Windows Embedded ce 6.0 initial development experience (I) Windows CE Overview

This articleArticleThe purpose is not to introduce all aspects of Windows Embedded ce development, but to introduce the most common concepts and knowledge in Windows CE development from the perspective of software developers who are initially involved in the embedded field, solve some of the minor issues that people will encounter in actual development, so that you can understand embedded development and applications.ProgramWhat are the differences in development.

Windows CE Overview
From version 6.0, the name of Windows CE was changed to Windows Embedded ce, which, of course, was also made in combination with the brand of Windows Embedded. After ten years of ups and downs, ce was born again in CE 6.0. Ce 6.0 has gone through the second kernel rewriting in CE history, making CE operating systems more in line with today's embedded development.

Ce 6.0 kernel changes mainly to adapt to the requirements of embedded device hardware development. In terms of the number of processes, a maximum of 32 processes can be run in the past, the change is to run a maximum of 30 thousand processes. In terms of memory, each process can have a maximum of 32 MB of virtual memory space instead of a maximum of 2 GB of virtual memory space. In terms of OS layout, key drivers, file systems, and graphical interface Manager (GWES) are moved to the kernel, this can better solve the performance loss caused by switching between the kernel state and the user State.

Of course, from the above changes, we can see that Ce 6.0 is more important than the previous version. The debate on the "microkernel" in the operating system field has lasted for many years. CE's change may support the viewpoint of a certain school. However, we must note that Ce 6.0 will make such a change because the current embedded device hardware can already support a relatively "heavyweight" operating system.

Ce started from CE 5.0 for another developer transformation and integrated the development environment platform builder into Visual Studio. This approach undoubtedly reduced the burden on Microsoft to maintain the two ide sets, in addition, Ce developers can enjoy a better development experience.

Embedded Development Process
Maybe many programmers in the field of embedded development will be overwhelmed by a series of new terms. Here, I hope to present the embedded development process to everyone.

Embedded development is mainly divided into three major parts:

L driver development

This part of development begins with hardware design. hardware engineers design PCB boards to provide us with standard development boards (SDB, standard development board ). When we get the Development Board, the first thing we need to do is compile boot-loader to start the development board. Generally, the boot-loader is burned to the Development Board through jtga. We can regard boot-loader as the BIOS in the PC, initialize the hardware device, and run the operating system. Then, we need to develop various drivers based on the hardware on the Development Board, such as serial port, USB, mouse, and video input. Finally, these drivers are packaged with boot-loader, called a board-level support package (BSP ). BSP is closely related to the specific hardware of the Development Board.

Therefore, engineers engaged in such development often have a strong level of hardware knowledge.

 

L platform Customization

We can think of Windows CE as a box of building blocks. According to different application scenarios and device requirements, we need to customize these blocks to build different shapes of castles, animals, and daily necessities. This process is called "platform Customization". The customized platform is often related to specific hardware devices. You can directly download the platform to the hardware device and run it. During the entire development process, you need to select different components to match the software platform most suitable for the current hardware. Therefore, you should have a considerable understanding of the components of Windows CE, that is, catalog item.

L Application Development

Application Development on embedded devices is similar to traditional application development, but debugging is performed by means of a hardware simulator or an actual device. The most common embedded device application development is Windows Mobile Application Development. Platform customization engineers provide platform-related sdks before the hardware is released. The sdks include simulators. Application developers can use simulators to develop and Debug programs. After the actual hardware is released, the program is transferred to the actual hardware. Because Windows CE uses a lot of measures, this "transfer" is almost seamless, so we didn't use the word "transplantation.

Application Development in the embedded field can be done by common software engineers.

 

Is an illustration of the entire process of embedded development:

 

Windows CE development Flowchart

In the next section, we will gradually introduce the establishment of the embedded development environment, the deployment and debugging of the platform, and the deployment and debugging of applications with the help of the actual hardware development board.

Next article "Windows Embedded ce 6.0 initial development experience": "ce Development Environment ":

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