The company is working with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on a scientific version of the computer called PERCS (Productive, Easy-to-use, Reliable ComputingSystem).
Production systems from Quanta Computer and Tyan are expected to be available through Avnet Electronics Marketing, Penguin Computing and other system integrators before the end of Q1.
By making Windows virtually the only operating-system choice available to computer manufacturers, Microsoft was a principal benefactor of the boom in desktop computing.