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Windows NT Embedded 4.0 - An Overview The information contained the in this document represents the current view of Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be intrepreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication. © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This White Paper is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS DOCUMENT. Microsoft, Visual Basic, Visual ++, Visual FoxPro, Visual InterDev, Visual J++, Visual SourceSafe, Visual Studio, Win32, Windows, the Windows logo and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other product and company names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Microsoft Corporation • One Microsoft Way • Redmond, WA 98052-6399 • USA This paper provides an overview of the Windows NT Embedded product which enables organizations to quickly and easily build customized and feature rich embedded operating systems.

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION...... 21

WINDOWS NT EMBEDDED ...... 2 Target Designer 2 Component Designer 3

RICH FEATURES ...... 4

SUMMARY ...... 6

AVAILABILITY ...... 98 For more information 98 INTRODUCTION The Microsoft® Windows® platform is rapidly gaining popularity with embedded system developers because it provides low development costs and allows companies to quickly bring increased functionality to market. In addition to being a modern, powerful 32-bit platform, Windows provides a number of unique advantages not found in any other embedded operating system:

· The Windows well-known Win32® API, with its associated broad range of development tools and knowledge base, provides a wide base of development talent, tools, and expertise. · Windows enables the use of the widest range of third-party software compo- nents, from device drivers and system extensions to databases and applications of all types. · Windows also offers comprehensive networking support and connectivity to non-embedded and enterprise information systems. · For systems with advanced operator interfaces, there is also the familiar Windows Graphical (GUI).

A major benefit of the Windows operating system in embedded applica- tions is the ability to leverage existing off-the-shelf software components, either those in Windows itself or components from a wide range of third party developers. Embedded system designers who create applications that maximize the use of existing components, and minimize the number of software com- ponents that must be written, will realize the lowest development costs and fastest time to market.

2 Microsoft BackOffice White Paper WINDOWS NT The latest offering from Microsoft to enhance the functionality of embed- EMBEDDED ded systems is Windows NT® Embedded 4.0. This newest member of the Windows NT operating system product family is specifically offered for use in embedded products and devices. NT Em- bedded 4.0 is a fast and economical way to build rich functionality into embedded systems and applications. The product consists of several areas to assist developers with quick implementations and provide the ability to extend the functionality of the base operating system. Windows NT Embedded is comprised of three major areas.

1. Windows NT Source Files – these files are the foundation of your eventual embedded operating system. They include the features of Windows NT 4.0 including 5. This means your solution can include all the rich functionality of Windows NT, like multi-adapter support, networking capabilities, Win32 API’s, and more.

2. Target Designer – The Target Designer is a development tool for configuring and building Windows NT Embedded systems. It is the primary authoring tool in Microsoft Windows NT Embedded. Using Target Designer, you can create a Windows NT operating system, integrate custom components and applications, and build a bootable embedded system. The Target Designer displays a Windows NT configuration a component level in a standardized graphical man- ner. Each operating system feature area is easily represented by a graphical component in the Target Designer. When using the Target Designer, you can save time and work in a familiar Windows envi- ronment to create a customized Windows NT Embedded operating system. Figure 1 displays the graphical layout of the Target De- signer. Figure 1 – The Target Designer feature of Windows NT Embedded

3. The Component Designer – The Component Designer is used in conjunction with the Target Designer and it allows you to create custom components that can be added to the Target Designer con- figuration. Using Component Designer you can easily create a component definition file that further enhances and customizes the functionality of the resultant embedded system. In the component definition file, you can define the components that you want to list in the Target Designer. You can also configure capabilities and compo- nents by using information in your development system, such as your local registry or the Target Designer System Database. After you have created your component definition file, you can import it into the Target Designer. Once they are imported you can add the new components to your embedded configuration. Figure 2 displays the graphical layout of the Component Designer. Figure 2 – The Component Designer

These three product areas can be used to create a highly customized and functionally rich embedded operating system that can be booted from a variety of read-only boot media like -ROM, or flash ROM, and provides solid-state media support for diskless operation, plus remote management and additional error recovery features. RICH NATIVE FEATURES The customized embedded systems that result from the use of the tar- get designer and component designer are built on the rich foundation of features that are provided in Windows NT. These features include:

· High Performance Windows NT Embedded runs on high performance processors that pro- vide a required level of power for scalable and demanding embedded system solutions including those that require support symmetrical multi- processing.

· , or Not Windows NT Embedded provides a full set of GUI functionality and sup- ports high-resolution displays. When multiple windows are required by the application, or if the application will run on a variety of systems with different resolutions, Windows NT Embedded can provide multi-window and multiple mapping support to meet a variety of needs. Further, when the application requires resolutions above 800x600 or utilizes complex visualization capabilities such as 3D, or a third-party graphical package, Windows NT Embedded is the clear choice as the solution. There are many embedded solutions that do not require a GUI. For these environments, Windows NT Embedded supports operation without any display at all. This is known as a “headless” system and management capabilities are provided through a telnet or through a web-based management interface.

· Networking Support Windows NT Embedded provides a range of communication capabilities including TCP/IP, , IP Multicast, SSL, PPP, and PPTP as well as the ability to access files over the network. In addition to these serv- ices, Windows NT Embedded provides advanced networking capabilities such as Routing and Remote Access Services, DCOM, SNMP, multi- network support like Token Ring and Fast Ethernet, Web Server, and the capability to share files to other devices over the network.

· System Services Windows NT Embedded provides an extensive range of full-featured system services for high-end applications. This includes multi-level se- curity, remote management, event and error logging, full featured database, NTFS , power-fail recovery, transaction file han- dling and integration with BackOffice applications.

· Real-Time Support The Windows NT Embedded platform can deliver hard real-time capabil- ity, depending on the underlying capabilities of the hardware platform and the device drivers used in the system. High real-time performance is achieved using a modern Win32 full -based model with Win32 API calls. This is in contrast to other real-time operating systems (RTOS) which require low level programming and provide simplistic or a limited set of API calls.

· Programming Interfaces () In order to accommodate the broadest range of Windows developers, Windows NT Embedded supports the Win32 API set. This allows or- ganizations to employ their knowledge of Win32 API’s when building new systems and applications on the Windows NT Embedded platform.

· Availability of Third Party Software Windows NT supports a broad and rich set of third party software appli- cations that includes device drivers, utilities, databases, network protocols, as well as applications of all types. Embedded system devel- opers can shorten development and implementation time by incorporating pre-written applications into the overall solution.

· Broad Hardware Support When lower development costs are required, Windows NT provides the ability to use standard off-the-shelf hardware, based on Intel and other compatible processors. This approach enables rapid integration and testing of the target system with lower development costs and faster time-to-market.

· Sophisticated Development Environment Windows NT Embedded applications can be developed using ® development environment. The embedded application development environment is substantially facilitated when using the lat- est versions of the Microsoft Visual Tools that enable developers to build component-based solutions. Included in Visual Studio Enterprise Edition are the Visual Basic® development system, Visual C++® development system, Visual FoxPro® database development system, Visual Inter- Dev™ Web development system, Visual J++® development system for the Java language, Visual SourceSafe™ version control system, and BackOffice Server Developer Edition.

Once an embedded application and operating system are developed, you can use the self-hosting capability of Windows NT Embedded to test your and applications. This means that you can save time by not having to transfer the image to another machine for testing and debugging. SUMMARY Windows NT Embedded provides unprecedented benefits to embedded system developers, especially for those deploying applications with high software-content and high performance requirements. By combining the capabilities of the Windows NT operating system with design and oper- ating system creation tools like the Target Designer and Component Designer, Windows NT Embedded is destined to be an outstanding so- lution in the embedded systems marketplace. AVAILABILITY · RTM for the product is summer 1999 · Product availability is scheduled for late summer 1999

For more information For the latest information on Windows NT Server Embedded, check out our World Wide Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/embedded or the Windows NT Server Forum at the Microsoft Network (GO WORD: MSNTS). on the Microsoft Network (GO WORD: MSNTS).