WELCOME TO THE WINDOWSFORDEVICES.COM WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

                        October 16, 2003

               by Rick Lehrbaum -- Editor-in-chief

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_____________________ * * * TOP STORIES * * * ____________________

NEWS FLASH:  MICROSOFT LAUNCHES MAJOR PUSH INTO IPTV
Microsoft's TV Division unveiled plans last week for the development of
a new end-to-end Internet Protocol television (IPTV) "delivery solution"
intended to help cable and telecommunications operators offer improved
and next-generation TV services over existing broadband networks. The
IPTV set-top boxes (STBs) and IPTVs will be based on Windows CE .NET and
XP Embedded OSes, and will achieve substantial bandwidth savings by
using Windows Media 9 A/V technology, which, Microsoft says, "has
approximately three times the efficiency of MPEG-2 and twice that of
MPEG-4."
Story


WORLD'S FIRST POCKET PC BASED SUPERCOMPUTER?
A group of programmers at Spb Software House in Russia, including
several Microsoft MVPs, say they have created supercomputer out of a
cluster of Pocket PCs. Specifically, twelve Pocket PC devices have been
joined in a cluster to perform distributed calculations -- the devices
share the load of a complex calculation. The concept was to compare the
performance of several Pocket PC devices linked into a cluster with the
performance of a typical Pentium II-class desktop computer. This article
describes the project and includes some photos of the Pocket PC cluster
they created.
Story


MICROSOFT EMBEDDED EXEC TO GIVE TALK IN SILICON VALLEY, OCT. 24
As part of Microsoft's "October Silicon Valley Speaker Series", Scott
Horn, director of marketing for Microsoft's Embedded Devices Group, will
explore the trends in embedded systems and the future of smart,
connected devices for industries such as consumer electronics,
commercial, mobile and networking. Horn's talk is titled: "Windows
Embedded: The Next Generation of Smart, Connected, Small-Footprint Devices."
Story


WINDOWS CE DRIVES MOBILE VIDEO SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM
Safety Vision wanted to upgrade its mobile video surveillance system,
which was running on proprietary software, to include more networking
and communications features and support for a broader range of
off-the-shelf peripherals. The company selected Windows CE for the new
version's embedded operating system and turned to Intrinsyc Software for
the design the electronics and integration of the operating system and
software components with the device hardware.  Learn more about this
interesting design win for Windows CE in this case study written by
Intrinsyc and Microsoft.
Story


BSQUARE, SHARP RELEASE FREE CE .NET 4.2 BSP FOR SHARP BLUESTREAK SOC
BSQUARE and Sharp have announced a Microsoft Windows CE 4.2 board
support package (BSP) for Sharp's BlueStreak LH7A400 system-on-chip
(SoC) evaluation kit. The BSP is meant to help Sharp customers quickly
evaluate, prototype, and test the LH7A400 SoC using the latest version
of Windows CE .NET, to support a multitude of applications including
Internet and multimedia-centric devices.  Source code for the Windows CE
.NET 4.2-based BSP is available for free download from BSQUARE's website.
Story


MICROSOFT EMBEDDED AND MOBILE DEVCON 2004:  SURVEY REGARDING LOCATION
The 2004 Embedded and Mobile DevCons will be combined and held in the
Spring of 2004. Microsoft is conducting an online survey to find out
where developers would prefer that the combined DevCon event be held.
The locations to choose from are Las Vegas, Orlando, San Francisco, and
Seattle.
Story


NETFRONT EMBEDDED BROWSER BREAKS 100 MILLION DEPLOYMENT MARK
Tokyo-based Access Co. Ltd. announced that its NetFront web browser has
surpassed 100 million deployments worldwide. According to Access,
NetFront is now the most widely deployed and actively used web browser
in the "beyond-PC" market, supporting more operating system platforms
and devices than any other browser. NetFront targets embedded devices
such as mobile phones, handhelds, automobile telematics systems, and
digital televisions.
Story


RETAIL FLAT-PANEL POS FEATURES XP EMBEDDED
Radiant Systems announced a new point-of-sale (POS) terminal series
based on Windows XP Embedded and Intel's Centrino technology. The
company says its P1500 Series is intended to bring retailers and
restaurateurs exceptional speed, reliability, and flexibility. The
device boasts a bright 15-inch color touch-screen flat panel display and
a wide range of connectivity and expansion options, and is ruggedly
packaged to withstand the environmental challenges of retail
environments including petroleum and convenience stores, food services,
and cinema.
Story


BARCODE SCANNING HANDHELD OFFERS CHOICE OF CE .NET, WINDOWS MOBILE
Symbol Technologies unveiled a new ruggedized mobile computer for bar
code scanning-intensive supply chain management applications. The Symbol
MC9000-G is positioned as a modular technology platform that allows
customers to select feature sets according specific tactical and
strategic supply chain application requirements, including a choice
between Windows CE .NET or Windows Mobile 2003 embedded software platforms.
Story


TELEVIDEO UNVEILS 1GHZ LCD THIN CLIENT BASED ON CRUSOE, XP EMBEDDED
TeleVideo showed off its speediest LCD thin client to date -- an
integrated LCD terminal based on a 1GHz Transmeta 5800 Crusoe processor
and Windows XP Embedded operating system -- at the Citrix iForum show
this week in Orlando, Florida.
Story


AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT THE POWER MANAGER IN WINDOWS CE .NET 4.1+
This article provides an in-depth look at the new capabilities provided
by the Power Manager in Windows CE .NET 4.1. It begins with a summary of
the new features, and then launches into a detailed technical discussion
of how to use the new features to extend power savings and battery life
for embedded systems and devices. Topics include how applications can
interface with the Power Manager, how device drivers can intelligently
manage device power state that is separate from the system power state,
and how OEMs can modify the Power Manager component to provide custom
power handling for their platforms.
Story


TRIMBLE ADDS CE .NET AND BLUETOOTH TO GPS HANDHELD
Trimble announced the addition of Microsoft CE .NET and Bluetooth
wireless support for its GeoExplorer CE series of handheld GPS
receivers. The added features provide mapping and mobile Geographic
Information System (GIS) users with high-performance GPS field computing
along with the convenience of wireless connectivity.
Story


CHIPS AHOY -- IT'S MICROPROCESSOR FORUM WEEK!
WindowsForDevices.com editor Rick Lehrbaum visited the event in San Jose,
Calif., and brought back these stories . . .

*  Transmeta takes the wraps off Efficeon processor
   Story

*  VIA wows with nano-sized x86, entropy-based security, tiny PCs
   Story

*  MIPS unveils "highest performing" 32-bit CPUs for embedded apps
   Story

*  ARM unveils new ARM11 CPU cores with trusted computing support
   Story

*  Network Processor market taps into security trends
   Story


PC/104 CONSORTIUM LAUNCHES 2ND ANNUAL DESIGN CONTEST
The PC/104 Consortium is holding a second annual PC/104 Design Contest.
The contest will recognize embedded engineers who are designing
innovative products based on the group's PC/104 and PC/104-Plus
standards for small form-factor modular embedded computers, and winners
in three categories will be flown to San Francisco to receive their
awards at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco
Story



. . . and that's not all.  Check here for the latest breaking news:

                WindowsForDevices.com News Page


______ * * * "COOL DEVICES" QUICK REFERENCE GUIDES * * * ______

 
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 Cellphones and IP-phones
 
 TV set-top boxes/devices
 
 Windows-based webpads and slate-type tablets
 
 Thin client terminals & devices
 
 Other smart devices

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