Windows Mobile 7 Details Emerge- Multi-touch Required

WM logoMicrosoft has been keeping details about the forthcoming Windows Mobile 7 pretty close to the vest, but Mary Jo Foley has uncovered some specifics that are interesting. Mary Jo continually gets inside information about the goings-on at Microsoft. I’m convinced she lives in the trees on the Microsoft campus with the elves.

According to MJ, Windows Mobile 7 will be based on a “chassis” concept where different types of devices have a predefined set of capabilities and components called chassis. She has detailed Chassis 1, the basic configuration for WM7 devices:

WM7 Chassis 1 Specification

Core requirements:
Processor: ARM v6+, L2 Cache, VFP, Open GL ES 2.0 graphics HW (QCOM 8k, Nvidia AP15/16 (Tegra) and TI 3430 all meet spec)
Memory: 256MB+ DRAM, 1G+ Flash (at least 512MB fast flash – 5MB/s unbuffered read @4K block size)
Display:  WVGA (800×480) or FWVGA (854×480) 3.5” or greater diagonal
Touch: Multi-touch required
Battery: Sufficient to meet Days of Use LTK requirements.
Controls: Start, Back, Send and End are required (soft controls allowed as long as they are always present).

Peripherals:

Camera: 3MP+, flash optional, 2nd camera optional (VGA resolution sufficient)
GPS: aGPS required
Sensors required: Light Sensor, Compass (3 axis, 5 degrees, 100 Hz sample rate), Accelerometer (3 axis, 2mg resolution, 100 Hz sample rate)
USB: High speed required, 20 MB/s transfer rate.
BlueTooth: BT2.1 required, must run MSFT BT stack, CSR BlueCore6 or later recommended.
Wi-Fi: 802.11B/G required, must run MSFT Native Wi-Fi stack, Atheros 6002 or Broadcomm 4325 recommended.
Connectors: Micro USB and 3.5mm Audio required.

Options:
FM tuner:  If tuner HW is present it will be detected and supported by the Media application.
Haptics
SD Card (Micro SD recommended)
DPAD, qwerty or 12/20 key keyboards all optional

The most interesting aspect of these core requirements to me is multi-touch. It is no surprise that Microsoft would want partners to use multi-touch since that’s a hot item currently, but I find it interesting that it is a requirement of WM7, according to MJ. Nothing else in these specs jumps out at me, and considering that WM7 is not expected out until late next year, they may be a bit outdated at that time.

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