Microsoft leak reveals new version of Windows 10 aimed at monster PCs and workstations
Image: Twitter.com / Lakshmi ‘Tito’ Ullu
Microsoft will release a new version of Windows 10 optimized for workstations and very powerful PCs.
Details of Windows Pro for Workstations were spotted in a leaked slide released via Twitter, and also in an internal build of Windows 10 accidentally released by Microsoft last week.
It sounds as if this new version of Windows will be targeted at professionals who use high-spec machines, such as artists rendering 3D scenes or researchers training machine-learning systems.
In instances where machines handle compute or graphically-intensive workloads, this version of Windows will “optimize the OS to provide peak performance and reliability”, according to a leaked slide purportedly from Microsoft.
Windows Pro for Workstations will allow Windows to exploit four physical CPUs, up from the current limit of two, and up to 6TB of RAM, according to the leaked information.
The Windows OS will also support Resilient file system or ReFS, which the Microsoft slide refers to as the successor to NTFS used in most versions of Windows today. ReFS is designed for fault-tolerance, optimized for handling large data volume, auto-correcting and is backward compatible with NTFS.
The release will also enable faster file sharing to facilitate the exchange of large volumes of data across networks.
“We are including the SMBDirect protocol based file sharing in Windows 10 Pro for Workstation which allows for high throughput, low latency and low CPU utilization when accessing network shares,” according to the slide.
Microsoft seems to be planning further optimizations of this new version of Windows.
“The above capabilities are just a starting point. We are engaged with our advanced users, and will continue to bring innovation to this high-end segment of the market,” the slide says
The name of this new version of Windows hasn’t been finalized, and is also referred to as Windows 10 Pro for Advanced PCs and Windows 10 Pro for Workstation PCs.
Microsoft is increasingly releasing specialized versions of Windows 10 targeted at specific groups of users.
In May, Microsoft released Windows 10 S, a locked-down version of the OS aimed at the education market that will only run apps installed from the Windows Store. The move to lock down Windows appears to be a strategy to make the OS easier to use and less prone to performance and security problems caused by downloading software from the internet.
TechRepublic has approached Microsoft for comment.