Re: XPE or Windows CE as I/O Controller Box.

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From: John Smith (nospa_at_m)
Date: 02/12/04 

Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 15:21:32 +0100

Thank You Slobodan,

Could you please also answer the questions below.

My goal is too achieve this project as quickly as possible. So I would
like too spend the less time in learning new technologies.

So I also think XPE would be a good solution. 64 Mo seems OK to me, the
goal is not to have the lighter OS but the less disturbed by other tasks
to achieve the more real-time possible execution for my app. A few
seconds to boot that's also right.

My questions :

Q1 : keeping the win32 subsystem and DirectShow layer, can I still
remove all the unnecessary devices / drivers : graphic card, mouse /
keyboard ...

Q2 : Using a box without screen / keyboard / mouse is it possible to
redirect message boxes to a log and automatically reboot the system if
an error occurs

Q3 : about hibernation : I would like to always resume from the same
point no matter what happened during the previous session.
Can I save the initial state of the box so that all the times the box is
powered the OS will be in this same initial state.
What I mean : let's say I reboot harshly, or there is a power loss, so
the system can't go to hibernation ... I would like that when powered
the system starts from the "initial state hibernation".

I think that this is possible with a "normal boot sequence" on a read
only media. Is this also possible with Hibernation ? How do I save the
initial state ?

Regards,
JS.

Slobodan Brcin (eMVP) wrote:

> Windows XP Embedded side of answers to your questions:
>
> A1: Consider your knowledge and time you will need to invest in learning XPe
> or WinCE. and since you said that you will use x86 device logical choice
> would be XPe.
> A2: If can be lighter than 5 MB but it would be kernel only (no much use for
> this).
> In 10 MB you could put all drivers that you need, but you will need to write
> your program as driver.
> DirectShow will compromise everything since you will need Win32 subsystem,
> etc..
> Here we are talking about 64 MB image given or taken 16 MB.
>
> A3: You could always resume your image from hibernation.
> My best time so far is less than 2 seconds from end of POST (This was
> P4-2400 800Mhz Intel 875 chipset (Chaintech board), ATI Radeon 9500).
> But with different graphic card (NVIDIA GeForce MX-440 8x) and board
> manufacturer same image resume in less than 8 seconds.
> But this is probably result of different graphic drivers and since you don't
> need them, then ....
> Normal boot time on this machines is between 12..15 seconds for my needs.
> BTW my image size is currently little above 64 MB.
>
> This will depend mostly on type of hardware you use drivers and BIOS
> implementation of int 13 read requests.
>
> A4:
> I have never tried this.
>
>
> Regards,
> Slobodan
>
> "John Smith" <nospa@m> wrote in message
> news:OtI$C2V8DHA.2656@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
>
>>Hi all, I'm totally newbie in XPE and WinCE so sorry if the questions
>>are stupid, yet I would really appreciate if someone would take the time
>> to answer ;-)
>>
>>I would like to use a box as controller for some multimedia devices.
>>
>>When receiving some inputs (ethernet / parallel port / serial port) the
>>box would make some computations and then would send some output
>>signals (ethernet / parallel port / serial port / firewire / twain /
>>wia / DirectShow filters and so on ...) to control some multimedia
>>devices as synchronously as possible.
>>
>>The box would be a dedicated box so I really do not need anything else
>>than a service launched at start time and the communication / multimedia
>>layers. I even do not need GUI or other services ... the ideal would be
>>a standalone app without any multitasking OS. MS-Dos would be enough if
>>only it would provide all the communication / multimedia layers !
>>
>>So my questions are :
>>
>>Q1: which of XPE / WinCE would be better for this project ?
>>I would prefer XPE because I better know the classical Windows
>>programming and never tried WinCe. Besides I don't know if WinCE would
>>fit for a classical x86 computer box and I also don't know if I would
>>find all the API / communication / multimedia / driver layers to control
>>all my multimedia devices.
>>
>>Q2: If I choose XPE, how light can I configure it to be ?
>>Is it possible to have something as light as the kernel, the drivers and
>>layers for the multimedia devices, but nothing else ... no GUI, no
>>screen, no logon, no keyboard, no mouse, no other services, no other
>>tasks or interrupts ... just a single service as high a priority and as
>>real time as possible listenig input ports and sending the output
>>signals. If not which is the best approximation ?
>>
>>Q3: In this case, How much place would it take, how fast would it boot ?
>>
>>Q4: I also found on the web On Time RTOS-32 which seems to be a sort of
>>light Windows kernel to execute real-time apps. Someone tried it ? Do
>>you think it would suit my needs ?
>>
>>TIA,
>>JS.
>>
>
>
>

Relevant Pages

  • Re: XPE or Windows CE as I/O Controller Box.
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