Made available for the first time last year, Microsoft's Windows Embedded Compact 7 is an upgrade to Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R3. It features support for Adobe Flash 10.1 within its updated Internet Explorer web browser, easy viewing of DLNA (digital living network alliance) content, and development via Visual Studio 2008 and Silverlight for Windows Embedded.

Companies that had provided Windows CE 6.0 BSPs for their devices have naturally hasted to announce Windows Embedded Compact 7 support. Adeneo was the first, releasing Windows Embedded Compact 7 BSPs last July (specifically for Atmel's ARM9-based AT91SAM9G45 and AT91SAM9M10). Now, Adeneo says, it's offering a "full suite of support services" -- including customized support, training and development service -- for OEMs who want to create OMAP4 devices that run Windows Embedded Compact 7.

Adeneo's release did not list TI's OMAP4 devices by name. That's a wise decision, as it turns out, since the processors' road to market has involved changes both in clock speed and in nomenclature.

TI was an early adopter of ARM's Cortex-A9 processor core, which implements the same ARMv7 used on the Cortex-A8 and adds an MPCore interconnect layer for multiple processor support. While as many as four cores are possible with MPCore (see block diagram, here), TI's OMAP4430 and OMAP4440 were announced in February 2009 with two cores apiece, as depicted below.

OMAP44x function block diagram
(Click to enlarge)

In its 2009 Mobile World Congress (MWC) announcement, TI said it would begin sampling the OMAP4430 and OMAP4440 during the second half of 2009. That clearly didn't come to pass, and the company's February 2010 description of the OMAP44xx SoCs as "sampling today" was perhaps over-ambitious as well.

Last December, meanwhile, the chipmaker announced that the OMAP4430 and OMAP4440 -- originally said to be clocked at 720MHz and 1GHz, respectively -- would henceforward be clocked at 1GHz and 1.5GHz. (The 1GHz OMAP4430 since found a home in RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.) And this March, TI quietly renamed the OMAP4440 as the OMAP4460.

TI says both the OMAP4430 and OMAP4460 provide both hardware accelerated 2D and 3D graphics, support for 20-megapixel imaging, and 1080p HD video playback. The OMAP4430 supports dual (stereoscopic) five megapixel video cameras, taking 3D movies at up to 720p, while the OMAP4460 supports dual 12 megapixel cameras and takes 1080p 3D videos, the chipmaker adds.

Other OMAP4 features include:

• 10+ hours of 1080p HD video playback
  
• 4+ hours of 1080p HD record
  
• POWERVR SGX540 graphics engine
  
• 3D UI support
  
• Resolutions up to 1920 x 1200 pixels
  
• HDMI compatible
  
• 12 x 12 x 0.4mm POP (package-on-package)
  
• Supports Pico projection technology

The clock speed bumps may have impacted battery life somewhat, since TI originally said the OMAP4 devices could provide "more than 140 hours" of CD-quality audio playback. The company is now claiming "up to 120 hours," though we didn't see a comparable specification for video.

Further information

More information on the OMAP4 SoCs may be found on TI's website. More information on Adeno's services may be found on the company's website.

Jonathan Angel can be followed at www.twitter.com/gadgetsense.

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