Architecture (Compact 2013)
3/26/2014
Windows Embedded Compact 2013 is a real-time multithreaded 32-bit operating system (OS) that supports preemptive multitasking and runs on multiple processor architectures. The OS operates in a flat 4-GB address space where the system kernel uses the upper 2 GB and the active user process uses the lower 2 GB. Windows Embedded Compact supports up to 32,000 user processes, with the actual number of processes limited by system resources. The Windows Embedded Compact kernel interacts with hardware through the OAL, which performs hardware initialization and abstracts platform hardware details from the kernel implementation.
The Windows Embedded Compact OS uses device drivers to communicate with platform hardware peripherals, and the OS provides several different types of driver implementation architectures. To manage power consumption, Windows Embedded Compact includes a power management subsystem that you can customize for your hardware platform. Because power management affects the kernel, applications, and device drivers, these components include support for the Windows Embedded Compact power management architecture so that their behavior is coordinated during power state transitions. Like the device driver subsystem, the Windows Embedded Compact Bluetooth stack uses a layered architecture, and each layer is a collection of components that include protocol implementations, APIs, applications, and services.