Microsoft gets harder with Solo move

Microsoft is creeping slowly into the hardware market by developing a communications chip for its first venture into interactive television, but it insists the move will not damage relations with Intel.

Microsoft is creeping slowly into the hardware market by developing a communications chip for its first venture into interactive television, but it insists the move will not damage relations with Intel.

The software giant is believed to have spent more than $100m (£70m) on developing the chip with its subsidiary WebTV Networks. It is expected to be revealed later this year.

The Solo2chip, which can be used to power next-generation devices and services over the web, allows viewers to surf the internet on their TVs and watch or record two different programmes at the same time.

But despite industry rumours that Solo2 will endanger relations with Intel, which dominates the chip market, Microsoft is confident that this will not be the case.

According to a representative, Microsoft usually prefers to buy components and technology from third party vendors. "But occasionally, what we are looking for does not exist. So, in order to develop the primary product we find that we also are put in a position of having to innovate and develop some of the key enabling technologies," he said.

"This is the case with our Solo2 chip. The chip represents the knowledge and experience we have gained from several years of ongoing work and research into TV services and related projects. But the original intention for those projects was not to develop what is now our Solo2 chip," he added.