What’s new with Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Shared Source
With Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Microsoft takes another leap forward in making source available. The amount of source code available increased from 2.5M lines with CE 5.0 to 3.9M lines with Windows Embedded CE 6.0. This represents a 56% increase. Developers can access even more source code than they did before.
This large amount of source code can now be easily discovered by navigating the Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Shared Source Diagrams. Starting from a high level representation of the Operating System, you can click your way down to the actual source files to know whether they are shared or not.
Download Diagrams in Visio (requires
Visio Viewer).
Navigate Diagrams in your Web Browser.
Some of the key components that are shared in the 3.9M lines of code available include:
The Kernel
100% of the Windows Embedded CE Kernel is available in Shared Source. This is the heart of the Operating System that manages processes, memory and devices and that abstracts the low-level hardware. The kernel has been redesigned with Windows Embedded CE 6.0 it still supports real time and can now support 32,000 processes with 2GB of addressable memory. With 100% of the Kernel available in Shared Source, developers can use the best of those core functionalities to build reliable and real time devices. |
The Device Driver Manager.
This component loads drivers and their interfaces. Being able to access this component in source is an essential debugging tool when (1) building a new Windows Embedded CE platform (which loads many device drivers) and (2) during driver development. |
The File System.
The file system manages how Windows Embedded CE 6.0 reads and writes files. Source access can help developers improve the file system to meet the hardware requirements and the performance needs of their devices.
In addition to those specific components, many device drivers are available in Source. Having access to device drivers in Source is critical as developers bring new hardware up on the Windows Embedded CE 6.0 platform. They can use and slightly modify the existing code to meet new hardware requirements. They can also use that code to develop a driver for a new piece of hardware. This is much faster to do than starting to write a driver from scratch.
Those examples are only a small part of all the Shared Source code available with Windows Embedded CE 6.0. You can discover all of the Shared Source code available in Windows Embedded CE 6.0 by navigating the Shared Source Diagrams below. |
In addition to the previous examples of Shared Source components, there is much more Source Code available with Windows Embedded CE 6.0. In order to show them all, we’ve developed a new tool: the Shared Source Diagrams. Those diagrams help navigate and discover all the Source Code available with Windows Embedded CE 6.0. Navigate Diagrams in your Web Browser. Download Diagrams in Visio.
The diagrams are color coded to represent the Shared Source status of files and components: - Light blue represents the Sample/Public Shared Source code that ships with Windows Embedded CE 6.0 and that is governed by the Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Toolkit License. This Shared Source code is automatically installed with the Windows Embedded CE 6.0 toolkit.
- Medium blue represents the Private Shared Source code that ships with Windows Embedded CE 6.0 and that is governed by the Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Shared Source License. This Shared Source code can be installed from the advanced installation menu of the Windows Embedded CE 6.0 toolkit.
- Dark blue represents the Premium Shared Source code that is available to eligible Windows Embedded customers and partners. This Shared Source code can be accessed via Code Center Premium, Microsoft’s secured web-based repository for source access.
- Orange represents Windows Embedded CE Source code that is not available in Shared Source.
- White represents Windows Embedded CE components that do not contain source code or that have an unknown Shared Source Status.
The color of a component will be the color of the largest common denominator in the order described above. For example if a component has 25% light blue, 35% medium blue and 40% orange, the color of the component will be medium blue because 60% of the component is medium blue or better.
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Microsoft Windows Embedded welcomes you requests and suggestions. Don't hesitate to give us your feedback regarding access to Windows CE Source code.
For more information about Microsoft Shared Source Licensing, visit the Shared Source Licensing Programs Web site. |