Go Embedded!

For quite some time I had been thinking about the Memory Architecture of WinCE 5.0 and older kernels. Most striking about it is the per process virtual address space of 32MB. This is quite unique in that it offers protection between processes but allows for all virtual addresses to be unique. This is what allows fast context switch between processes during system call and re-schedule. As all Virtual Addresses are unique one doesn’t have to flush L1 cache and TLB during a context switch. Recently when I was reading ARM v6 architecture I saw the FCSE (Fast Context Switch Extension) chapter. It was clear to me in a moment where the origins of 32MB process space limit could be. ARM MMU supports a concept of MVA (Modified Virtual Address) during address translation and this MVA is calculated by combining PID with 0 based virtual addressing scheme.

In today’s fast moving Embedded Systems world one can see that Computer Architecture and Embedded Systems are very closely related for performance reasons and a good ES designer must be savvy enough to keep track of both these worlds!

The dates have been announced. It will be launched on 1st November 2006. If you want to get it all from horse’s mouth, the virtual launch will be available at:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/embedded/ce6launch/agenda.mspx#session_1

Do expect that all microsoft marketing and other channels will be full or this and other Windows CE related buzz.

Those with interest in robotics can look at robotics platform MINDSTORMS from LEGO. It’s brain has 32-bit Microprocessor, USB and Bluetooth capabilities and Ultrasonic Visual Sensor, Touch sensor, 3 interactive servo motors and more. Right now they don’t ship to India directly. But if you have a friend  in US, this may be perfect  thing to ask for. Basic kit costs  US$249.  You can use this kit with Microsoft’s Robotics Studio to create great robots directly connected to you PC.

References

1. Microsoft Robotics Studio
2. LEGO MINDSTORSM NXT

Yashavant Kanetkar and Asang Dani are in the middle of the book titled “Art of Device Driver Programming”. This book would teach a novice how to write Device Drivers for Windows environment. It does not expect any OS or hardware background. However, it does expect you to know C programming. We hope that it will play the same role that “Let Us C” played in building software careers of lacs of students. It will help students / professional to take their understanding / knowledge of device driver to the next level. After all, it makes a whole lot of difference when you are able to move up the value chain.

I recently got my Phidgets kit – thanks to Microsoft. It’s really cool with every possible sensor that one can think of – RFID tags, LEDs, motor, LCD etc. etc. On top of all this folks at Phidgets have added support for Phidgets with eBox (from ICop-Tech). With this I think building projects with eBox has become much easier. To say that I am impressed with the job Phidgets team has done to enable access to their peripherals would be an understement. They have done everything from writing USB driver to writing WinCE based native library, .NET enabled it by writing Interop-wrappers – you name it and they have it. Hats off to Phidgets team for doing the whole pass. It also goes to show how dedicated and versatile one needs to be in todays Embedded Systems world. I will keep you posted on what one can do with Phidgets and eBox together.

I would strongly recommend eBox + Phidgets as a combo. for anyone building WinCE based projects. I cannot think of an easier launchpad for your next generation ES prototypes and systems!

Happy digging!

References

1. Phidgets
2. ICOP eBox
3. WinCE Driver For Phidgets