Steven Sinofsky, head of Windows, and Windows Life announced the minimum specifications / minimum of a computer to run Windows 8. He said a computer with an atom processor and 1GB of RAM can run the operating system.
He gave an example, a Lenovo S10 netbook is enough for Windows 8. When compared with previous generations of Windows 7, Windwows 8 requires fewer system resources. In a conference slide in Build 2011, Sinofsky described the Windows 8 only requires 281 MB of RAM memory and run 29 processes only.
By comparison, Windows 7 SP1 requires 404 MB and 32 processes. While the preview of Windows 7 shows the 540MB and 34 processes. Windows 8 is expected to be completed in the market in spring 2012 and sold shortly thereafter.