| Microsoft delivers .NET MF upgrade |
Oct. 28, 2008
 Microsoft has released a new version of its development environment for deeply embedded systems. Now being promoted by a "Dare to Dream Different" contest, .NET Micro Framework 3.0 includes a new filesystem, touchscreen support, WiFi, USB, and a variety of added hardware support, the company says.
The .NET Micro Framework 3.0 upgrade was first shown off at Microsoft's TechEd developer conference in June, then released in beta form at the end of July. The product includes more hardware support than any previous version, along with emulator and diagnostics enhancements, according to the company.
Other new features in .NET MF 3.0 include the following, Microsoft says:- A file system -- While still supporting Microsoft's Extended Weak References technique for saving data, .NET MF 3.0 also includes a file system that supports NAND flash.
- Linking to native code -- The basic programming environment for .NET MF is C#, normally used to create managed, intermediate-language code that targets .NET MF's Common Language Runtime (TinyCLR). However, a new facility nicknamed "interop" allows linking to native code on a device, to access memory-mapped peripherals or gain maximum performance in a complex communication stack.
- Touchscreen support -- New touchscreen support allows devices to include "simple inking scenarios." For example, a .NET MF-based kiosk is able to capture credit card signatures.
- Visual Studio 2008 support.
- Enhanced Web Services on Devices support -- .NET MF 3.0 includes both full support for WSD, also known as Device Profile for Web Services (DPWS), and "easy to use tools that weren't included in 2.5."
- Wi-Fi -- Newly added infrastructure for 802.11b/g allows integrating Wi-Fi stacks, drivers, and supplicants in a standard way with the rest of the TCP/IP stack. Version 3.0 provides hooks for WEP, WPA/WPA2, and Windows Connect Now (WCN), says Microsoft.
- SSL -- The TCP/IP stack in .NET MF 3.0 includes support for Secure Sockets Library (SSL), allowing secure connections such as HTTPS.
- Serial enhancements -- The serial model has been improved to more closely follow the .NET Framework implementation. This includes support for RTS/CTS hardware flow control.
- USB support -- .NET MF 3.0 allows the creation of devices that identify themselves as standard USB types when plugged into a PC. For example, a small data logger might collect data from a sensor network, then present itself as a standard mass storage device when plugged into a PC.
- Fonts -- .NET MF 3.0 includes "greatly enhanced" font support.
Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst of the Enderle Group, says, "As a truly embedded platform, the .NET Micro Framework provides a huge opportunity to make devices even more powerful and intelligent. The new features of version 3.0 will help accelerate connectivity and increase the potential applications."
Dreaming up devices
Using today's Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) in Boston to promote the final .NET MF 3.0 release, Microsoft also touted its "Dare to Dream Different" challenge, said to offer more than $95,000 in prizes. The contest asks developers to "describe their dream device, and explain how they would bring it to life with the .NET Micro Framework platform."
According to Microsoft, the contest is open to both professional developers and hobbyists. Prizewinners in the professional category will "receive guidance and tools to help start their own business as a .NET MF Microsoft partner, the company says. Total prizes in this category, including cash, free business and development software, consulting time with Microsoft experts, and promotional opportunities, are reckoned to be worth more than $73,000.
Meanwhile, prizewiners in a hobbyist category will "receive the opportunity to include their winning solution in a Microsoft marketing campaign," and also receive cash and prizes such as an Xbox 360 console or Zune digital media player, says Microsoft. The total prizes in this category are worth more than $23,000, the company adds.
In the first round of the event, which began Oct. 8, contestants are requested to submit a written description of their proposed .NET MF device, "what's so cool about it, and how you would go about creating it." In the second round, which begins Jan. 15, 2009, fifty semifinalists will be chosen for each of the categories. They'll receive a development kit including an unspecified ARM9 board, Visual C# Express, and the .NET MF SDK, and will be asked to create a video showcasing their devices, says Microsoft.
In the third round, which starts Apr. 15 and runs until May 31, five finalists will be selected in each category. They'll make presentations on their prototypes in front of a "panel of industry experts," after which grand prize, first prize, and second prize winners will be selected, says Microsoft.
"Dare to Dream Different" is a further demonstration that Microsoft has firmly embraced contests as a key method of promoting its embedded operating systems and related software. Earlier today, the company announced a similar Sparks Will Fly contest, which offers more than $50,000 in prizes for students, academics, and hobbyists who envision Windows CE devices in the "home of the future." For further details, see our earlier coverage, here.
Background
First released back in 2006, the .NET Micro Framework (.NET MF) is Microsoft's development environment for small, deeply embedded devices with constrained processor and memory resources. Now said to require a RAM footprint of as little as 64K, it can run on an operating system or directly "on the metal" without one. Only one application can run at a time, but it can include multiple threads, Microsoft says.
Prior to the .NET MF 3.0 beta, the environment received its last major update in February, when .NET MF 2.5 added both a native TCP/IP stack and support for Web Services on Devices (WSD), which aims to allow network-connected devices to discover and connect to one another without user intervention.
Some customers gained a file system already, too, thanks to proprietary extensions created for .NET MF 2.5 by GHI Electronics. For its USBizi and Embedded Master modules, GHI devised an embedded FAT (file allocation table) implementation that is said to let the .NET MF-based devices access files on microSD- or USB-based storage. For more information, see our earlier coverage, here.
Further information
For further information about the .NET Micro Framework, see Microsoft's website, here. The .NET MF 3.0 SDK is downloadable for free, here, and works with Microsoft's Visual Studio 2008 SP1 or Microsoft Visual C# Express Edition 2008 SP1. The latter is apparently downloadable free as well from Microsoft's website, here.
For further information on the "Dare to Dream Different" challenge, see the contest website, here.
Related Stories:
(Click here for further information)
|
|
|
news feed
