Issue 117April 2000
Under the Covers
Part 1: Get Embed(ded) with Windowa NT 4.0

WINDOWS NT WHAT?

Many of you are probably wondering why all the hoopla over another embedded operating system entry—especially an OS that’s been around for a while. What’s so great about Windows NT Embedded 4.0?

I want all of you who are Microsoft Certified (MCP, MCSE, etc.) to raise your hands—OK, good. Now, all of you who write Windows desktop applications raise your hands—OK. Did you know that all of you who raised your hands for either question are potentially capable of writing embedded Windows NT Embedded 4.0 applications? Well, congratulations on your newfound talent.

Windows NT Embedded 4.0 is the latest Windows NT 4.0 technology utilizing Service Pack 5. Don’t confuse this with the recently announced Windows 2000. Windows NT Embedded 4.0 is designed to allow the embedded developer to leverage his or her existing Windows programming knowledge and produce better products faster. Windows NT Embedded 4.0 is designed to allow developers to use the vast off-the-shelf Windows resources to affect embedded designs.

An authoring tool set consisting of Target Designer and Component Designer allows embedded developers to configure and generate a specific Windows NT Embedded 4.0 operating system. Target Designer is used to configure a device-specific Windows NT Embedded 4.0 operating system using Windows NT binaries embedded-enabling technologies and an application.

As an option, Component Designer can be used to create reusable components that were not included in the Windows NT Embedded 4.0 product. These components usually will be device drivers or special applications. New components then can be imported into Target Designer where they are incorporated into the device operating system. Once an operating system has been configured using Target Designer, file and application dependencies are checked, and a bootable image is produced that can then be loaded onto the embedded device and executed.