Win Ce

Windows CE: MicrosoftWindows for Consumer Electronics. A small operating system and reduced Win32 API for use on small-footprint and embedded devices. Not to be confused with PocketPc or XpEmbedded?, although most consumer HandHelds run PocketPc on a WinCe operating system, and many will probably go to XpEmbedded? in the future.

wince: (verb) intransitive to shrink or start back; to make an involuntary movement, as in sudden pain; to register sudden mental pain or acute embarrassment; to kick (obsolete or dialect); to be restive, like a horse uneasy with its rider.
: (noun) an involuntary start back or shrinking; a kick (obsolete).

Win CE versionitis: http://www.windowscepower.com/issues/issue199905/specifics001.html

We have an EmbeddedEngineering? project that is being specified with WinCe as a Hard RealTime OS platform. There are multiple feeds indicating that WinCe is not a RealTimeOperatingSystem in any meaningful sense, and the management feed that pushes this Hard RealTime aspect of WinCe.

There seems to be a shortage of documented RT projects using WinCe.

Anybody have anything to contribute on this?

Thanks. -- GarryHamilton

WinCE is not suitable for hard real-time. Neither is SymbianOs (now WinCe's principal competitor), although it does do soft real-time passably well. PalmOs is probably closest. In many folk's opinion, WinCe is also not suitable for any sort of serious embedded development, assuming that you care about robustness, availability, long up-times, that sort of thing.

Thanks. I don't have any problem with this. My own perception is that CE is not RT, but I need references. I've got a guy that insists that "CE = hard RT" and he has the ear of the CEO.

I have other engineers who are likewise convinced that CE != RT, but none of them have the numbers. I can imagine that any company that has tested CE for RT and found the numbers to be embarrassing may well not post the stats, but I'd sure like to find some test results that give a clear indication one way or the other.

Any references? -- GarryHamilton

http://www.realtime-info.be/encyc/

I have found that this site is worth its weight in gold when it comes shopping for an RTOS. I haven't found any other site that has done as much conclusive testing on almost every RTOS. The WinCE 4.2 testing and a comparison to QNX and VxWorks is there as well.

-- Andrew Gardso, RTUnet Pty Ltd

Thanks, Andrew. There aren't enough hardcore embedded technoweenies on this Wiki to form much of a group, so we have to share as best we can. Nice to see somebody has a handle on comparing RTOSs toe to toe. -- MartySchrader

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnce21/html/realtime21.asp <-- Microsoft's claims, including measured times

See: PalmOs (a competing OperatingSystem for HandHeld computers). But rumours abound that the Treo 670 from PalmOne is going to use WindowsMobile instead of PalmOs

See http://blogs.msdn.com/mikehall/Default.aspx for keeping up with developments in that area

See a history of Windows CE at http://www.hpcfactor.com/support/windowsce/

CategoryOperatingSystem CategoryMicrosoft