Window ^® CE Embedded Solution Now Offered by Advantech

Advantech is proud to formally announce its solution for Windows^® CE-based embedded PC systems. We are now able to help customers use the Windows^® CE operating system on our Biscuit, POS and Slot PCs. In conjunction with this announcement, Advantech is also offering a limited time promotional sale. From now until the end of December 1998, for only US$499, Advantech will be selling a compact chassis and palm-size Biscuit PC with an SSD chip onboard which will be loaded with an optimized version of Windows^® CE. This system level solution can significantly reduce systems integration time, and can expand the programming options available to the system integrator. Besides this system-level solution, Advantech is able to offer solutions for some of our selected CPU cards and boards as well.

Benefits of Windows^® CE

One of the most important benefits of using Windows^® CE is the ability to extend the Windows-family platform to a device that is embedded, meaning that one can write or use applications for the device, yet not be tied to that device, as system integrators were in the past with traditional embedded devices which used proprietary closed architecture. Future modification is also much easier. This extra power is gained without having to sacrifice too much precious memory. Our customized version of Windows^® CE only needs about 6 MB of space, often eliminating the need for an HDD. One drawback, though, is that it is very hardware dependent, but this is a problem which Advantech has already taken care of for its customers in its system-level solution.

Advantech's System-level Solution

Advantech's special limited-time US$499 system solution includes the MBPC-200 MicroBox Chassis (190 x 114 x 39.5 mm). The palm-size Biscuit PC can be either the PCM-4823 (with Ethernet) or PCM-4825 (with audio). Both boards come with VGA/LCD interface and a 12 MB DOC 2000 Flash disk on board. The DOC 2000 comes pre-loaded with a hardware optimized version of Windows^® CE.

Advantech's Board-level Solutions

Advantech also has made available evaluation versions of 12 MB DOC 2000 Flash modules loaded with Windows^® CE for its boards and cards. Complementary products currently supported are the PCM-4823/4825, PCM-4862/5862/5862E, POS-460/560, and the PCA-6145B. If the customer is interested in actually using Windows^® CE after the evaluation period, Advantech can help the customer with Microsoft licencing procedures.