Did you know that Microsoft shipped its first version of Microsoft® Office for Windows in 1990?  Twenty years later, they are getting ready to ship Office 2010 to a market that has evolved considerably.   Blowing the dust off my old InfoWorld magazines; coverage in October of 1990 listed the system requirements as a single-core x86 processor and 2MB of memory…  Most of my kid’s toys have more computer power than that now!

By the way – to my knowledge this 1990 version did not ship with MS Mail – just Word, Excel and PowerPoint.   And also for the record, I’m not sure I could italicize the word not in the initial release of Office.

When Office first shipped, it had so many features that were considered cutting edge for the time.  I can still remember doing my first PowerPoint presentation and being amazed at how much I could actually do right in front of my PC.  Even if my system did require what I considered a bunch of RAM!

And isn’t it funny how today that seems so primitive.

With the RTM of Office 2010, it’s exciting to see Microsoft take visual productivity to the next level.  With features such as editing pictures and videos directly in PowerPoint, I’m once again amazed at the ways Office enables me to create vivid presentations.  And 20 years later, many people apparently agree. According to Forrester research, approximately 80 percent of enterprises use some version of Office.

And by integrating Office 2010 more closely with SharePoint, Microsoft has gone a long way to addressing two big needs – mobility and collaboration.   By building this tight integration – I can create a document draft while waiting for a plane in Austin; have it reviewed by my peers while in flight; and make final edits during my layover in Denver – from my mobile device.   All without clogging email inboxes with multi-MB sized files.

And speaking of email boxes – one of the other neat features in Office 2010 is the ability to automatically manage those long email conversation threads that seem to make their way into everyone’s inbox on a regular basis.  So no longer do I have to look at all 40 responses to an email that is simply asking where a meeting is being held.

It’s obvious that Microsoft has thought of the value their hardware partners bring to the table.  Built into Office 2010 is the ability to take advantage of many hardware technologies such as multi-core clients and graphics acceleration (built into PowerPoint).  These features mean real things to real people that want to make the most of their investments in hardware and software.

So all things considered, it’s amazing to see how far Office has come.

At AMD our on-going collaboration with Microsoft focuses on how hardware and software can work together to provide a complete solution and rich visual experience. And Office 2010 is no exception –AMD’s balanced platforms of world-class CPUs, GPUs and chipsets are an ideal complement to this next generation in productivity applications.

Microsoft and AMD are each focused on enabling people to work in a way that’s faster, easier, and more intuitive – whether they’re on the road, in the office, or at home.  Microsoft Office gives you smart, simple, timesaving tools to help you keep up with life – and AMD technology provides the balanced platform to bring a rich, visual computing experience to your life.

Have you explored Office 2010 yet? Let me know what you think.

Matt Kimball is a Product Marketing Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.