Microsoft Kept the Surface Tablet a Secret Using an Underground Bunker

Microsoft reveals some of the steps it took to keep the Surface tablet secret while in development to TechRadar.

The design team initially worked in what Stevie Bathiche, Microsoft's hardware maven, calls an underground bunker with no windows. When the team outgrew that they moved above ground into a larger building; this one did have windows but it also had the kind of security you associate with bank vaults (or Microsoft's cloud data centers for services like Office 365, which have guards with guns and take biometric verification to get into).

Getting into the Surface building means going through airlock-style doors; the outer door has to close before you can get through the second door and go inside, so you know there's no-one sneaking in behind you.


In its report, TechRadar also discusses a few of the secrets that are still being withheld, such as the screen resolution.

Microsoft says the Surface uses a ClearType display which uses the fourth pixel in the RGB pixel group to paint characters more accurately. "The specific pixel geometry rendering and optical bonding create an effect where the eye can't distinguish individual pixels at the right viewing distance".

The site calculates that in order for two Metro-style apps to run side by side the resolution must be at least 1366x768 but full HD needs 1080 lines so they expect ClearType Full HD displays to be at least 1920x1080.

You can find more background information on Microsoft's upcoming tablet at the link below...


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