Microsoft Announces Porting Partner Program To Expand Windows CE Microprocessor Support

REDMOND, Wash, Jan. 10, 2000 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the introduction of a Windows® CE Porting Partner Program to increase the number of microprocessors supported by the Microsoft® Windows CE operating system. Companies signing on as official Microsoft Porting Partners will be authorized to port the Windows CE operating system and tools (Microsoft Windows CE Platform Builder, Microsoft Windows CE Toolkit for Visual C++® , Microsoft Windows CE Toolkit for Visual Basic® ) to new semiconductor processor architectures.

The growth of the use of Windows CE in the embedded and intelligent device industries has led to increased semiconductor vendor demand for Windows CE support for their new and existing processor architectures. The Porting Partner Program was created in response to this demand. The program is designed to enable Windows CE to support a larger number of microprocessors, and provide OEMs and developers with increased design flexibility and reduced time-to-market for embedded solutions based on Windows CE.

Microsoft has named BSQUARE Corp. (Nasdaq
“BSQR”
), a provider of software products and services for the development and use of intelligent computing devices, as the first participant to provide software engineering services under this program. Microsoft will work closely with BSQUARE and future Porting Partners to ensure high-quality porting to new processor architectures.

“The Windows CE operating system currently supports a dozen different microprocessor architectures,”
said Randy Kath, director of the Windows CE Tools Group.
“As demand for Windows CE in the embedded space increases, we recognized the need to support even more microprocessors via this program. BSQUARE was a natural first choice for the program because of its years of expertise, excellent project management skills, and history of successful, on-time delivery, which ensures semiconductor vendors a fast, successful porting project.”

“We are excited to help Microsoft open the Windows CE operating system to more microprocessor architectures and fuel additional Windows CE-based development,”
said Don Whitt, general manager of BSQUARE’s Tools Group.
“While we will continue providing excellent customer service to our existing microprocessor architecture customers, we look forward to assisting additional manufacturers that have expressed great interest in Windows CE, and we have plans in place that enable us to rapidly scale our resources to accommodate the additional customer demand that we anticipate.”

The Porting Partners Program also provides flexibility for microprocessor manufacturers to select complete platform ports or specialized ports on an individual project basis, an opportunity that has not been available until now. The specialized ports can include new operating system features or subsets of the entire Windows CE platform subject to Microsoft approval. OEMs will benefit from the increased flexibility offered by both the new processor architectures and the opportunity to do custom feature work for individual projects.

New Windows CE Development Tools to Enable Faster, Easier Windows CE-based Device Development

The upcoming versions of Windows CE-based tools will complement the Porting Partner Program by introducing a new
“CPU plug-ins”
model to enable support for new processor architectures. CPU plug-ins contain all the microprocessor-specific components needed to support the Windows CE operating system and tool chain, and can be distributed at any time. This innovative design will enable new microprocessor architectures to be added as soon as they are ready, rather than having to wait for the next operating system and development environment upgrade.

More information about the Porting Partner Program can be obtained by sending e-mail to [email protected]. Semiconductor vendors interested in more information about having their microprocessors ported to Windows CE should contact Microsoft ( [email protected] ) or BSQUARE ( [email protected] ) today. A list of processor architectures currently supported by Windows CE can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsce/embedded/programs/semi.asp

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.

Microsoft, Windows, Visual C++ and Visual Basic are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

For more information, press only:

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.

Related Posts