Parents put off their children's demands with the all-purpose reply, "We'll see." The CAD industry is giving godmother Microsoft the same answer over implementing Avalon, a little-understood graphics system that Microsoft hopes will be implement for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Longhorn.
No CAD vendor has rushed comment on Avalon; contrast that with the rush to demo CAD sofware when Intel and AMD and Linux introduced 64-bit computing to the desktop.
Today we got a tentative maybe: "Making Avalon and Indigo available on Windows XP as well as Longhorn will allow us to think about exploiting these technologies sooner." That from Autodesk cto Scott Borduin.
That's code for "We'll see."
Unlike 64-bit computing (which gives CAD software access to more than 3GB of memory for manipulating monster-size 3D models), there is no advantage to CAD software adopting Avalon, because CAD vendors already have their own finely tuned graphics subsystems. That, plus implementing Avalon cuts out the majority of customers satisfied with Windows 2000.
Yet another proprietary graphics API from microsoft. I'll pass on this one as well!
I'll continue to use OpenGL because it'll allow me to port software to other platforms.
Posted by: Henrik Vallgren | Jan 19, 2005 at 02:20