PCs to be ready for Vista despite delay, exec says

A delay in the latest upgrade to Microsoft’s popular operating system, Vista, won’t impact PC hardware makers very much in terms of technology because no matter when the software comes out, hardware components will already be in place, a DRAM executive said Thursday.

“We’re already selling lots of 1G-byte [DRAM] modules for notebooks that are compatible with Vista,” said Pai Pei-lin, vice president of global marketing and sales at Nanya Technology, in an interview.

Computer hardware in general will be ready for Vista on time despite the delay, he said, so any further change in the schedule – such as an early release – would be possible.

Microsoft on Tuesday said Vista won’t be available until next January for consumers, but that business partners in its volume licensing program would be able to get it starting from November of this year. Computer hardware makers had been eagerly anticipating the new operating system because normally such new releases increase sales, and they often need to make sure they choose components that will run according to requirements.

Taiwanese companies, which account for a large portion of the global output of computer hardware from factories in China and Taiwan, will ship Vista-compatible hardware on time, said Pai, despite Microsoft’s revised schedule.