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Dave Baumann has thrown up a new editorial over at Beyond3D, which looks at what we can expect from Microsoft's next version of DirectX! Here's a byte. While the next major revision for DirectX is not expected until Longhorn’s launch, Microsoft’s DirectX group has been briefing developers on what’s in store for “DirectX Next” with presentations at Microsoft Meltdown and other developer conferences.

Recently, this presentation was made available to the public via Microsoft’s Developer Network. The intent of this article is to give a more thorough treatment of the features listed for inclusion with DirectX Next and hence explore the types of capabilities that DirectX..

View: DirectX Next Early Preview
News source: Warp2Search

Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBoS) expect to have the majority of their customers moved by the end of 2004, but both will stretch into 2005 to complete the migration.

And HSBC has confirmed that it will take two years to move its six million customers to chip-based cards, with the bank's rollout programme only expected to be concluded by the end of 2005.

HBOS plans to start its rollout in the first quarter of 2003 and expects to take about 18 months to refresh its debit card customer base with new cards.

"We have quite a short period to get cards out to our eight million debit card holders, which we plan to have done by mid-2005," said John Capper, HBOS manager for service and delivery strategy banking.

"We've been through the scoping and design phases, and we'll move into the implementation stage early next year."

Abbey, meanwhile, confirmed that it will have issued its 4.5 million debit card customers with new cards by the end of 2004, while its internet subsidiary Cahoot has been issuing chip-based cards since July.

Abbey is giving customers new cards as their old ones expire or are lost, a process that has been accelerated by shortening the expiry date on many cards, ensuring that the replacement cycle falls within the timeframe.