Embedded OS Beta Version Boasts New Development Tools

March 5, 2001

The wraps are off Microsoft's Windows 2000 embedded operating system (OS). Whistler Embedded's modular design lets developers use Windows 2000's advanced features in embedded designs that now rely on Embedded Windows NT. This beta release's limited distribution will be followed by a wider distribution of beta 2. The beta 1 distribution followed the Whistler desktop and server beta release by only 48 days.

Whistler Embedded targets Mi-crosoft .NET client devices that work with .NET server-based applications. These include Windows-based terminals, advanced set-top boxes, and retail point-of-sale kiosks. The current Windows 2000 server platforms also support .NET. Whistler's new development and authoring tools consist of the Target Designer, Component Designer, Database Manager, and Target Analyzer.

Embedded developers can use the Target Designer to select components from a database of Windows components. These are added to the standard run-time configuration for a customized OS image. The Component Designer allows creation of new OS components that the Target Designer manages.

The Database Manager handles standard and custom OS components in a single "Whistler Embedded" repository. It can manage multiple platforms and repositories. And, the Target Analyzer processes custom configurations to determine dependencies and notify designers of critical device drivers.

For more, go to www.microsoft.com.

About the Author

William G. Wong | Senior Content Director - Electronic Design and Microwaves & RF

I am Editor of Electronic Design focusing on embedded, software, and systems. As Senior Content Director, I also manage Microwaves & RF and I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, programmers, developers and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

You can send press releases for new products for possible coverage on the website. I am also interested in receiving contributed articles for publishing on our website. Use our template and send to me along with a signed release form.

Check out my blog, AltEmbedded on Electronic Design, as well as his latest articles on this site that are listed below.

You can visit my social media via these links:

I earned a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters in Computer Science from Rutgers University. I still do a bit of programming using everything from C and C++ to Rust and Ada/SPARK. I do a bit of PHP programming for Drupal websites. I have posted a few Drupal modules.

I still get a hand on software and electronic hardware. Some of this can be found on our Kit Close-Up video series. You can also see me on many of our TechXchange Talk videos. I am interested in a range of projects from robotics to artificial intelligence.