The new power scheme was announced by Dona Sarkar, head of the Windows Insider Program. Microsoft says the addition will come to Windows 10 Pro for Workstations through the next Windows 10 update. That is Redstone 4, which Microsoft is finalizing right now. The next update for the platform is expected to go official at the end of March or early April, but Windows Insiders have been testing it for months. “This new policy builds on the current High-Performance policy, and it goes a step further to eliminate micro-latencies associated with fine grained power management techniques,” explains Windows Insider chief Dona Sarkar. “As the power scheme is geared towards reducing micro-latencies it may directly impact hardware; and consume more power than the default balanced plan.” Microsoft says this feature will not be available on battery-powered machines. So, this is specifically for high-end workstations only. Additionally, the power option will not be available across the wider Windows 10 ecosystem.
Windows 10 Pro for Workstations
Still a new platform, Windows 10 Pro for Workstations was launched by Microsoft last year. It is a specific SKU that will be for Advanced PCs. This SKU will be for customers with high-end, server grade computing hardware. Microsoft says the build will be focused on ‘mission critical and computer intensive workloads’. Windows 10 Pro for Workstations will feature a new NTFS file system. Features for the platform are as follows:
Workstation mode: Microsoft plans to optimize the OS by identifying “typical compute and graphics intensive workloads” to provide peak performance and reliability when Workstation mode is enabled. Resilient file system: Microsoft’s file system successor to NTFS, dubbed ReFS, is enabled in this new version, with support for fault-tolerance, optimized for large data volumes, and auto-correcting. Faster file handling: As workstation machines are typically used for large data volumes across networks, Microsoft is including the SMBDirect protocol for file sharing and high throughput, low latency, and low CPU utilization when accessing network shares. Expanded hardware support: Microsoft is also planning to allow Windows 10 Pro for Workstation on machines with up to 4 CPUs and a memory limit of 6TB. Windows 10 Pro currently only supports 2 CPUs.
