Friday, May 30, 2003
Windows 98, In 16MB Of Flash?
Posted by Janak Parekh in "OFF-TOPIC" @ 05:45 PM
This is kind of cool, and has interesting implications. A company called Embedded Ware has developed a Windows 98 solution that fits in only 16MB of flash -- they call it, appropriately, TinyWin98.
From the Windows CE device perspective, this serves as interesting competition. TinyWin98 supposedly boasts very fast boot times and instant-on/instant-off. At the same time, you've got a full Windows 98 operating system in a small form factor, with minimal power drain. Windows 98 has relatively minimal system requirements, as well. Developers don't need to learn different APIs. On the other hand, Windows 98 doesn't have the stability of more modern operating systems, including CE and XP Embedded, and requires an x86 processor, which is still more power hungry than ARM solutions. In practice, I don't see this taking off in the mass market (a la Pocket PC), but it may be valuable for specific embedded applications.
From the Windows CE device perspective, this serves as interesting competition. TinyWin98 supposedly boasts very fast boot times and instant-on/instant-off. At the same time, you've got a full Windows 98 operating system in a small form factor, with minimal power drain. Windows 98 has relatively minimal system requirements, as well. Developers don't need to learn different APIs. On the other hand, Windows 98 doesn't have the stability of more modern operating systems, including CE and XP Embedded, and requires an x86 processor, which is still more power hungry than ARM solutions. In practice, I don't see this taking off in the mass market (a la Pocket PC), but it may be valuable for specific embedded applications.
