Accordingly, ViewSonic lent more than 30 of its tablet PCs to the symposium for attendees to get a hands-on experience."It is a pity that Microsoft used to work more with Taiwan hardware companies than their software counterparts," said Huang Jung-chiou, Taiwan's vice minister of economic affairs, who hopes foreign companies to bring in advanced technologies to Taiwan, educate Taiwan industry partners, and help grow local software talents in addition to merchandizing their products here. Since the burgeoning of cloud services, Microsoft has been providing its resources and actively seeking cooperation with Taiwan. "This is the best opportunity for Taiwan IT companies to transform themselves," added Huang.Microsoft's smart cloud platform and application development symposium in Taipei Photo: Digitimes

All professional users, ranging from architects, 3D engineers, and animation designers to visual effects artists, need a stable, reliable and high performance computing solution. Aware of this importance, AMD has launched the optimized plug-in driver for professional software users. By cooperating with Autodesk, AMD has optimized its ATI FirePro workstation level graphics card for AutoDesk software applications including AutoCAD and 3DS Max. Both applications are the most popular choice for 3D modeling, animation, and Internet photo editing in the manufacturing, construction and engineering design industries.The latest optimization plug-in supports AutoCAD 2010, AutoCAD 2011, 3DS MAX 2010, and 3DS MAX2011. The setup process is very easy:First install the driver of ATI workstation level graphics card, AutoDesk applications and then the optimization plug-in installation package. It is just several MBs in size, and the installation process takes only a few seconds. As for the configuration setup, only three steps are required:3DS Max Setup:1) Start 3DS Max. Click "Customize" and then "Preferences" from the Customize dropdown menu. Preferences Settings dialog window will appear.2) Click the Viewport tag in the Preferences Settings dialog window and then the Choose Driver button, as illustrated below.Photo: Company3) Click "Choose Driver" --> "Custom" button and then select the correct path from the driver selection list to initiate the 3DS Max optimization plug-in.For different 3DS Max versions, the corresponding plug-in files are:• 3ds Max 2010: atid2k10.drv• 3ds Max 2010 64: atid2K10_64.drv• 3ds Max 2011: atid2K11.drv• 3ds Max 2010 64: atid2k11_64.drvThe setup process is complete after 3DS MAX is restarted, and you can start enjoying all coloring capacities based on DirectX technologies and OpenGL level speeds. Visual effect artists and graphic designers can benefit from massive performance gains delivered by the ATI FirePro professional graphic card and more effectively create games, movies or TV program contents.AutoCAD Setup:1) Start AutoCAD.2) Type "3dconfig" in the command line and choose "Manual Tune" when the "Adaptive Degradation and Performance Tuning" dialog window appears.3) A "Manual Performance Tuning" dialog window will appear. Please choose an appropriate driver based on your AutoCAD version from the "Driver Name" list:• AutoCAD 2010: atioglcad10.hdi• AutoCAD 2010 64: atioglcad10_64.hdi• AutoCAD 2011: atioglcad11.hdi• AutoCAD 2010 64: atioglcad11_64.hdiAs illustrated below, the chosen optimization plug-in is for AutoCAD 2011.Photo: CompanyClick "OK" to close the dialog window, and the corresponding AutoCAD optimization plug-in will take effect. In addition to efficiency gains, the plug-ins, revolutionarily developed by ATI, also uses Tesselation and OpenGL technologies that allow users to manually tune setup details and levels and realize cutting edge concepts such as Per-pixel lighting and Full-shadow display.According to the optimization plug-in performance comparison charts below, it is very obvious that performance is greatly improved with the plug-in. This optimization plug-in supports all ATI FirePro series professional graphic cards from entry level (V3700, V3750 and V3800), mid level (V4800 and V5800) to advanced level (V7800 and V9800). The complete compatibility will greatly enhance product values and user utilities.The optimization plug-in can be downloaded at: http://workstation.sapphiretech.com/presentation/downloads/?psn=0006Photo: CompanyPhoto: CompanyIn the past, professional users were not able to utilize all their talents, as their design efficiency and precision have been severely restricted by hardware limitations imposed by gaming graphic cards, and professional workstation level graphic cards were too expensive. Now, with ATI FirePro professional graphic cards, professional specialists can truly tap into their design potentials. Moreover, the latest AutoDesk plug-in can also boost the performance level of AutoCAD and 3DS Max to 400% and more importantly, the plug-in is 100% free of charge.Sapphire Workstation website: http://workstation.sapphiretech.com/presentation/index.aspx

Globally we are faced with grand challenges for the 21st century. A prosperous and sustainable world, where we cleverly consume renewable energy, where contemporary diseases can be treated at a very early stage or even prevented, where healthcare is affordable for everyone, and where there are no borders in connecting with family and friends. This might seem like just a dream; but the nanoelectronics industry worldwide is joining forces to make this dream come true.As a leading player in nanoelectronics research and development, Imec aims at being a role model to realize this vision. Imec provides the industry worldwide a cost-effective vehicle to accelerate the development of a sustainable world by setting up joint research programs in emerging application domains such as efficient healthcare, photovoltaics and smart energy consumption, unlimited wireless communications, ultimate vision systems, but also in nanoelectronics technology and system design which are indispensible for these future systems.The Taiwan edition of the Imec Technology Forum 2011 will offer you first hand insights into future developments, technological challenges and recent findings straight out of our labs. www.ITF2011Taiwan.be

Lex Computech endeavors to provide integrated and intelligent platform to meet customer's extensively application purposes. The new NI525A is also based on this concept.In the past, customers were restricted to purchase massive devices to form a single application purpose, which was a complicated, inconvenient and budget-wasting task.Recently, Lex has successfully developed a platform that integrates two most widely applied functions in the surveillance industry - the PoE and NVR solutions. It is an all-in-one system with integration of many useful functions for customers to break away from the past.NI525A is an intelligent 4-port 802.3af PoE switch solution with latest Intel D525 Atom Dual Core 1.8GHz processor. It has a maximum of 4GB DDR3 SO-DIMM socket with three Giga LAN, two SATA ports, two Serial ports, eight USB, on board DC-IN +48V and watch dog timer & digital input/output with various optional choices like LVDS and touch screen function, which made NI525A more flexible and functional. It also has a SIM card socket providing 3G wireless capabilities for car PC or any other mobile application.For a system running 24/7 with overheating concern, an excellent heat-dissipation chassis is preferable. Lex's Twister, a whole aluminum- made chassis, is the best choice for NI525A.PC-Based all-in-one PoE NVR Server-NI525APhoto: CompanyLex Computech endeavor to provide integrated and intelligent platformPhoto: Company

According to the findings from a survey cited at Microsoft's smart cloud platform and application development symposium, nearly 80% of computer users spend 50% of their time on web browsing when using computers, and 20% of the 50% spend more than 80% of their time on web browsing. It is obvious that browsers have become an overwhelmingly important application that is heavily relied on, especially when various mobile computing devices and smart cloud services are increasingly prevalent.According to Sam Chang, program manager, Windows Planning and PC Ecosystem, Microsoft Taiwan, such a trend has prompted Microsoft's launch of Internet Explorer 9.0 (IE 9.0), which is redesigned to cater to various user behaviors resulting from the use of existing and future cloud services and mobile devices to provide the best web-browsing experience. "IE 9.0 has a more streamlined interface to do without too many dialog boxes," said Chang. "As a result, it can rapidly access the desirable web pages and is an ideal platform for mobile devices."Microsoft used to add many new functions when designing browsers, but this makes the command bar too large and web contents are therefore reduced although the design was intended to facilitate rapid operation. "The new IE 9.0 is now content-oriented to readjust what is presented by the browser, which shows web contents just in one glance," said Chang. "Browsing can easily focus on web contents to save the time required for repeated drag and scroll in the past."Moreover, in order to accelerate web browsing, IE 9.0 provides some new functions such as pinned sites, new tab page, and address bar search. "Frequently used web addresses saved in My Favorite are inconvenient for mobile device users because they have to scroll down the tree-type directory in order to access a website after locating the site address," said Chang. With the feature of pinned sites of IE 9.0, any webpage of a website can be directly dragged to the taskbar of Windows 7 and pinned there to be shown as a thumbnail by default or separately designed. Clicking on the thumbnail when revisiting the website will directly access the pinned webpage to provide a web-browsing experience more similar to accessing a general application.The redesigned new tab page is in the browser main page to present the thumbnails of most frequently browsed sites, whose major colors and frequencies of being browsed are also indicated to facilitate rapid identification and access. "These sites can be concealed or removed when desired," said Chang. Moreover, the address bar search function will be activated when a set of keywords or even an incomplete web address is inputted, and the search engine designated by IE 9.0 will easily locate the desired URL to accelerate operation.IE 9.0 has also factored in the small form factor, light weight, and power efficiency that are considered important for nowadays handheld devices. "The component specs of handheld devices tend to be lower than PCs because of the limited space of such devices and cost considerations," said Chang. "As a result, the performance of handhelds is lower than PCs." To address this issue, IE 9.0 not only supports multi-core processing but also provides GPU functionality to the jobs requiring a great deal of graphic computing, such as online gaming and audio-video processing. Moreover, its JavaScript engine enables the best DOM/JavaScript integration for overall computing speed enhancement and a web experience that is faster and more realistic."IE 9.0 supports the W3C's latest international standard for web pages, HTML 5," said Chang. Based on the standard, the browser is capable of playing multimedia and video, and only a few program codes to be developed will be able to create multimedia-playing web pages to do without third-party media players. This effectively addresses many web development issues, such as whether QuickTime is installed and no iPad support for Flash. "IE 9.0 makes web development much easier than the past," he stressed.Sam Chang, program manager, Windows Planning and PC Ecosystem, Microsoft TaiwanPhoto: Digitimes

According to Sam Chang, program manager, Windows Planning and PC Ecosystem, Microsoft Taiwan, in addition to business information systems, information systems for consumers and social media that provide information sharing are beginning to provide cloud services enabling cross-device and platform Internet access anytime and anywhere. "New generation applications should break the limits of traditional PCs by integrating a variety of web experience for everyone to create a personalized cloud operation environment," said Chang.In order to achieve this objective, Microsoft has integrated Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9, and Windows Live to help consumers develop their best personalized cloud platforms. "Windows 7-based devices, be they PCs, smartphones, Windows Phone, or even iPhone, in conjunction with Internet Explorer 9 and various cloud applications of Windows Live help create the coolest and immediate sharing with friends online," said Chang.�@At present, Windows Live provides not only Hotmail and SkyDrive of 25GB but also Windows Live Essentials, such as Messenger, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Mesh, Writer, Bing Bar, and Silverlight, which are all readily available online. "Windows Live is definitely the first ever platform in the world that realizes personal cloud computing," stressed Chang.Windows Live supports different mobile devices as its applications run on Windows Phone, iPhone, and other smartphones in addition to desktops, notebooks, and netbooks to update Facebook, access Hotmail and PIXNET, upload videos, etc, providing more mobile services that are more convenient to enrich social life as personal information can be simultaneously integrated and updated. "In particular, Windows Live is free and its application services are available online anytime," said Chang."Windows Live services and tools help easily create and modify text, graphic, and audio video files and stay in touched with friends," said Chang. "Sharing of newly created or modified files can be immediately completed." For example, Windows Live Photo Gallery provides face recognition and tagging to facilitate photo organization as well as red eye, out of focus, and hue error fixing and brightness compensation. It can even extract the elements from different photo to create composite photos. "With Windows Live Photo Gallery, we can combine the photos of a same scene taken from different angles into a panorama photo and Windows Live Photo Gallery is able to automatically merge the overlap between two photos to make the panorama effect look natural," he said.Modified photos or audio video files can be uploaded by Photo Gallery to SkyDrive and saved there or publicized on Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, etc for sharing. "The photos and videos to be shared can also be attached to emails and sent to friend," added Chang. Either way is very convenient.When a same file needs to be processed on different PCs or the information on SkyDrive is accessed or modified, Windows Live Mesh 2011 is available for synchronization between multiple PCs or between PCs and SkyDrive. "The system provide automated comparison to have the same files in PCs and the cloud synchronized and updated to ensure file consistency and to share the latest documents with others," said Chang. Moreover, Live Mesh is able to remotely control other PCs for easy sharing of IT resources and completing intended jobs.Windows Live also has considerable integration with social media. For example, Windows Live Messenger receives text, graphic and audio video inputs as well as hyperlinks, which are simultaneously shown by the social media, such as Facebook, integrated with Messenger. Friends' updates on Facebook are also immediately shown by Messenger to enable closer interpersonal interaction beyond online chatting.According to Chang, increased bandwidths multiply information traffic and make the types of sharing between people more diverse, while the functions provided by Windows Live enable information sharing in the cloud to do without complicated technology requirements as Windows Live applications are readily available and no further programming is required. As a result, personalized cloud environments are a reality to provide enjoyment of new lifestyles.Sam Chang, program manager, Windows Planning and PC Ecosystem, Microsoft TaiwanPhoto: Digitimes

Trubbach (Switzerland), February 22, 2011 – Oerlikon Solar announced an order from Dong Xu Ltd, one of China's well-known photoelectric glass manufacturers. The order consists of multiple Oerlikon Solar KAI equipment which operates the key process of coating thin film silicon. With Dong Xu's order, Oerlikon Solar is further increasing its customer base in China. The KAI equipment will be utilized as the core absorber technology for Dong Xu's initial thin film silicon production line and will form the central part in their thin film silicon production line. The KAI is a fully automated PECVD system (plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition) for the industrial mass production of large-area 1.4 m2 solar modules. Designed for the deposition of amorphous and microcrystalline photovoltaic absorption layers, this system forms the central part of Oerlikon's field-proven production line. High throughput and yield at low cost are accomplished by the unique batch design and the patented Plasma BoxR. With its leading technology, Oerlikon generally offers a highly competitive solution for the production of thin film silicon solar modules which is truly clean, using only non-toxic material, advantageous under real life conditions, and environmental friendly due to a very short energy payback time. "Both parties have thus laid the grounds for a promising partnership for the planned future expansion of the customer's manufacturing capacity of thin film silicon solar modules," said Helmut Frankenberger, CEO of Oerlikon Solar.

According to Youwei Tsai, software development manager of Microsoft's Software and Services Excellence Center, while tablet PCs and various other mobile computing devices are becoming increasingly prevalent, the role of endpoints in a cloud computing environment is becoming increasingly important because more and more computing applications will be implemented by endpoints. That is why Microsoft selects Windows 7 instead of Windows CE or the highly regarded Windows Phone 7 as the operating system for tablets. "Tablets in nature are more similar to PCs than smartphones," said Tsai. "Therefore, the same operating system for PC should be used in order to provide a consistent user experience."In general, tablets are primarily used for emailing, game playing, music listening and film watching, photo viewing, reading, shopping, web browsing in addition to accessing applications and files. Windows 7 not only provides many applications for such purposes but also features more outstanding functionality than other operating systems for tablets. Web browsing and online shopping, for examples, benefit from IE 9.0 of Window 7, which concurrently supports ActiveX, Flash, and Java while providing security mechanisms such webpage filtering. Moreover, many online banking services in Taiwan are available only to IE, which really outdoes other operating systems for tablets.In order to support touch screen input, the greatest feature of tablets, Windows 7 has many improvements that make the major functions of most applications touch controllable. For example, Windows Internet Explorer supports various gestures for page forward and backward as well pan and zoom-in and out. Windows Live Photo Gallery provides multi-touch zoom-in and out with edge cue and bounce responses for page panning, and its touch-friendly keyboard that looks even better is more responsive and capable of input anticipation and error correction learning. "These new functions designed by Microsoft to support touch-control screens are an attempt to enrich the user experience in tablets and optimize tablet operation," said Tsai.In order to maximize the effectiveness of tablets operated by touch control, Tsai suggested that system manufacturers keep layouts as clean as possible, make touch-control objects large enough when developing touch-control applications, and remove unnecessary elements in user interfaces to reduce user errors and strengthen user confidence. "In a touch-control environment, users tend to act more intuitively and touch-control objects should be responsive to user movement and consistent with their intuition," said Tsai. Also, it must be ensured that fingers or palms will not cover major user interfaces during operation, and animations and object changes on the display should be consistent with physical laws in the real world for easy operation by gestures. This will facilitate easy learning and provide a consistent user experience. "It is essential that touch-control applications are effective enough when they are assessed based on the perspective of users," added Tsai.As tablets are often handheld when in use, Tsai suggested that hardware design should pay attention to ergonomics by factoring in weight distribution to enable single-hand operation as well as seamlessness between the screen and frame to facilitate touch control at screen corners and edges. "Any handheld area should be smooth enough and avoid heat vents in order to prevent discomfort," said Tsai. Accidental activation of physical keys on the case should also be prevented and touch feedback can be considered to increase user confidence in operating touch control.Moreover, the battery life of tablets is very important. "Most people tend not to switch off their tablets that are not being used," said Tsai. "They tend to use tablets for five minutes and then use them again for 10 minutes after an hour." Therefore, USB should support selective suspend and the battery should be powerful enough to support 72-hour standby, while waking up from the S3 standby mode should take place in two seconds. Touch screen resolution, according to Tsai, should follow Windows 7 Human Interface Device requirements to be higher than 25 ppi, with the sampling rate per finger at least 50Hz. There should be no response from untouched areas; touch accuracy should be within ±2.5; and the distance between an object and the touch points beyond two should be within 5mm. "This will create the highest performance with Windows," he added.Youwei Tsai, software development manager, Software and Services Excellence Center, Microsoft TaiwanPhoto: Digitimes

Have you ever heard of an application, Lovely Time? It is a time-telling app that shows the smile of Taiwan girls. On the other hand, Arock has a cross-desktop, mobile, and web application similar to Lovely Time and available for cloud services. The development of this Arock app took less than one week. This has not been an easy task and, according to David Dong, technology director of Arock, his company is able to make it because the same development tool, Visual Studio 2010, and the same programming languages, Silverlight and C#, were used to have the app developed with more than 90% of its program code identical to that of Lovely Time.Moreover, it is not difficult for Arock to develop relatively simple apps similar to Lovely Time or sophisticated, cross-platform applications because Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, the development tool used by the company, always enables its development of applications cross "three screens and a cloud" at a relatively low cost.Visual Studio, a highly effective development toolDong outlined seven features of Visual Studio that help develop cross-desktop, mobile, and web applications just in one go:1. Unlimited project architectures2. Concurrent development of desktop, mobile phone, and web applications3. Reference to the common .NET Framework4. Use of the same databank5. Common data entity and remote data access technologies 6. Outstanding development process management7. Convenient development, debugging, diagnostics and testingAccording to Dong, convenient development refers to the complete Intellisense mechanism of Visual Studio 2010; support to XAML, JS, CS, and HTML compilation; features of Find All References and View Call Hierarchy for effective program code control; rich Snippet and convenient Refactor functions; and Extension Manager that downloads suitable components and template programs from an online gallery and Visual Studio Component Library to shorten the time required for application development.Outstanding debugging and diagnostics functions of Visual Studio 2010 provide more than 200 built-in rules in Code Analysis as well as Naming Rule to prevent common programming errors and SQL Injection, while Trace & Debug track the process of cross-desktop, mobile, and web application development."If ORM is implemented, WCF and Web Services can be used to access data in remote devices," said Dong.According Dong, the use of the same development tool facilitates the communication among developers of applications across devices, but the lack of a tool that can effectively manage various program codes will very likely result in program code mix-ups. For effective management, Visual Studio's Team Foundation Server is recommended."In addition to Arock, many other software companies have started to use Visual Studio to develop software services that can be immediately implemented on 'three screens and a cloud'," said Dong. "We select the same development tool because it effectively reduces our workload throughout development."David Dong, technology director of ArockPhoto: Digitimes