>>Don't take Windows CE too lightly.
>>I think it is a threat. See included Microsoft press release.
>>Windows CE is Microsoft's new compact and portable operating system built from the ground up to be appropriate for a broad range of business and consumer devices that can communicate with each other, share information with Windows-based PCs, and connect to the Internet. Categories of devices that Windows CE is suitable for include small form-factor mobile computing devices such as the new handheld PCs, "wallet" PCs, wireless communications devices
such as digital information pagers and cellular smart phones, next-generation entertainment and multimedia consoles including DVD players, and purpose-built Internet access devices such as Internet TVs, digital set top boxes and Internet "Web phones."
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Let's put things in perspective. First, I like Unix, but years ago I realized that the Windows NT freight train is coming down the server track, and now even the workstation track, with the inevitable result that Unix will be around for a long time, but not with the growth that is needed to maintain positive momentum. That is why I like Sun, but don't own it.
But I don't think I am trying, in vain, to defend Unix (VxWorks) against the barbaric hordes at the gate. I think Windows CE will be targeted, and will succeed, with devices that require quasi-Windows user-interfaces. This includes handheld PCs, "wallet" PCs and many wireless communications devices. I don't think it includes DVD players, Internet TVs and digital set-top boxes, or cable modems. I truly do not think it includes most non-internet, embedded appliances, such as fuel injector computers, electric transmission computers, Pathfinder to Mars, etc.
Why not? Because of the following reasons:
1. Today VxWorks has available a mature set of libraries needed for most embedded systems applications, e.g. ATM communications. While anything that MSFT brings to market can mature quickly, this is a serious barrier to immediate entry.
2. VxWorks is real-time. Windows CE is not. Period. Period. Period. Dont' get confused. Real-time is not the same as fast. Real-time means that the OS guarantees response times for high priority processes. This implies a complicated set of OS mechanisms that don't even exist with ordinary operating systems.
3. Is Windows CE really modular? What happens if you don't want the windows interface? Is there a real OS underneath?
4. What development tools are available for Windows CE? I know they will be developed rapidly if all the ISDs see Windows CE as the OS of choice, but there is a huge amount of tools needed to meet the needs of the embedded systems community. For example, what tools exist that facilitate debugging program timing issues? Telecomm and datacom, and multimedia in general, often get inundated in timing questions. With all the years of development in the MS-DOS, Windows 3, Windows 95 and Windows NT worlds, there is nothing even remotely close to the tools that are used routinely to assess timing issues in the embedded systems world. Both WIND and INTS have a plethora of tools, especially when including 3rd party tools, for this king of deep debugging. DVD players, Internet TVS and digital set-top boxes all potentially touch on serious timing issues. Notice that WIND's design wins lately in these areas involve its capability to utilize ATM, for example.
5. The end-user in embedded systems is not the retail customer. The end-user is a design engineer, embedded systems programmer. Today, one-half of all embedded systems OS's are built by these guys. They eat machine code for breakfast. C++ is a turn-off; they consider C a high-level language. Not only will Windows CE not impress them, it would be rejected just because it sounds wimpish. Remember all those complicated real-time mechanisms alluded to above? These are the guys that know what they are and how to use them.
Having said all this, I agree that Window CE will be greatly utilized as a handheld PC. I noticed that someone on the MWARs thread suggested that maybe Motorola's recent concession to use Windows CE in wireless devices was contributing to the weakness in the stock. Maybe. All along I questioned the risk associated with MWAR's wireless strategy. I question Geoworks in relation to Windows CE. To repeat, I question Unix ability to stave off Windows NT.
However, what I do not question, is the ability of the established Embedded Systems companies to grow in the face of Microsoft. The Embedded Systems OS is different philosophically than MSFT's OS's. Microsoft is firmly ensconced in the PC paradigm; WIND and other embedded systems vendors are aiming squarely for the next wave of computing - ubiquitous computing.
Here is an interesting set of facts. I read recently that MSFT provides over 90% of the world's commercial operating systems - a monopoly by any standard. But how many people realize that by the turn of the century, a mere four years hence, MSFT will supply only about 10% of the world's commercial operating systems. By then, WIND alone, will provide many more OS's than MSFT - assuming MSFT dosn't wise up and buy WIND between now and the turn of the Century.
Allen, |
