| Microsoft tips .NET MF 3.0 highlights |
Jun. 09, 2008
 Microsoft has released details of the third major release of its development environment for deeply embedded systems. Available as a public beta "later this summer," .NET Micro Framework 3.0 will include a new file system, touchscreen support, WiFi, USB, and a variety of added hardware support.
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. With a memory footprint of only about 300KB, 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.
The .NET MF was last updated in February. .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. However, even these major improvements pale beside those apparently planned for .NET MF 3.0.
Members of Microsoft's .NET Micro Framework team showed off some of the 3.0 release's new features at last week's TechEd developer conference, and then posted highlights on their blogs. According to the team, version 3.0 of .NET MF will include more hardware support than any previous version, along with emulator and diagnostics enhancements.
Other new features include the following, according to the company:- 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" will allow 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 will allows devices to include "simple inking scenarios." For example, a .NET MF-based kiosk would be able to capture credit card signatures.
- A file system -- While still supporting Microsoft's Extended Weak References technique for saving data, .NET MF 3.0 will also include a file system that supports NAND flash.
- Visual Studio 2008 support.
- Enhanced Web Services on Devices support -- .NET MF 3.0 will include 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 will allow integrating Wi-Fi stacks, drivers, and supplicants in a standard way with the rest of the TCP/IP stack. Version 3.0 will provide hooks for WEP, WPA/WPA2, and Windows Connect Now (WCN), says Microsoft.
- SSL -- The TCP/IP stack in .NET MF 3.0 will include support for Secure Sockets Library (SSL), allowing secure connections such as HTTPS.
- Serial enhancements -- The serial model will be improved to more closely follow the .NET Framework implementation. This includes support for RTS/CTS hardware flow control.
- USB support -- .NET MF 3.0 will allow the creation of devices that identify themselves as standard USB types when plugged into a PC. For example, a small data logger could 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 will include "greatly enhanced" font support.
Further information
For further information about Microsoft's forthcoming version 3.0 of the .NET Micro Framework, see the .NET MF team blog posting, here, and Program Manager Steve Maillet's blog, here. The upgrade will be released later this summer, according to the company.
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