“Vista Premium” Certification Requirements Revealed

Rob Updegrove 16 Jun, 2006 at 2:50pm ET Article published in Tech

ARS Technica is running a story on the requirements that Microsoft has released to OEMs in order for hardware to be “Vista Premium” certified.

In no particular order, these are the notable additional requirements for Premium certification:

Effective now:

* HD Audio support that passes a “high-fidelity audio experience” test (exception: Business class systems have until June 1, 2007).
* Support for Direct3d 9 and DXGI feature sets (Direct3d 10 mandated by June 1, 2008).
* At least one digital output (e.g., DVI-D) for all add-in video adapters (not integrated video: that doesn’t change until June 1, 2008).
* 100Mb Ethernet and/or and WiFi (802.11g must be supported; 802.11a can be supported only in addition to 802.11g).
* USB 2.0 ports throughout
* System resumes from ACPI S3 state (“suspend-to-ram”) in <2 seconds (does not include user mode initialization, i.e., total "wake" time will be longer than 2 seconds) June 1, 2007, or later: * A Green Driver Quality Rating for all drivers. * If Serial ATA is used, Serial ATA 2.5 must be supported. * "Protected Video Path" (PVP) support, including HDCP. * Support for booting from USB drives, including flash drives * Hiccup-free HD playback, including hardware-based H.264/MPEG-4 decoding. * At least one digital output (e.g., DVI-D) for all integrated video adapters (June 1, 2008).

Source: Ars Technica

Comments

16 Jun 2006 ~ 2:57pm Thrax

"Protected Video Path" (PVP) support, including HDCP.

Everything on that list is underminded by that for me.
16 Jun 2006 ~ 3:43pm RWB Luckily it's just a certification for the manufacturers... it'll have little effect for those of us whom build our own systems. But I'd imagine with those requirements, you'll also be paying a premium price for that premium tag. At least initially.
16 Jun 2006 ~ 4:38pm lemonlime If anyone would like to have a system "omg lemonlime certified", just let me know..

Requirements:
Overclocked by a minimum of 15%
Half-life 2 DM installed
Must defeat lemonlime in HL2 DM
16 Jun 2006 ~ 5:11pm TheSmJ

lemonlime wrote:

If anyone would like to have a system "omg lemonlime certified", just let me know..

Requirements:
Overclocked by a minimum of 15%
Half-life 2 DM installed
Must defeat lemonlime in HL2 DM

You're on! Just name the day, time and server.:bigggrin:
16 Jun 2006 ~ 5:33pm PirateNinja

TheSmJ wrote:

You're on! Just name the day, time and server.:bigggrin:

I second that. I haven't played for a few months but I think I can beat most anyone after a good 20 minute warm up.
16 Jun 2006 ~ 8:45pm GHoosdum

Thrax wrote:

Everything on that list is underminded by that for me.

I quite agree, but it seems that they're playing a carrot-and-stick game with the DX10 BS. Gamers who want to run next-gen games in full splendor with next-gen cards will be essentially forced to 'upgrade' to Vista. :shakehead
16 Jun 2006 ~ 9:22pm RWB

GHoosdum wrote:

I quite agree, but it seems that they're playing a carrot-and-stick game with the DX10 BS. Gamers who want to run next-gen games in full splendor with next-gen cards will be essentially forced to 'upgrade' to Vista. :shakehead

Not according to Anandtech... http://anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.aspx?i=2780

From the benchies I think I'll be staying away from Vista for about a year after release.... even with the debugging stuff I cannot fathom Vista being a valid XP replacement for most gamers upon release day.

x86 or x64

But it sure is purty... :bawling:
16 Jun 2006 ~ 10:21pm Jengo BOOO F'N HOO

i cant figure out how to change color >_>
16 Jun 2006 ~ 11:40pm airbornflght

Jengo wrote:

BOOO F'N HOO

i cant figure out how to change color >_>

BOOO F'N HOO
There you go:D
17 Jun 2006 ~ 2:33pm RWB woot
17 Jun 2006 ~ 3:01pm Vicar With all the bugs that will need fixing, i am sticking with my XP and XP pro for now. I am just about to flirt with linux and go dual booting.

I don't like the restrictions vista / Microsoft are putting in their software, windows verify this windows verify that. You begin to feel like a crimo for what you paid for.

I believe the future will be linux, with slick releases from Ubuntu, Suse etc there really won't be much of a difference. One will allow you 'freeeeedom', while the other will restrict it. you can figure which side of the fence i eventually want to be on.

Just my 2pence worth.