Bill Gates gives $1 billion to Windows NT development

Microsoft Chairman and CEO Bill Gates said Tuesday at his Spring Comdexkeynote speech that Windows NT would receive $1 billion this year, almosthalf of Microsoft's entire R&D budget. According to Gates, some developersalready have an early alpha of Windows NT 5.0. A beta program for the nextversion is due to begin in the Fall. Final shipment of NT 5.0 is expectedin early 1998. The 5.0 version will work more closely with Internet standards and will use public key encryption technology, he said.

"At the server level," Gates said, "this is our product."

$400 million of Microsoft's R&D budget will go toward improving desktopapplications such as Office.