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Version 2.10 makes OS a stronger contender, while real-time support is readied for next release
REDMOND, WASH. - In a bid to toughen up Windows CE and make it a more potent player in the embedded market, Microsoft Corp. has unveiled a preview of its latest releasedubbed 2.10-of the downsized operating system.
But even bigger plans are afoot, as Microsoft rushes to ready the next-generation Windows CE 3.0, which will be equipped with support for "hard" real-time applications.
"We've had a lot of interest in our plans for real-time Windows CE 3.0," confirmed Tony Barbagallo, Microsoft's product manager for Windows CE.
Due next year, 3.0 could go a long way toward enhancing CE's embedded credibility. To date, CE has been viewed largely as an OS best suited for handheld PCs and other applications that can get by with the relatively laggard interrupt-response times common to the PC world. But Microsoft has acknowledged that today's release of CE can't deliver the guaranteed, ultrafast interrupt response times-features known as determinism and low latency-required for heavy-duty "hard" real-time apps.
In implementing hard realtime support, CE 3.0 will add a number of crucial features. These include a prioritization scheme that comprises 32 different priority levels. Microsoft will also add a real-time clock, support for thread-based device drivers, settable device-driver priorities, OS-level timing diagnostics, DLL mechanisms for real-time threads, semaphores and real-time isolation for nonreal-time threads.
Aiming to make hay of such battle-hardened features, Microsoft sees...