Microsoft recognizes unecessarily long boot up times, inefficiency of loading entire operating system for mundane tasks.There's an interesting piece over at Microsoft Watch that talks about a hardware/software component of Longhorn called an auxiliary display that will allow the end user to perform small tasks like checking their inbox, ticking off items in their Calenders or a variety of other small tasks.
Viji said that Microsoft is in the midst of developing with Intel an auxiliary display hardware-reference platform. The reference platform will include an ARM processor, Flash-based boot memory, between 8 and 16 megabytes of RAM for caching displayed data, and a system management bus that will allow PCs or devices to "wake up" regularly so that they can synchronize data with the auxiliary display.
It sounds like this is targeted towards mobile users initially but I would not mind seeing something like this on the desktop. There are a lot of times where I do not actually need to do anything but check email and fire off Instant Messages. It would be interesting for gamers also if it could work as a mini dual display setup where the auxiliary screen is strictly for communicating with friends / clanmates that are not in game. I sure could have used something like that during my gaming heyday.Article Link: Longhorn Plans to Introduce Auxiliary Displays
