What's All the Fuss About?

For years developers that wanted to work with real-time signals had to develop their own DSP systems or microprocessor hardware in order to guarantee the timing and reliability of their programming.

In the old days you would write a program in assembler then burn it to a DSP chip to test. More recently there have been a lot of so call development boards that allow you to write your program with a high level language like C++ then download it into the hardware chips flash memory etc. These boards work very well but are still very limited in there connectivity and interoperability.

Then came Embedded PC Systems - low cost mini single board PCs that can run with the latest high speed CPUs (fanless, multicore etc.) These are often much faster than the DSP equivalent, plus they give you all of the motherboard resources available at no extra cost, Networking, USB, VGA Screens, Mouse & Keyboard Input, COM ports, Printers, Sound Cards - all of these features built into one low cost embedded motherboard off the shelf!

Now here’s the secret: Windows Embedded! This is a fully configurable version of Windows allowing you to select only the Windows functions you need in order to make a light weight, reliable, real-time operating system.

A standard Windows install uses about 3Gb of disk space (boot time > 1min). In comparison, a typical kiosk type Windows Embedded operating system takes around 300Kb (Boot time <10s)! This can then be programmed into a solid State hard drive (SSHD) for reliable storage with no moving parts. Also Windows Embedded Images can be programmed to totally bypass Windows as we know it and boot directly into your own EXE application shell. From an outside perspective there is no traditional Windows OS running, just your application.

Using the FlowStone Embedded system is extremely easy. You can be up and running with your own bespoke embedded product in just 3 simple steps.