Re: Some broad questions

Tech Tip: Click here to run a free scan for Windows Errors and optimize PC performance



Hi,
To give the description of what I am supposed to do -
There is a board being created based on IXP465 along with some external
peripherals such as VDSL6100i. I am supposed to create OS and also the
application. Some drivers are provided by microsoft and some are by intel. (
I already know of a complication due to big endian style used by the
processor v/s/ little endian of win CE. I might have to customize driver for
this). What are the areas of win CE I need to learn in order to do this
project?

Thanks
Ishwar

"Ishwar" wrote:

Hi,
I am also a beginner and am trying to follow the thread. It had been very
useful and thank you all very much for that.
Questions -

1. Regarding SDK, drivers BSP etc. please confirm the following layer -

CE Application - using embedded VC++
---------------------------------------------
SDK - Generated using Platform builder after the BSP and the OS design are
done.
---------------------------------------------
OS - Customized using Platform builder
--------------------------------------------
BSP - The source files of the driver given by CE/chip vendor/customized by
the board vendor. i.e. bunch of drivers.

Please confirm the above layers.

2. What is a project in platform builder? Is it the driver we are developing
for thje specific chip?

3. In platform builder, what is CEPC? Is it the image for the standard
pocketPC?

4. I am going to be in a project where the hardware is based on intel
network processor IXP465. I am comfortable with VC++. I have good idea of
VxWorks. Please tell me how to go about learning Win CE. Do you think I need
to study the code generated by Build OS--> sysGen in depth?

Thanks for the help.

Regards
Ishwar


"Paul G. Tobey [eMVP]" wrote:

Would it work? Yes. You, however, have to configure Windows CE, get the OS
to build and work on the board, and then build your own SDK. So, out of the
box, there's *nothing* to allow it to be programmed with eVC or Visual
Studio, because there's no Windows CE on it.

You have to take whatever they have for it, drivers, BSP, or whatever,
install that on your system that *has* Windows CE Platform Builder on it,
create a new platform configuration, basing it on their BSP, add the pieces
of the OS that you want on your device (everything under Media, in your
case), and get that all to compile and build a nk.bin file which contains
the OS.

Once you have done that, you have to figure out how to get their board to
run that nk.bin file and, if you've done it right, Windows CE will appear on
the screen (or not, depending on whether you built it right). Once Windows
CE is running and you've got the pieces in it that you need, you'll tell
Platform Builder to generate an SDK and it will build you a 20MB .msi file
to be installed on your development computer where you want to use eVC or
Visual Studio for *application* development.

So, you own the OS configuration, you generate the SDK, you write the
applications. They provide a BSP (I hope; if not, run), drivers, and the
board.

Paul T.

"Robby" <Robby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4913B054-54BA-4703-8208-63A1378075E5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Okay Chris!

Can you confirm to me by going to:

http://www.kontron.com/products/pdproductdetail.cfm?keyProduct=40772&kps=2941&kpc=75

Can you gracefullyy let me know if this Reference board would be
compatible
with MS Platform builder and Visual Stidio with VC++. At this oint if I
don't
get hands on experience I can't really understand!

Click the the 'Software&Drivers' link at the top left of the page and you
will see what I mean.

Let me know concretely, because I would be considering purchasing this.
Also, BSquare is offering 5 day courses on Platform Builder in Seattle
for
$2800.00 US, is this worthed according to you.

At this point, all sincere suggestions are very appreciated.


--
Best regards
Robert


"Chris Tacke [MVP]" wrote:

Windows CE is a modular OS. Microsoft provides high-level protocols and
libraries to do the common tasks an OS does. They cannot, however, know
how
the hardware specifically will be implemented, nor should they dictate
it.
The BSP is the collection of stuff that allows the OS to talk to the
OEM's
specific hardware.

With Platform Builder and a BSP, you can generate a CE image for a
specific
piece of hardware. An SDK is generated based on that CE image. The SDK
is
simply a collection of libraries and headers that an application
developer
uses to build and link their application to the libraries known to be
present in the OS.

The general idea is the same in CE, Embedded Linux, VxWorks, QNX, OS-9,
uOS
and basically all other embedded OSes.

While not every vendor provides a BSP (depends on their business model
largely) they *all* have a BSP. Every vendor should provide an SDK (or
use
a MS provided one like the Pocket PC SDK).

XPe is a different story - it uses Target Designer to generate the OS.
The
hardware is more standardized - only x86 is supported, and the hardware
is
very well defined. You have the plethora of XP drivers at your
fingertips
and can run any XP software, provided you include the required
dependencies
in your target.

For XPe is simply modular XP, so developing for XPe is identical to XP.
For
CE, you must have something with a cross compiler (e.g. can generate ARM
assemblies on an x86 machine) so that means eVC or Studio 2005.

------------------------------
Chris Tacke
Principal Partner
OpenNETCF Consulting






.



Relevant Pages

  • Re: Some broad questions
    ... drivers BSP etc. please confirm the following layer - ... SDK - Generated using Platform builder after the BSP and the OS design are ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsce.embedded)
  • Re: Some broad questions
    ... You have to take whatever they have for it, drivers, BSP, or whatever, ... Platform Builder to generate an SDK and it will build you a 20MB .msi file ... the hardware specifically will be implemented, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsce.embedded)
  • Re: Some broad questions
    ... Card driver in your system would handle that and be part of the BSP. ... for Pocket PC with Platform Builder alone. ... knows about (make sure there's a BSP for your target hardware, ... SDK - Generated using Platform builder after the BSP and the OS design are ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsce.embedded)
  • Re: MSDN-2540
    ... BSP, but an application that would create an installer package? ... non-sourcecode into a PRIVATE folder? ... drivers which should be in our SDK. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsce.platbuilder)
  • Re: Development environment best practices?
    ... >>> OS's interface to the hardware (the OAL is part of the BSP, ... Do most developers create a BSP based on one provided ... >>> dev board and include proprietary drivers in the BSP? ... >>> the associated SDK is generated, how often will that SDK change? ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsce.platbuilder)