Microsoft officially entered the embedded marketplace in November 1996 with the release of Windows Embedded CE 1.0. Windows Embedded CE was designed from the ground up to provide embedded developers with the ability to extend the sophisticated software environment of today’s personal computer into the embedded world. Windows Embedded CE originally was developed for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) building small, resource-constrained, handheld and Personal Information Manager (PIM) devices. In developing Windows Embedded CE, the embedded development team focused on four key areas: providing scalable wireless technologies to flexibly connect mobile devices; providing reliable, core operating system services for demanding real-time designs; enabling rich personalized experiences that span devices, PCs, servers and Web services; and delivering a rich, easy-to-use, end-to-end tool set.
Windows Embedded CE saw significant improvements with subsequent versions of the embedded operating system, including a simplified wizard-based operating system configuration, export software development kits (SDKs) to enable application development, multimedia support with version 2.12, and enhanced Internet capabilities and support for hard real time with Windows CE 3.0.
The fourth generation of Windows Embedded CE added emulation technology to enable developers to perform their development and testing using a Windows 2000 or Windows XP Professional workstation without additional hardware investment.
Windows CE 5.0, which was released in July 2004, included many key Shared Source components; a program designed to enable OEMs to build better devices faster through source level access, and was considered the most open Microsoft OS to date. CE 5.0 gave developers the freedom to modify down to the kernel level, without the need to share changes with Microsoft or its competitors.
In its sixth generation, Windows Embedded CE 6.0 featured a completely redesigned kernel, which supported more than 32K processes. Each process received 2 GB of virtual address space, compared with 32 MB in previous. It also provided a new file system that supported larger storage media, larger file sizes, removable media encryption, and more. With CE 6.0, a device maker could provide devices for the home, work, and field that consume media, share presentations, and connect to cellular networks. |
