14 DAY TRIAL // A recent move from Microsoft is designed to open up the first commercial example of the company’s surface computing technology to developers worldwide. Specifically, the Redmond company is no longer restricting access to the software development kit for Microsoft Surface. As of earlier this month, all developers are free to grab their own copy of the Microsoft Surface SDK 1.0 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Workstation Edition via the Microsoft Download Center.
However, devs will not get the actual Surface SDK. Microsoft is offering the fully-fledged Surface SDK only to developers willing to pay for it, as that version of the software development kit comes complete with the actual Surface tabletop computer. The Workstation Edition of the Surface SDK will still enable developers to build Microsoft Surface touch-enabled applications; however, they will have to do so leveraging a workstation and not the actual Microsoft Surface unit.
“Now anyone interested in developing collaborative, engaging massive multi-touch, multi-user experiences for Surface can easily access the software at no cost through Surface.com. The Surface hardware is needed to deploy an application, and many use the Surface Developer units to create and test their applications directly on the device. The SDK Workstation Edition lets you use a PC to develop and a PC based simulator to test applications using multiple mice and tag simulation tools. We launched resources for developers, designers and IT Professionals,” revealed Eric Havir, senior manager, Digital Communications at Microsoft/Surface.
According to the software giant, Surface SDK comes with support on just the 32-bit flavor of the following platforms: Windows Vista Business; Enterprise; Ultimate and Home Premium. The company has noted that devs can go ahead and deploy the SDK on top of Windows 7, but that the latest version of the Windows client is not supported.
“Microsoft Surface has really experienced positive momentum in the past year. At last year’s PDC we had 60 Microsoft Surface partners and in just one year that number has grown to more than 250 active partners. Our customer roster has expanded since PDC 2008 to include brands such as Hard Rock International, Barclays Bank and Vodafone, who have deployed units around the world. We also have a strong presence in the Microsoft retails stores which opened this fall,” Havir added.
Microsoft Surface SDK 1.0 SP1 Workstation Edition is available for download here.