Fourth day

Wow! Last day!

Mathias and I started the day with "Using DirectDraw in Windows Mobile applications". The lecture was about accelerated graphics on embedded devices, with Microsofts technology DirectDraw in mind. However during the lecture both Mathias and I got the impression that OpenGL seems to be the better choice both when it comes to features and hardware support. It was clear however that the interfaces of today will need hardware acceleration in order to evolve.

I then attended a session about replacing the Windows CE shell with your own. How to do it, what you need to think about, and what a shell should typically handle.

After lunch we went through the MS partner area and talked to various companies.

The afternoon started with "Beyond Windows XP Embedded" and was all about Windows with codename "Quebec". This will be released in 2010 timeframe, and will be based on Vista (or later). This adds a number of features to the embedded world such as Bitlocker (for disk/flash encryption), Readyboost, SuperFetch etc. Most of the techniques found in Windows Vista will be present. They demoed a Asus EEE (cheapest variant) running Quebec. It was kind of cool to see WinVista running on a small EEE which only has 2GB flash disk, 512 MB RAM and is powered by a 900 MHz Celeron. I borrowed the EEE after the lecture and tried it out. Really cool. It ran faster than my 2GHz DualCore with 2GB RAM.

We finished the day with a lecture on using Windows in robotics. The lecture went through the typical real time demands such a system has, and how Windows Embedded CE helps in these areas. The lecture ended with a demo of a video streaming robot running WinCE.

Wow, TechEd has ended and it has been one intense week, and we are kind of exhausted. So now we have had dinner with a proper sized steak and a few beers! ;o) Time for bed!

Over and out from TechEd!