Any programmer of both electronics and Windows would love to be able to program a mini version
of Windows on a small “Windows Stamp” board of about 4" x 4" (PC 104 format, x86 processor).
The Windows would be [Windows Embedded and is as small as 40MB.
A [PC “System-on-a-Chip” is also available perhaps for a smaller yet W98 platform.
Would SparksFun offer an inexpensive “Windows Stamp” board to provide the ultimate power of
Windows to the electronics scale of projects?
Some exist but none affordable.
Norm](http://www.tri-m.com/products/zf/zfx86.html)](http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/products/westandard/default.mspx)
Right. That’s what the world needs. Windows 7 Embedded, running your car, your appliances, your home theater, your smart phone.
Reboot hourly.
Some applications require a bit more power.
Match the tool to the job.
Norm
By power what do you mean? There are lots of embedded linux boards - with full gui capabilities / etc.
–David Carne
I was thinking more of using far more common windows programming skill set in my case Delphi.
A road map for Delphi just out at
http://edn.embarcadero.com/article/39934
lists ARM as a possibility in a couple of years.
Norm
No offense - but the Delphi skill set is quite uncommon; certainly less common than, say, C [which is universal]. As far as I remember from my delphi programming days [college] it doesn’t have any builtin features for accessing hardware.
Since Delphi is just Object pascal with a form editor tacked on, why not just use the beagleboard, but write your software in pascal?
–David Carne
Basically I would like to find a board which will run windows as windows programming (includes C, Delphi etc.)
is probably the most common and most powerful.
Less of yet another language, yet another IDE/compiler.
Norm
normnet-
Have you seen the RoBoard (RM100 - http://www.roboard.com/RB-100.htm)?
You can load pretty much any OS on it. Then work directly with the GPIO in C or any high level language.
normnet:
Basically I would like to find a board which will run windows as windows programming (includes C, Delphi etc.)
is probably the most common and most powerful.
Less of yet another language, yet another IDE/compiler.
Norm
Apologies. My original response was not constructive.
But your statement here is not true.
kankatee:
normnet-
Have you seen the RoBoard (RM100 - http://www.roboard.com/RB-100.htm)?
You can load pretty much any OS on it. Then work directly with the GPIO in C or any high level language.
Interesting but a bit pricey.
Someday their should be an affordable basic mini x86 motherboard.
Norm
you can use delphi in a linux embedded environment plus i strongly do not believe that windows was made to be embedded.
take a look at this link http://delphi.about.com/od/kylix/Kylix_ … _Linux.htm
Maybe one of PCEngine’s Geode based ALIX boards? They can be found for ~US$130.
http://www.pcengines.ch/alix.htm
I use them as firewall/routers.
xevilstar:
you can use delphi in a linux embedded environment plus i strongly do not believe that windows was made to be embedded.
There are many, many applications that use Windows Embedded, including in industrial, scientific & military applications. Linux is NOT automatically "better" in all cases...
facts are that windows natively, for the sake of a supposed user-friendliness, starts up everything and uses everything it has regardless if you need it or not at that very moment, linux natively uses just what you need at that very moment sparing resources… in an embedded environment resources are vital… or is it just my personal opinion ?
xevilstar:
facts are that windows natively, for the sake of a supposed user-friendliness, starts up everything and uses everything it has regardless if you need it or not at that very moment
Even with normal versions of Windows, you can disable much of what you don't need from startup. Windows Embedded can run even leaner. I'm sure Linux is a better choice in many cases, but it would be rather one-eyed to think it was always the right choice.
The Delphi road map includes Linux.
Would this be for PC’s only or is Linux Linux and would run on embedded as well?
Norm
linux is linux wherever that means that if it runs on linux on pc will run on embedded platforms as well.