| Microsoft ships .NET MF 3.0 beta |
Jul. 31, 2008
 Microsoft is beta testing a new version of its development environment for deeply embedded systems. Now downloadable by developers, the .NET Micro Framework 3.0 beta includes a new filesystem, touchscreen support, WiFi, USB, and a variety of added hardware support, according to the company.
The .NET Micro Framework 3.0 upgrade was shown off at Microsoft's TechEd developer conference in June, and has now been released in beta form, as promised. It includes more hardware support than any previous version, along with emulator and diagnostics enhancements, according to the company.
Other new features 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" 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.
- 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.
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. 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, 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
Downloading the beta of the .NET Micro Framework, version 3.0, is free, but requires filling out a short survey. For more details, see the Microsoft Connect website, here. Microsoft provided no information on when the beta would time out, or .NET MF 3.0's price, but said its final version of the product would ship "later this year."
For further information about features in version 3.0 of the .NET Micro Framework, see the .NET MF team blog posting, here, and Program Manager Steve Maillet's blog, here.
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