XAML for Windows Embedded Hardware Recommendations (Compact 2013)

3/28/2014

To use XAML for Windows Embedded on a Windows Embedded Compact powered device, we recommend that the device hardware meets certain guidelines.

Important

Hardware performance results may vary depending on the combination of microprocessor type, GPU type, memory, and the specific graphics implementation of a XAML for Windows Embedded UI.

Levels of UI Complexity

The following table defines three levels of UI complexity.

Complexity	User experience	Designer experience
Premium	Premium shell experience Dense UI Rich animations Fluid GUI Multilayered UI	Flexible graphic design High screen resolution (greater than 800 × 600 pixels) Animations of large size (greater than 25 percent of the screen) Complex animations with high frame rate (20 fps or greater) Heavy use of vectors and paths
High	Interactive shell experience Instant visual state changes Simple animations	Limited graphic design Limited screen resolution Animations of moderate size (less than 20 percent of the screen) Simple animations with medium frame rate (15 fps or greater) Static icons All graphic effects offloaded to GPU
Standard	Basic shell experience Limited screen complexity No animations Static GUI	Minimal graphic design Very limited screen resolution No animation (effects only) Uses pre-effected bitmaps instead of paths

Minimum Hardware Recommendations for Levels of UI Complexity

The following table shows the minimum hardware recommendations for each level of UI complexity.

Note

If included, the GPU must support either DirectDraw or OpenGL 2.0 API.

Complexity	Minimum Hardware CPU and GPU	Minimum Hardware Memory Available
Premium	Without GPU, not recommended With GPU, dual 1 GHz processor	512 MB or more
High	Without GPU, dual 1 GHz processor With GPU, 1 GHz processor	256 MB or more
Standard	Without GPU, 550 MHz processor With GPU, 550 MHz processor	128 MB or more

GPU Recommendations for DirectDraw

For a GPU that supports DirectDraw, additional hardware recommendations are as follows:

Component	Recommendation
GPU memory	20 MB of video memory (or 20 MB of system memory that the GPU can operate directly).
GPU support for blits and color fills	Supports per-pixel and constant alpha blits. Supports pre-multiplied alpha blits. Supports hardware-accelerated alpha blits. Supports hardware-accelerated SRCCOPY blits between system memory and video memory. Supports hardware-accelerated SRCCOPY stretch blits between system memory and video memory. Supports hardware-accelerated color fills.

GPU Recommendations for OpenGL API

For a GPU that supports OpenGL API, additional recommendations are as follows:

Component	Recommendation
Device driver for OpenGL API	Supports the OpenGL Embedded Systems (ES) 2.0 specification. Passes the OpenGL API conformance tests from Silicon Graphics, Inc. For more information, see the Khronos Group website. Supports a vertex shader and a fragment shader that work with the GPU type and are linked to Shaders.dll. Or, supports run-time compilation of the default shaders included in Windows Embedded Compact.

See Also

Other Resources

XAML for Windows Embedded