From the introduction . . .

"Embedded devices nowadays have come a long way from the average 8-bit controller applied to simple switching tasks, to the fully equipped PC system, steering a complete production line."

Just recently, the mainly proprietary or specialized operating systems applied in those scenarios got competitors from the mainstream desktop and server arena. Especially in areas where flexibility, broad availability of software, and reuse of already existing communication infrastructure like [TCP/IP] is a benefit, mainstream operating systems can play their full deck of cards.

But this is not all, flagship operating systems like Microsoft Windows XP Embedded come with special embedded-enabling features, which make them, out of the box or with a little help from third parties, most appealing to a device manufacturer. With the help of those features, Windows Powered embedded devices are able to perform hard real-time tasks while still providing the richness and power of a Microsoft Win32 application programming interface (API).

Many embedded devices deny the use of a hard disk in their target environment. Be it that vibrations and dust of a rugged environment diminish the lifetime of such a component, or that just the sheer noise of the disk would spoil the user experience in a consumer product. In those cases, Windows XP Embedded provides the means to enable the use of nonvolatile memory (also known as CompactFlash) as a persistent media . . ."

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