| Microsoft unveils tech preview of Windows CE 5.0 (Macallan) |
Mar. 29, 2004
Microsoft will unveil a Technology Preview Kit for Windows CE 5.0, previously code-named "Macallan," this week at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco. Microsoft says the final version of Windows CE 5.0 will focus on increasing developer productivity through a variety of feature enhancements including increased out-of-the-box hardware support, security enhancements, advanced multimedia capabilities, and automated testing tools.
According to Microsoft, Windows CE 5.0 contains enhancements, based on feedback from developers, which will help reduce development time and costs when building small-footprint, connected devices. For example, developers said they wanted the ability to switch easily between the Windows CE graphical integrated development environment (IDE) and command-line environments to more quickly build devices with a wide range of functionality. The new Windows CE 5.0 development environment enables developers to take advantage of the capabilities of the command line in the graphical IDE, which will decrease operating system image development time and speed time to market.
Additionally, Microsoft says it has dramatically increased support for widely available embedded hardware with more than 50 production-quality drivers optimized for leading chipsets, such as ARM, MIPS, SuperH and x86, enabling OEMs to use out-of-the-box drivers rather than having to customize them for a particular hardware platform. These production-quality drivers are in addition to the more than 250 sample drivers already available in Windows CE.
On the security front, Microsoft says Windows CE 5.0 will ship with all components automatically set to the highest possible security setting, while providing developers with complete flexibility to modify the security setting as needed for their unique design. A new Windows Error Reporting capability enables quality and performance monitoring of in-field devices, enabling OEMs to continually improve and update the devices which they have already deployed. In addition, an enhanced Windows CE Test Kit provides comprehensive automated testing tools to improve device stability and reliability.
New multimedia capabilities in Windows CE 5.0 will include support for Direct3D Mobile, a Component Object Model (COM) based programming model and graphics solution built on Microsoft's DirectX desktop technology. Microsoft claims that the inclusion of Direct3D Mobile support will enable Windows CE devices to provide richer, higher-performance graphics and multimedia, similar to a desktop experience, on small-footprint devices. In addition, enhanced multimedia features, such as Fast Start, will decrease playback start time for multimedia content such as movies on a range of devices including Internet Protocol (IP) set-top boxes.
"Intel has enabled a new generation of rich multimedia and gaming capabilities for D3DMobile utilizing Intel XScale technology with Wireless MMX instructions," said Mark Casey, director of Marketing for the Cellular and Handheld Group at Intel. "Working closely with Microsoft to integrate these enhancements into D3DMobile, developers and OEMs will be able to deploy a new generation of compelling 3-D applications while meeting the battery life and small size requirements of mobile devices."
Technology Preview kits for Windows CE 5.0 will be handed out to visitors of Microsoft's ESC booth this week, and will also be available for download via Microsoft's Windows Embedded Web site starting April 1, 2004. The final product is scheduled to be available during summer 2004.
Related stories:
(Click here for further information)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
news feed