|
Windows Embedded Compact 7 is really the latest version of Windows CE. Books dedicated to this
operating system are relatively scarce. Windows CE turned into a proper RTOS when Windows CE 3.0
was launched. A few books were published, most notably by Douglas Boling and James Wilson. The first
book concentrated on application programming and was updated for new versions of the system as
these appeared. The second book was a comprehensive tutorial on the creation of Windows CE based
systems. Recently, books by Samuel Phung and others continue with this trend of introducing
developers of embedded systems to Windows CE. However authoring a book that is dedicated to one
aspect of the system wasn’t challenged. Device drivers are at the core of embedded system development.
Every computer system, be it a general purpose computer or an embedded computer system time
critical or not, has to address three phases: data input, data manipulation, and data output. Embedded
systems commonly go through all three phases without human intervention. Data input and data output
have to be handled via peripheral I/O devices.
This book endeavors to usher the reader into the development process of stream interface device
driver model used in Windows Embedded Compact 7 and previous versions of Windows CE. The stream
interface device driver model is the most commonly used in the Windows Embedded Compact
(Windows CE) operating system. There are native device drivers for user interface input and display
device drivers but most device driver developers use the stream interface driver model for their
development needs.
If Windows Embedded Compact operating system would have been another general purpose
operating system, this book would be of interest only to device driver developers. However Windows
Embedded Compact is anything but a general purpose OS. It is an embedded hard real-time operating
system and therefore application developers of time critical software have to understand how to access
I/O hardware. Understanding kernel mode device drivers and developing user mode interaction with
these should benefit the application developers as much.
Understanding the new filter driver model of Windows Embedded Compact 7 can help application
developers move code of input data filtering algorithms such as Finite Impulse Response to Fast Fourier
Transformations from the user mode process to the kernel for better performance and modularity.
This book is not an introduction to Windows Embedded Compact and how to create Windows
Embedded Compact 7 based operating system images. It assumes the reader already knows how to
perform these tasks. Therefore it skims the surface when discussing Platform Builder and kernel
debugger techniques.
At the end of the book there is a bibliography list, divided by topics to help the reader find out more
about topics that may need more clarification, such as JTAG and the related “scan chains.” |
