windows xpe vs windows CE - which should i use

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My company is starting an embedded PC-104 project and choice of OS is the
first decision. I'm looking for help on whether WinCE is appropriate, or I
should be using WinXPe. Here are some factors:

1. Our application has no normal display (we overlay text on an NTSC screen
using RS-232)

2. Boot time is critical. We would like to load in 30 seconds or less .
Someone told me that XPe supports a hibernate mode which could speed up
bootup, but CE doesn't (but maybe boots up faster so it doesn't need it).

3. We don't have a hard disk (system is movable and in harsh environments).
Thus, the OS will probably go on a compact flash card.

4. We will need USB for keyboard and a couple of serial ports, but otherwise
nothing special in the I/O department. No custom drivers.

5. The application executable will be relatively small, < 1M.

6. We are not doing anything real-time, just polling ports.

7. We would like to be able to print out some reports, so HP printer drivers
would be nice.

8. We would like to be able to do the development in C++. We have the
latest version of Visual Studio .net

Any feedback on what factors tip the scales in either direction would be
appreciated
 
Hi hanleyh1. Most likely the biggest deciding factor in determining whether
to use XPe or CE for your device will come down to which hardware platform
you intend to use. WinCE is designed with portable devices (such as
cellular phones, PDAs, etc) in mind - many of these devices run on non-x86
hardware (like the ARM-series processor). Windows XP Embedded, on the other
hand, runs on x86-based platforms and works basically the same way XP Pro
does - it uses the same binaries as Pro, and you can develop applications
for it just the same as with Pro (no extra development tools are needed).
Based on the description of your device, it sounds like XPe is what you're
looking for, but I would recommend researching both platforms thoroughly
before making your final decision.

I'll try to address each of your points here:

1) XPe is capable of booting in "headless" mode - meaning that there is no
VGA display device in the system. Sending data via RS-232 would be a
non-VGA function and therefore would not be affected by running in
"headless" mode.

2) Boot time for your device can vary depending on a number of factors,
including your boot medium, the size and complexity of your runtime image,
the device drivers you have installed, etc. The hibernation mode you refer
to is called HORM (Hibernate Once Resume Many), and it allows you to boot
from a hibernation image multiple times. It utilizes a special feature
called the Enhanced Write Filter (EWF), which can protect your boot device
from being written to.

3) Compact-Flash boot is supported. You should ensure that the system BIOS
in your target device fully supports booting from USB.

4) This sounds easily doable, as USB and serial ports are natively
supported.

5 and 6) You should make sure you know what sorts of technologies your
application depends on (for instance, does it require any components from
the .NET Framework, Internet Explorer, Media Player, etc?), as these
dependencies can affect what components your XPe runtime would require. It
sounds like your application would most likely not require any large-scale
components from the OS, so you can probably get away with a smaller, simpler
runtime. (That's the beauty of XPe - it allows you to put together an OS
image that does just what you need, without also installing a lot of extra
components you'll never use.)

7) The XPe Component Database comes with a large number of printer drivers.
It is also possible to create new components for drivers that aren't
included in the component database.

8) Again, so long as the components that your application requires to run
are present in the XPe runtime, you can develop and run virtually any
application for XPe that will run in XP Pro.

I hope this helps answer your questions. Please let me and the newsgroup
know if you have any more questions - we'll be happy to help. =)

--
Matt Kellner ([email protected])
STE, Windows Embedded Group

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
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