Board Support Packages (BSPs)
Quick Link: Obtain a Board Support Package (BSP)
Windows Embedded CE provides expanded Board Support Packages (BSPs). A BSP is the software that implements the device drivers for a standard development board (SDB). A BSP contains source files, binary files, or both. You can use a BSP to rapidly bring up an operating system on an SDB and evaluate the features of the operating system. In Windows Embedded CE, a BSP is a collection of drivers and OEM Adaptation Layers (OALs), hardware abstraction layers (HALs), and BIOS files that are needed to allow an operating system to boot and make the peripherals function on a board. The customer can choose to configure the BSP in order to select desired peripherals, operating system features, file systems, and memory types by editing an included file or similar build. For example, an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) might want to create a BSP to support a specific hardware configuration. This option allows the OEM to specify a collection of components that, as a package, offer a default level of functionality for that hardware configuration.
Developing a Board Support Package
Learn how to create a Board Support Package (BSP) that covers the full range of supported CPUs in Windows Embedded CE and Windows CE .NET.
Windows Embedded Evaluation Hardware Kitting Program
Qualified board vendors can redistribute Windows Embedded evaluation toolkits, which include the operating system images on their platforms, at no cost.
Minimum Requirements for a Windows CE Board Support Package
This whitepaper describes the minimum hardware and software requirements necessary to produce a robust, configurable, and reusable Board Support Package (BSP) for product design. It describes the components of a BSP and how they work together to provide a solid foundation from which a wide variety of products can be built.