Building Powerful Platforms with Windows CE® [Paperback]

James Y. Wilson (Author), Aspi Havewala (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 020161636X | ISBN-13: 978-0201616361 | Publication Date: April 8, 2001

The true potential of Windows CE lies in its ability to provide a robust, low-cost platform for system integration on custom, non-PC hardware: handhelds, wireless devices, TV applications, terminals, smartcards, even household appliances. Building Powerful Platforms with Windows CE goes beyond Microsoft's documentation to deliver the real-world detail developers need to minimize risk, improve performance, and get to market fast. The authors begin with a detailed overview of Windows CE, its motivation, goals, architecture, design, and implementation. Next, they review the crucial, often-ignored project management issues associated with custom platform development. They introduce Microsoft's Windows CE Platform builder, demonstrate how to quickly create custom builds, and demystify Microsoft CE's confusing boot loader. The book includes a full chapter on building CE Hardware Abstraction Layers, and exceptional step-by-step guidance on designing, implementing, and debugging CE device drivers. Finally, the authors take you further inside the Windows CE build process, show how to extend Platform Builder; and explain how to use Microsoft's Device Driver Test Toolkit to streamline testing.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Building Powerful Platforms with Windows CE is a comprehensive, practical guide on the use of the Microsoft Windows CE<©> Platform Builder. Drawing on the authors' extensive industry experience, this book provides proven methods and real-world advice for the complete system integration of Windows CE on various platforms. It also examines how to adapt Windows CE to support a platform's unique features.

This book describes the Windows CE architecture in depth, explaining the rationale behind its design. It shows how to use the Platform Builder to quickly create a custom build of the Windows CE kernel and explores the complex and powerful Windows CE build process. Extensive information is provided on designing, implementing, and debugging Windows CE device drivers. A utility called the Driver Mapper is presented as an example device driver that doubles as a valuable tool for debugging device drivers on standard CE devices (e.g., H/PC<©>, H/PC Pro<©>, and Palm-sized PC<©> devices.

Other valuable features include the following:

• A project leader and manager's guide to the steps involved in completing a CE custom platform project
• Creating and debugging a CE boot loader
• Modifying the Platform Builder's OEM Adaptation Layer (OAL) sample source to work with a newly developed platform.
• An introduction to writing CE display drivers.
• Automated testing with the Windows CE Device Driver Test Toolkit (DDTK)
• A simplified, automated build process for creating ROM images

If you want to get Windows CE running on your platform, you will find this hands-on guide an indispensable resource for accelerating your progress and saving you much frustration!

020161636XB04062001

About the Author

James Y. Wilson is Director of Software Engineering at Cruise Technologies, Inc., and has over ten years experience in developing Windows NT, 9X drivers and embedded system software from conception to delivery. Aspi Havewala has extensive experience in developing and debugging device drivers for Windows NT and 9x in real-time applications. He is Section Manager/Lead Engineer developing Windows CE systems for Motorola's Land Mobile Products Sector. The authors developed the first CE-based wireless Windows terminal.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 595 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (April 8, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 020161636X
• ISBN-13: 978-0201616361
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #931,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too out of date to be of use., March 17, 2005

By 

Carl T. Dreher (Dallas, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Building Powerful Platforms with Windows CE® (Paperback)

This book was written in 2001 (as were most of the positive reviews for it here on Amazon.) It only covers up to Platform Builder and WinCE 3.0, which are now up to version 5. As a result, the how-to parts, as well as the references, are mostly useless. In fact, I'm not sure any of the sections are relevant or can be trusted since WinCE has changed so much.

Considering the price of the book, I feel cheated. The authors need to write a new version and THIS version should be pulled from circulation.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Need this book to understand Platform Builder 3.0 anc CE 3.0, May 1, 2001

By 

"cly2" (Andover, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Building Powerful Platforms with Windows CE® (Paperback)

You need this book if you are using Platform Builder 3.0 to build/create Windows CE 3.0 image on customs platform; this book is very up to date with regards to Platform Builder; I used "Windows CE From the Ground Up book before"; that book is good but it is outdated and refer to older version of Platform Builder. This book covers the material better than a course I took on Platform Builder; 2 things help in my project: 1. This book and Windows CE From The Ground Up book. 2. Intel StrongArm Dev. Kit for Windows CE; you can get a CDROM(free) from Intel with CE 3.0 drivers(in source forms).

By reading this book and poking into Intel stuffs you can go a long way in understanding Windows CE.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Overpriced for out of date information, July 27, 2005

By 

J. ROW "CCODER32" (Dallas TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Building Powerful Platforms with Windows CE® (Paperback)

Book is out of date and is exteremly overpriced. Anyone who attends a DevConference receives more information that is upto date than what was covered in the entire book. Waste of time and money.