Please find images, BSP, Platform Builder workspace, and other downloads and information about Toradex Windows Embedded Compact Software for iMX7 in this article.
Step by Step guide how to get Windows Embedded Compact onto your i.MX7 Colibri
| Windows Embedded Compact 7.0 (CE7) |
Windows Embedded Compact 2013 (CE8) |
|
|---|---|---|
| OS Image | ||
| BSP | ||
| Workspace |
The WEC iMX7 BSP Release Details contain the roadmap for new features and bug-fixes and include also known issues and limitations of released BSP versions.
The Toradex Board Support Package for Windows CE is one of the most advanced BSPs available on the market. Aside from the standard Windows CE functionality, it includes a large number of additional drivers as well as optimized versions of standard drivers.
The Toradex bootloader and BSP were designed to be easily configurable. This relieves the application developer from the burden of creating a customized operating system image. Instead, the necessary adaptations can be made by registry settings and adding files to the on-board flash file system.
Toradex even provides the workspace for Microsoft's Platform Builder, which enables the customer to build exactly the same Windows CE image as the standard Colibri image.
The binary for our Colibri modules are available for download for free.
Before building your own Windows CE image, check if it is really required as our standard is very flexible and you can add a lot of drivers, components and programs without building your own image.
We do not provide the source code of our BSP. If you think you need source code, please contact us.
Toradex provides the Microsoft Platform Builder workspaces (solution files) which can be used to build an identical image as the pre-built binary images provided by Toradex. However, we recommend to use the binary images and configure them to your needs rather than building your own image. There are many advantages:
In order to build a Windows CE image you need to download the workspace files and the BSP files which are located with the respective product BSP in our Software Section.
We have invested a large amount of time and resource in developing our Windows CE operating system, and as a result, are able to provide you with an extremely robust, highly optimised and easily configurable operating system with a rich set of functional enhancements.
To unlock the full potential of any hardware platform, it is important that the software is able to make use of the hardware resources in an efficient, effective way. We spend many thousands of man hours improving existing software implementations from device vendors and software providers to take advantage of features that may not have been fully utilised, or are simply not optimal. The result of such investment is that we really do squeeze every last drop of performance out of our systems, allowing you to fully leverage the capabilities of our computer modules.
Testament to this is our Windows Embedded Compact operating system for the Colibri T20 module which is able to cold boot (i.e. boot from power being applied) in 480 milliseconds. We have optimised many areas of operating system startup process, such as cache performance and concurrent driver loading, to achieve this very fast boot time, which today is unrivalled by any similar system.
While our computer modules may be highly standardised, the applications they are deployed in are anything but. Every application has its own specific requirements and to be able to provide a standardised solution that is capable of meeting the requirements of a diverse range of applications requires a large amount of flexibility and configurabilty.
Through the use of the Windows registry, it is possible to configure the behaviour of our customised Windows CE operating system in almost every area you can think of. A short list of examples of things you can do with our registry configuration parameters are as follows:
Our approach means you don't have to mess about creating your own operating system image - you can simply use ours and tailor it to your own needs.
Our Bootloader also provides provisions for system customisation. Examples include splash screen support on system startup and the ability to configure various system parameters such as MAC address and serial number.
We have a very large customer base that have deployed our solutions into a hugely diverse range of applications with widely varying operating environments and conditions. From rally car instrumentation to tsunami warning systems, our operating system has been tried and tested and is one of the most mature available. Our systems run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, without interruption.
The added advantage of so many customers using our standardised operating system is that when fixes or enhancements are made, everyone benefits from them. Our development engineers support our customers directly and so whenever there is an issue that needs addressing or an enhancement to make, we make sure that it is addressed and deployed promptly.
We have extended the standard feature set provided by Windows CE to include additional functionality to help support your needs. For a list of such features, please see the section Special Features and Enhancements.
Our standardised Windows CE operating system includes support for all of the standard features that are provided by the Colibri module. On top os this, we can also provide driver features for non-standard features which may be required, such as Bluetooth stacks and matrix keypads. The below table describes those driver which are included as standard and those which are available for purchase with support hours.
| Driver | Description | Cost (Support Hours) |
| FFUART | FFUART supports the full RS232 specification with all 9 signals. | - |
| BTUART | BTUART only supports RXD/TXD/CTS/RTS | - |
| IRDA | Handles the PXA270's IrDA port | - |
| Ethernet | 10/100Mbit driver for Davicom DM9000 | - |
| USB Host | 2 Ports supporting mass storage devices (USB-stick, hard disc, CD-ROM…) and other devices as keyboard, mouse, USB hub… | - |
| USB Client | Can be used as ActiveSync connection, mass storage or RNDIS | - |
| Audio | 16Bit stereo output (up to 48kHz), mic input, line-In | - |
| Touch Screen | All 4-wire resistive screens supported | - |
| Display | All types of displays supported. Easy configuration in registry | - |
| PS2 Mouse | Supports any standard PS/2 mouse | - |
| PS2 Keyboard | Supports any standard PS/2 keyboard | - |
| Compact Flash | Memory cards, Wireless LAN, modem, Bluetooth, serial card, GPS, GSM, … | - |
| SD/MMC | Memory cards, Wireless LAN, Bluetooth, GSM, GPS … | - |
| Wireless LAN | Support for different Wifi adapters | - |
| Flash File System | Standard FAT as well as TFAT (transaction safe FAT) are supported | - |
| SATA | Support for SATA interface (driver disabled in the registry by default) | - |
The following drivers are also available and can be purchased at Toradex. For more details on the Support Hours, please click here. |
||
| Bluetooth Support | Windows CE Bluetooth Stack and HCI Transport Driver for USB Devices | - |
| Colibri Plugin for TCPMP | Use the open source media player TCPMP (The Core Pocket Multimedia Player) on all Colibri modules |
8 |
| Matrix Keypad (PXAxxx only) | Fully customizable through registry (MK_IN, MK_OUT and scan code to virtual key) | - |
| External UART | Schematic and driver for external 16550-compatible UART controller attached to the system bus (up to 8 ports) | 8 |
| External Ethernet controller | Driver for the Asix AX88772B controller attached to USB. Reference schematics and further information about the controller are available on the Asix website | - |
| External Ethernet controller | Schematic and driver for Colibri PXA and Colibri T20 modules for an additional Ethernet controller attached to the system bus (Asix AX88796B). | 4 |
| Soft Key Touch Driver Extension | Support for "Soft Keys" on touch areas larger than the display size | - |
| SPI SD Card Driver | Add an additional SD memory card to one of the Colibri's SPI ports | 10 |
Our Windows CE operating system supports a variety of services out of the box.
| Service | Description | Cost (Support Hours) |
| FTP Server | Access Colibri using the FTP File Transfer Protocol | - |
| HTTP Server | Allows the Colibri to act as a web server | - |
| Time Server / Client | Synchronize time with the network using the NTP protocol | - |
| File Server | File sharing over the network using the SMB protocol | - |
| OBEX Server | Protocol for IrDA File Transfer | - |
| Telnet Server | Access Colibri using the Telnet protocol | - |
The following services are also available and can be purchased at Toradex. For more details on the Support Hours, please click here. |
||
| Mail Server | SMTP, POP3 and mail sender services | 20 |
| Web Shop | Shopping cart, product selector, mail order form | on request |
Our Windows CE operating system supports a range of additional features and enhancments to the standard Windows CE operating system.
| Feature | Description | Cost (Support hours) |
|---|---|---|
| Bootloader enhancements | Configuration through RS232, clear flash registry, download image to RAM, download image to Flash, set/save config structures, define initial GPIO configuration. Debug Functionality: erases flash range, write/read 32bit value at address. |
- |
| Splash Screen | Display default start-up screen while Windows CE is booting. | - |
| GPIO Interrupts | Each GPIO can be configured to act as an interrupt source. | - |
| Power Management | Advanced Power Management, possible to set the wakeup sources and GPIO Sleep state in the Registry | - |
| SetFailSafe (PXAxxx only) | Add fail safe feature: This tool configures the bootloader to be fail-safe. This allows you to boot even after a failed bootloader update. | - |
| Bootloader Customizer Kit | The Bootloader Customizer Kit allows to place customer code directly in our standard bootloader. | 8 |
| .Net Framework 2.0 / 3.5 Flash Installer | Install the .Net Compact Framework 2.0 or 3.5 to the flash memory. | - |
| Silverlight Installer (CE 7 / CE 8 only) | Installs Silverlight support to the flash memory. | - |
| Multilanguage Support | Add additional languages to your system (can be switched at runtime) | 8 per western language |
| Large Input Panel | Add a larger software keyboard (SIP) (about 465x195 pixels) | - |
| WinCE Image Compression Tool | Compresses your own Windows CE image to about half of the original size. This saves Flash memory and improves the boot time. This feature is already used for Toradex binary images. | 4 |
| Splash-Screen Converter Tool | Converts your own bitmap to a Toradex Splash-Screen file | 4 |
Prior to starting Windows CE development for the Colibri module, we recommend you install the Colibri Software Development Kit (SDK). This will enable you to take advantage of some of the Toradex specific enhancements.
Software Development Kits for all supported versions of Windows CE/Embedded Compact can be downloaded using the following links:
Please follow the step by step documentation below to install the Toradex SDKs. The documentation has been tested on Windows 7 (32 and 64 bit) with Visual Studio 2008.
msiexec /qb /i NAME_OF_THE_SDK.msi
Older SDKs did not have unified names. With the following SDK version the new naming convention has been applied:
In case you want to migrate your project to one of the new SDKs, some renaming in the *.sln and *.vcproj files has to be done. Toradex provides a command line tool that does this job for you. Run the tool and provide the path to one of your projects as a parameter. You get the tool from here.
Some customers reported, that their SDK was not shown in Visual Studio after finalizing the installation process. Installing the SDK using user Administrator by command line as described for CE 5 SDK solved this issue. Try to uninstall the SDK and install it again by doing the following steps in such a case:
msiexec /qb /i NAME_OF_THE_SDK.msi
When installing on Windows 10 we noticed that some users have issues with SDK not showing inside Visual Studio.
To fix this issue please check that files are located in installation directory usually: C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows CE Tools\wce500\Toradex_CE500\
Then locate file WCE.VCPlatform.config and add this entry.
<Platform Name="VCProjectWCEPlatform.dll" Identifier="{98DFB078-D20F-45D1-90C3-80AEB2FCE594}"> <Directories Include="$(VCInstallDir)ce\include;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows CE Tools\wce500\Toradex_CE500\include\ARMV4I;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows CE Tools\wce500\Toradex_CE500\include;$(VCInstallDir)ce\atlmfc\include;$(VSInstallDir)SmartDevices\SDK\SQL Server\Mobile\v3.0" Library="C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows CE Tools\wce500\Toradex_CE500\lib\ARMV4I;$(VCInstallDir)ce\atlmfc\lib\ARMV4I;$(VCInstallDir)ce\lib\ARMV4I;" Path="$(VCInstallDir)\ce\bin\x86_arm;$(VCInstallDir)bin;$(WindowsSdkDir)\bin;$(VSInstallDir)Common7\Tools;$(VSInstallDir)Common7\IDE;$(VSInstallDir)Common\Tools;$(VSInstallDir)Common\IDE;$(VSInstallDir);$(FrameworkSDKDir)Bin;$(PATH);" Reference="" Source=";$(VCInstallDir)ce\atlmfc\src\atl;$(VCInstallDir)ce\atlmfc\src\mfc;;$(VCInstallDir)ce\crt\src"/> <PlatformData> <PlatformName>Toradex_CE500 (ARMV4I)</PlatformName> <SupportsDCOM>0</SupportsDCOM> <OSMajorVersion>5</OSMajorVersion> <OSMinorVersion>00</OSMinorVersion> <UISymbol>STANDARDSHELL_UI_MODEL</UISymbol> <Macros> <Macro Name="CEVER" Value="0x500"/> <Macro Name="ARCHFAM" Value="ARM"/> <Macro Name="_ARCHFAM_" Value="_ARM_"/> <Macro Name="INSTRUCTIONSET" Value="ARMV4I"/> <Macro Name="BINDIR" Value="$(VCInstallDir)ce\dll"/> </Macros> </PlatformData> </Platform>
If the installation path of your SDK is different. Also, change your path inside the pasted code.
All of this software is available for free if not stated differently.
The table entries are encoded as follows:
f = full support
p = partial support
- = no support
N.A. = not available
| Tool | Description | Apalis iMX6 | Apalis T30 | Colibri T30 | Colibri T20 | Colibri iMX6 | Colibri VFxx | PXA3xx | PXA 270 | Colibri iMX7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC97Tweak | Configures some special audio codec features which are not accessible through the common wave API. Audio input settings: source left/right, micboost, gain left/right, DC filter, High pass, mute. Audio output settings: gain left/right, bass, treble, de-emphasis, headphone driver, mute. Audio test features |
- | p | p | p | - | - | f | f | - |
| ColibriCustomize | Customization possibility of the Colibri Win CE image. Automatically configures the registry for your own settings (Using .reg file). | - | - | - | - | - | - | f | f | - |
| ColibriDbgMsgLogger | Displays all debug messages from RAM buffer. | f | f | f | f | f | f | f | f | f |
| ColibriMonitor | Shows the usage of the CPU/RAM, processes/threads running, thread priority and has setting functionalities. | f | f | f | f | f | f | f | f | - |
| ColibriTweak | Adjusts system parameters like display settings, access registers, etc. of the Colibri module. | - | p | p | p | - | - | f | f | - |
| ConfigBlockEditor | Edit settings stored in the config block. | f | f | f | f | f | f | f | f | f |
| GPIOConfig | Provides an interactive interface to the versatile GPIOs of the Colibri modules. | - | f | f | f | - | p | f | f | - |
| RegAccessTool | Read from and Write to physical addresses (registers, etc.) in 8bit/16bit/32bit format (Formerly part of Colibri Tweak tool). | - | f | f | f | - | f | p | p | p |
| I2CTool | Tool to Read/Write on I2C. | f | f | f | f | f | f | - | - | - |
| SplashScreen | Changes the picture which you can see while WinCE is booting. Now integrated in to the Update Tool. | - | f | f | f | - | - | f | f | - |
| TouchTweak | Adjusts the touch screen driver to your touch screen if required. | - | - | - | - | - | - | f | f | - |
| ImageViewer (a) | Provides basic functionality to display a single image or a slideshow. | p | p | p | f | p | p | f | f | p |
| Launcher (a) | Automatically runs any .exe or .Ink file found in an AutoRun folder or copies files in a folder AutoCopy folder on each storage medium. | f | f | f | f | f | f | f | f | p |
| RTCSync (a) | Synchronizes the system time with the RTC chip on I2C. | f | f | f | f | f | f | f | f | - |
| UpdateTool (a) | Updates the WinCE Image and bootloader, warmboot or coldboot, etc, part of the standard image. | - | p | p | p | - | - | f | f | - |
| VideoPlayer (a) | included in standard WinCE image. | - | f | f | f | - | - | - | - | - |
NOTE:
See here for more information on our Windows CE features.
| Tool | Description | Price (Support Hours) |
|---|---|---|
| Colibri Loader | Loads bootloader over JTAG (only for Colibri PXAxxx modules), load Images over Ethernet | Free |
| RemoteDisplay | Controls the Colibri module by a desktop PC (keyboard, mouse, display, file transfer) using a connection through ActiveSync (USB) or Ethernet. | Free |
| CreateTBin | This Windows program converts an OS binary file into a format that works with the Toradex Tool Chain. | Free |
| Splash Screen Customizer | Creates a customized splashscreen which can be shown while Windows CE is booting. | 4 |
| Win CE Image Compressor | Reduces the size of the Windows CE Image to about 50%. This leaves more flash space for user applications or the flash file system. | 5 |
