WindowsForDevices.com Newsletter -- February 19, 2004
WELCOME TO THE WINDOWSFORDEVICES.COM WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
February 19, 2004
by Rick Lehrbaum -- Editor-in-chief
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_____________________ * * * TOP STORIES * * * ____________________
ACT NOW: ENTER WINDOWS CE SURVEY, CHANCE TO WIN WIRELESS ROUTER
Wish you could add a feature to Windows CE? Need a new technology
supported in the OS? Want a specific tool to be more productive? Help
the development team at Microsoft build the next version of Windows CE
by participating in a survey and then emailing your most wanted OS
features, technologies, and tools to Microsoft. NOTE: This special
Microsoft-sponsored Windows CE .NET survey and giveaway comes to a close
at the end of this week, so vote now if you want your voice to be heard
by Microsoft's Windows CE .NET product development team.
Read full story
PHOENIX AIMS TOOLSUITE AT REPLACING BIOS WITH CSS
PC BIOS pioneer Phoenix Technologies says it's finally time for the PC
BIOS to fade away -- to be replaced by something Phoenix calls "Core
System Software" (CSS). The reason? "Today's connected devices must
deliver greater trust, usability, connectivity and manageability in a
networked environment," says Phoenix. Initially, Phoenix's CSS efforts
will focus on PCs and connected digital devices based on the venerable
x86-architecture. CSS supports Windows, Windows XP Embedded, Windows CE
.NET, among other OSes.
Read full story
TOOL HELPS DEVELOP BULVERDE-BASED DEVICES TARGETING WINDOWS CE
Accelent Systems has announced tools support for creating Windows CE
operating system images for devices and embedded systems based on
upcoming Intel processors code named "Bulverde." The product is being
demonstrated at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco this week.
Read full story
CONSUMER DEVICES TO FEATURE SIS SOCS, WINDOWS CE .NET
CPU and core-logic chipset maker Silicon Integrated Systems Corp. (SiS)
says it has formed partnership with Billionton to produce portable DVD
players, portable GPS units, and wireless billboard advertising machines
using its SiS552LV system-on-chip (SoC) processor technology and running
Microsoft's Windows CE .NET embedded operating system.
Read full story
HOW WINDOWS CE .NET IS DESIGNED FOR QUALITY OF SERVICE
This detailed technical article explains Windows CE .NET and Platform
Builder design characteristics from a quality of service (QoS) point of
view, and how it could relate to your development projects. In an effort
to assess the quality of the Windows CE operating system and Platform
Builder, Microsoft applies some of the industry-standard quality of
service (QoS) guidelines used by other companies.
Read full story
IMPLEMENTING FAULT TOLERANT SYSTEMS WITH WINDOWS CE .NET
This technical presents techniques to add fault tolerance to software
components, using the supporting APIs and services available on Windows
CE .NET for realizing robust and reliable systems.
Read full story
MITAC TO LAUNCH NEW WINDOWS MOBILE POWERED SMARTPHONE IN TAIWAN
According to various reports, MiTAC International Group will launch its
next-generation Mio smartphone in Taipei next Tuesday. The Mio 8390 is
reportedly based on a 200MHz Intel "Dalhart" processor running
Microsoft's Windows Mobile 2003 software for smartphones and includes a
built-in digital camera.
Read full story
MULTI-PROCESSOR CHIPSET TARGETS MULTIMEDIA WIRELESS PHONES
Agere Systems unveiled a new mobile handset chipset meant to enable
phone manufacturers to address the growing demand for wireless phones
with multimedia functions like real-time audio and video streaming,
digital photo imaging, and interactive gaming. The company says its new
"Vision" mobile handset architecture combines an advanced digital
baseband chipset, proven software, and state-of-the-art tools, and
provides a low-power, highly integrated framework for a broad range of
multimedia mobile devices implementing communication standards such as
2.5G/GPRS, EDGE, 3G/WCDMA, and beyond.
Read full story
SOFTWARE ENABLES VIEWING MULTIMEDIA, LIVE TV ON POCKET PCS
BravoBrava! says it is demonstrating new capabilities of its multimedia
playback software, including the viewing of live television on cell
phones. The company says its AllMiMedia software enables a wide range
of digital content -- including photos, music, Microsoft Media Center
stored content, live TV, and Internet TV and radio -- to be remotely
accessed and controlled via a web-enabled cell phone or PDA.
Read full story
PC/104 EMBEDDED COMPUTER STANDARD ADDS PCI-ONLY VERSION
The PC/104 Consortium has recently released a PCI-only version of its
popular PC/104 form-factor embedded single-board computer modules
specification. "PCI-104" is essentially identical to the PC/104-Plus
format which combines the ISA and PCI buses on a PC/104 form-factor
module, except that the ISA expansion connector has been omitted in the
new PCI-only implementation. The result is more room on PCI-104 modules
for other functions, which is expected to open up new opportunities for
expanded market penetration of the PC/104 standards, the Consortium says.
Read full story
HACK THAT POCKET PC WITH LATEST TWEAKS PROGRAM
Newly released "Tweaks2k2 for ARM & XScale v1.60" from PC Counselor is
described by its author as "the ultimate easy to use software for
hacking your PDA Registry." The author claims it represents the largest
available collection of hacks -- including 70 different registry tricks
and 2 screens -- and provides important information about the PDA
including "tricks that nobody have seen before in any other tweaks
application for Pocket PC."
Read full story
INTEL UNVEILS TOOLS FOR DEVELOPING INTEROPERABLE DIGITAL HOME PRODUCTS
Intel announced test tools this week that are intended to help
developers create interoperable digital home products for the home.
Additionally, Intel announced the first building block products
validated for the Intel Networked Media Product Requirements (NMPR).
NMPR is a set of development guidelines for use in building digital home
products that define common usage models and an interoperability
framework delivering the best experience in connecting devices to
Intel-based platforms.
Read full story
INTEL OUTLINES ULTRA-WIDEBAND WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM PLANS
Intel outlined plans this week to drive the development of a complete,
standards-based, common platform for ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless
technology. Intel says future UWB technology-based products built on
this platform will enable high-speed transfer of multimedia content
between devices in the home or office, at lower costs and without the
hassle of wires.
Read full story
MICROSOFT BROADENS 64-BIT COMMITMENT
Microsoft announced its intent for its "Windows operating systems for
64-bit extended systems" to be fully compatible with Intel's newly
announced processors with 64-bit extension technology. Microsoft claims
64-bit computing offers significant performance and scalability gains in
applications requiring large amounts of memory or intensive numeric
calculations.
Read full story
VIA PUSHES ITS EDEN FANLESS EMBEDDED X86S TO 1GHZ
x86 processor maker VIA Technologies (Taiwan) announced availability of
its new VIA Eden ESP10000 and ESP8000 processors, which are said to
offer enhanced digital media performance power consumption as little as
7W at speeds up to 1GHz, without requiring a fan.
Read full story
MOTOROLA SPINS SPS SEMI DIVISION INTO "FREESCALE SEMICONDUCTOR"
Motorola revealed the name it has chosen for the company formed by the
spin-out of the Motorola SPS semiconductor division later this year.
"Freescale Semiconductor" -- the name for the new entity -- was chosen
to reflect a new focus for the semiconductor company, the company says.
Read full story
. . . and that's not all. Check here for the latest breaking news:
WindowsForDevices.com News Page
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