XAML for Windows Embedded Hardware Recommendations (Compact 2013)

  • Article

3/28/2014

To use XAML for Windows Embedded on a Windows Embedded Compact powered device, we recommend that the device hardware meets certain guidelines.

Important

Hardware performance results may vary depending on the combination of microprocessor type, GPU type, memory, and the specific graphics implementation of a XAML for Windows Embedded UI.

Levels of UI Complexity

The following table defines three levels of UI complexity.

Complexity

User experience

Designer experience

Premium

Premium shell experience

Dense UI

Rich animations

Fluid GUI

Multilayered UI

Flexible graphic design

High screen resolution (greater than 800 × 600 pixels)

Animations of large size (greater than 25 percent of the screen)

Complex animations with high frame rate (20 fps or greater)

Heavy use of vectors and paths

High

Interactive shell experience

Instant visual state changes

Simple animations

Limited graphic design

Limited screen resolution

Animations of moderate size (less than 20 percent of the screen)

Simple animations with medium frame rate (15 fps or greater)

Static icons

All graphic effects offloaded to GPU

Standard

Basic shell experience

Limited screen complexity

No animations

Static GUI

Minimal graphic design

Very limited screen resolution

No animation (effects only)

Uses pre-effected bitmaps instead of paths

Minimum Hardware Recommendations for Levels of UI Complexity

The following table shows the minimum hardware recommendations for each level of UI complexity.

Note

If included, the GPU must support either DirectDraw or OpenGL 2.0 API.

Complexity

Minimum Hardware CPU and GPU

Minimum Hardware Memory Available

Premium

Without GPU, not recommended

With GPU, dual 1 GHz processor

512 MB or more

High

Without GPU, dual 1 GHz processor

With GPU, 1 GHz processor

256 MB or more

Standard

Without GPU, 550 MHz processor

With GPU, 550 MHz processor

128 MB or more

GPU Recommendations for DirectDraw

For a GPU that supports DirectDraw, additional hardware recommendations are as follows:

Component

Recommendation

GPU memory

20 MB of video memory (or 20 MB of system memory that the GPU can operate directly).

GPU support for blits and color fills
  • Supports per-pixel and constant alpha blits.
  • Supports pre-multiplied alpha blits.
  • Supports hardware-accelerated alpha blits.
  • Supports hardware-accelerated SRCCOPY blits between system memory and video memory.
  • Supports hardware-accelerated SRCCOPY stretch blits between system memory and video memory.
  • Supports hardware-accelerated color fills.

GPU Recommendations for OpenGL API

For a GPU that supports OpenGL API, additional recommendations are as follows:

Component

Recommendation

Device driver for OpenGL API
  • Supports the OpenGL Embedded Systems (ES) 2.0 specification.
  • Passes the OpenGL API conformance tests from Silicon Graphics, Inc. For more information, see the Khronos Group website.
  • Supports a vertex shader and a fragment shader that work with the GPU type and are linked to Shaders.dll. Or, supports run-time compilation of the default shaders included in Windows Embedded Compact.

See Also

Other Resources

XAML for Windows Embedded