Windows Embedded CE 6.0 (codenamed "''Yamazaki''") is the sixth major release of the

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

embedded operating system An embedded operating system is an operating system for embedded computer systems. Embedded operating systems are computer systems designed to increase functionality and reliability for achieving a specific task. Resource efficiency comes at the ...

targeted to enterprise-specific tools such as

industrial controllers An industrial control system (ICS) is an electronic control system and associated instrumentation used for industrial process control. Control systems can range in size from a few modular panel-mounted controllers to large interconnected and in ...

and consumer electronics devices like digital cameras. CE 6.0 features a kernel that supports 32,768 processes, up from the 32-process limit of prior versions. Each process receives 2 GB of virtual address space, up from 32 MB. Windows Embedded CE 6.0 was released on November 1, 2006, and includes partial source code. The OS currently serves as the basis for the Zune HD

portable media player A portable media player (PMP) (also including the related digital audio player (DAP)) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. The data is typically stored o ...

. Windows Mobile 6.5 is based on Windows CE 5.2. Windows Phone 7, the first major release of the Windows Phone operating system, is based on Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R3; although Windows Phone 7 is also using Windows Embedded Compact 7 features.

New features

* Some system components (such as filesystem, GWES (graphics, windowing, events server),

device driver In computing, a device driver is a computer program that operates or controls a particular type of device that is attached to a computer or automaton. A driver provides a software interface to hardware devices, enabling operating systems and ot ...

manager) have been moved to the kernel space. * The system components which now run in kernel have been converted from

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s to DLLs, which get loaded into kernel space. * New virtual memory model. The lower 2 GB is the process VM space and is private per process. The upper 2 GB is the kernel VM space. * New

model that supports both user mode and kernel mode drivers. * The 32 process limit has been raised to 32,768 processes. * The 32 megabyte virtual memory limit has been raised to the total virtual memory; up to 2 GB of private VM is available per process. * The

Platform Builder Windows Embedded Compact, formerly Windows Embedded CE, Windows Powered and Windows CE, is an operating system subfamily developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows Embedded family of products. Unlike Windows Embedded Standard, which is base ...

IDE is integrated into

Microsoft Visual Studio Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft. It is used to develop computer programs including websites, web apps, web services and mobile apps. Visual Studio uses Microsoft software development platforms such a ...

2005 as plugin (thus forcing the client to obtain

2005 also), allowing one development environment for both platform and application development. * Read-only support for UDF 2.5 filesystem. * Support for Microsoft's exFAT filesystem. * 802.11i (WPA2) and

802.11e IEEE 802.11e-2005 or 802.11e is an approved amendment to the IEEE 802.11 standard that defines a set of quality of service (QoS) enhancements for wireless LAN applications through modifications to the media access control (MAC) layer.M. Benveni ...

(QoS) wireless standards, and multiple radio support. * CE 6.0 is compatible with x86, ARM, SH4 (only up to R2) and MIPS based processor architectures. * New Cellcore components to enable devices to easily make data connections and initiate voice calls through cellular networks.

New features in R3

Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R3 was finalized in September 2009 for OEMs and serves as the base platform for the Zune HD and Windows Phone 7. CE 6.0 R3 includes the following new features and abilities:Development Resources , Windows Embedded CE 6.0
/ref> Note that these features listed here are not all specific to Windows Phone 7 or the Zune HD.

References

* * *

External links

History of Windows CE
by HPC:Factor with screenshots of the various versions
Bor-Ming Hsieh and Sue Loh: 3rd Generation Kernel for Windows CE
— Channel 9 Interview
Juggs Ravalia: Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Device Driver Model
— Channel 9 Interview
Mike Hall's WEBlog
{{Microsoft Windows family Embedded CE 6.0 Embedded operating systems Windows CE MIPS operating systems