Windows CE 5.0 Kernel vs. Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Kernel

1/6/2010

The following table provides a high-level functional comparison of the Windows CE 5.0 kernel with the Windows Embedded CE 6.0 kernel.

Windows CE 5.0 kernel	Windows Embedded CE 6.0 kernel	Description
32 MB of virtual memory for each process.	2 GB of virtual memory for each process.	Addresses a well-known limitation of the OS, and improves comparison with other competing systems.
Limit of 32 processes.	Limit of more than 32,000 processes.	Addresses a well-known limitation of the OS, and improves comparison with other competing systems.
Non-optimal performance of system calls.	Optimized system call performance by moving Device Manager, the file system, and the Graphics, Windowing, and Event Subsystem (GWES) into the kernel.	Enhances overall system performance. At times, Windows CE 5.0 system calls were up to 40 percent slower than the equivalent system call on a Windows-based desktop platform.
Kernel updates tightly coupled to OEM adaptation layer (OAL) updates.	Decouples the kernel and the OAL into separate dynamically-linked libraries (DLLs).	Enables the kernel and the OAL to be updated separately by OEMs.
Handles from one process can be used in another process.	Each process has its own unique handle values.	Improves system security by preventing process from using handles that do not belong to them.
C run-time library becoming out-of-date.	Updated C run-time and compiler to the current Windows-based desktop version.	Improved security, performance, and general maintenance.

See Also