The Dare to Dream Different contest http://dreamdifferentcontest.com/ is nearing the completion of the judging for the second round. The final selection will be made soon and the third round contestants brought to Redmond. I have looked at some of the videos and I have to say that I am extremely impressed by the quality of the work that was done for the contest. The judging will be very close. I can't wait to share out the videos so that everyone can see the creative thinking that went into the projects.
As you all know, we are working through all the issues associated with moving the product from a revenue model to an 'open' model. That will all take place with the next release as promised earlier. In the interim, we are taking some steps with the 3.0 product which is available for use in development and products as before. To faciliate the broadest use of the platform, we are making the porting kit available as a free download from the Microsoft Download Center - the same place where the SDK is avilable. There is a Service Pack that was just released for the 3.0 porting kit. We are not going to take the time to merge those two releases at this time so anyone wanting to start with the porting kit will have to download the porting kit and then install the Service Pack over that. The link for the new porting kit download is: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=42ce8508-ff00-4ab8-8495-df587d77a8f2. Go ahead and pass this on. Thanks
2 weeks ago now, we announced several changes - that the product was moving into Developer Division and that we were changing our business model to include access to the code. Unfortunately, we created some confusion and concern by only providing the broadest overview of our direction without any additional detail. My intention had been to provide that overview as soon as we knew it and to follow-up quickly with more detail. Microsoft is a big company as you know and there is alot more complexity to making this scale of changes than you might think. As a result, we are not ready with the deatils as quickly as I wanted. I am writing today to keep you posted on progress.
The move does not require any additional detail. We are in our new home and already starting to explore the synergies with work being done elsewhere on the team. This will be a great move for the Micro Framework. One concern that has been raised is that we will not maintain one of the key values of the Micro Framework - its integration with Visual Studio. I can assure you that now that we are in the same orgnaization, there will be if anything a tighter bond. For example, whenVS 2008 came out, we didn't ship a platform compatible with that until 9 months later. I dont think we will be able to get away with that in the future. :-)
In terms of the availabiity of the source code and integration of community contributions, we are working down that road. There are licensing decisions, processes to set up, code to review, and much more. While I am not in a position to definitively describe the finished product yet, let me share my objectives in the planning. Microsoft will continue to maintain a development staff and do development. We are continuing to do that now. There are frankly some 'uber' features that will be hard for anyone else to do - at least for some time. At the same time, we will make the source code for the platform available on the broadest license that we can. We will also define, as Lorenzo mentioned earlier, a mechanism for the community to contribute back that is well managed to insure continued quality of the codebase. Finally, we have significant demand for Microsoft support for the product so we will define the access to support going forward that will work for our customers.
I wish I could be more definitive at this point but bear with me. The plan is to clearly define what we can/will do on the Microsoft side and then interate with the community on some how the whole process works. The goal of all this is to make the Micro Framework more broadly accessible so that we can focus on our goals of changing embedded development. In the mean time, 3.0 is still available as before.
Colin Miller
Product Unit Manager
Following the move of the .NET Micro Framework team to the Developer Division of Microsoft we are planning on involving the community in the future definition and development of the product by allowing access to the source code of the runtime and object model, as well as the drivers. We are currently in the process of framing the rules of engagement and we hope to be able to offer both a process for a regulated development effort and a broad license, so that it will be possible to take advantage of the code base without necessarily contributing to the community. The details and the rules of this engagement will be defined over the near term with your involvement as well.
The evolution of the core code will be managed to insure small size, good performance, quality and consistency. The .NET Micro Framework team will provide the initial guidance and the necessary tools to facilitate the contribution of code at all levels of the stack. With the community participation, we are looking at creating an arbitration process to drive the evolution of the product and the development activity. Stay tuned for the official announcement and please provide us with your thoughts through the usual channels.
Lorenzo Tessiore
Developer Manager
I need to correct a recent announcement of the demise of the Micro Framework. There are changes taking place on the team but they are all for the good.
First, the product is moving into the Developer Division (Server and Tools). This is a great fit for the technology and we are really looking forward to it. The move means that we will be fully aligned with the rest of the .NET groups and tools in building the uniform programming model from the sensors to servers.
The announcement that we are moving to some form of community direction and development including code access is accurate. We will investigate how to do that in the near term so stay tuned. For now however, the current products are available and continue to be supported as before.
I am really excited about the potential of really accelerating the changes in the industry that we see coming. I hope that you are as excited as I am. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Colin Miller
Product Unit Manager
As you may already know, the current implementation of the .NET Micro Framework supports IPV4. I have heard one request for IPV6 support so I wanted to hear from other people how critical IPV6 support is for you. So if this is something critical for you, do post your thoughts.
Is this something you would like to see in the product this year? Next Year? Or sometime in the future?
Is it a must have, nice to have, or you don't care?
Colin Miller
Product Unit Manager
To more aggressively promote the adoption of the .NET Micro Framework, we have entered into an arrangement with the MSDN team. Most MSDN subscriptions will now include the latest version of the .NET Micro Framework Porting Kit. While available only as an online download, this product is exactly the same as the one currently available through Microsoft Stores.
Furthermore, by filling out the optional product registration form, you can get free upgrades to newer versions of the Porting Kit at no additional charge. MSDN subscriptions also include some free incident calls to our product support centers, which can be used if needed for the Porting Kit.
To ease through the transition, we will continue to make the Porting Kit available online through Microsoft Stores or via email (netmbiz@microsoft.com) for a limited time. However, as we expect most people to opt for this incredible deal, we plan to close our offering on the Microsoft Stores July 1.
Please note:
· In order to be consistent with the MSDN licensing agreement, we have changed the standalone Porting Kit agreement to be on a per user basis rather than the earlier group/site license. For this reason, the price of standalone Kit will be $599.95
· MSDN Subscription Levels currently providing the .NET Micro Framework Porting Kit are:
MSDN OS ; VS Pro with MSDN Pro ; VS Pro with MSDN Premium; MSDN OS ; Developer AA; VS Pro with MSDN Pro ; VSTS Team Suite ; VSTS Architecture ; VSTS Development ; VSTS Test ; VS Pro with MSDN Premium ; MSDN Universal ; VSTS Database ; VS Pro with MSDN Premium ; VSTS Test ; VSTS Development ; VSTS Architecture ; VSTS Team Suite ; VSTS Database ; BizSpark Admin; and BizSpark. Please note that the MSDN OS initial subscription is $699
We are pleased to release today, 04/22/2009, the service pack 1 of the 3.0 release. This service pack follows the v3.0 releases by six months and addresses a set of bug fixes for the porting kit of the .NET Micro Framework. Most of the bugs were found and addressed in collaboration with our porting partners. The addressed areas include SD card, File System, Extended Weak References, improvements to the sample ports and native compiler support. Please refer to our partners web sites to find out about the availability of this release for their firmware.
Read more
One unique thing about the .NET Micro Framework is that it is a .NET virtual machine that runs directly on the metal. We did this so that it could be as small and performant as possible for the current architecture. However, there are a number of users who have elected not to run MF on the metal but rather to port it onto another operating system or kernel. This kind of port is fully supported in the Micro Framework. In fact, there are two porting layers in the architecture. One is the low level Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) layer that supports drivers to the hardware. For example, this is where you would plug the Micro Framework directly into the Serial Controller on your board. There is also a higher level of porting interfaces that calls into the HAL. This is the Platform Abstraction Layer (PAL). To continue our previous example, if you want to run the Micro Framework on an OS, you write an interface to the serial interfaces in the OS or kernel rather than directly to the Serial Controller. 
Currently, a significant number of the ports that are done are placing the Micro Framework on another operation system. Why would you do that? Here are a couple of potential reasons.
-
Support for existing libraries or other OS features: Perhaps you have some features in your OS that you are dependent on or there is some piece of code that is already integrated with your existing operating environment which you can’t or don’t want to re-implement in managed code. With the Interop features that were added to MF, you don’t need to rewrite everything in managed code. You can integrate the native code implementations into your managed code applications. In fact, I really like our Interop feature implementation. The native code seamlessly becomes like a part of the existing Namespaces and you call into it like you would any managed code function.
Another example is real-time support. As you know, the .NET Micro Framework is not real-time. Frequently, the real-time requirements of an application are very isolated. By porting MF onto a small kernel or RTOS, you can run your real-time code in that environment and still have the .NET Micro Framework as a highly productive application environment for the rest.
I’ve seen both of these cases. They both take advantage of the flexibility of the porting experience in MF. Tell me about your reasons for porting to an OS or conversely for porting MF onto the metal? That way we can understand what might be missing from the platform that we should have on our roadmap.
Colin Miller
Product Unit Manager
If you've been thinking about trying out our porting kit but putting it off for a rainy day, the end of rainy days is just around the corner. April 15 wil now be the last day you'll be able to download our V3.0 Porting Kit for the low US promotional price of $599.95. On April 16 the price will revert to the original $2500. Get the latest information you need about porting from our website http://www.microsoft.com/netmf/about/switch.mspx and if going to the MS Store in the US or UK doesn't work for you, then just email netmfbiz@microsft.com requesting a direct download. But do hurry. The rain is coming to an end...
Warren Dent
Director of Business Development
-
Would you like to keep abreast of the .NET Micro Framework team’s marketing and promotional activities? Events that we are planning to attend? Upcoming contests and viral marketing activities?
-
Would you like to collaborate on co-marketing and promotional opportunities?
-
Want to know who else is partnering with the .NET Micro Framework team and how?
-
Need quick access to promotional material such as the .NET Micro Framework logo, product sheets, videos, white papers, and decks?
Find answers to these and other questions by becoming a Micro Framework partner. Register here with the Windows Embedded Partner Program (WEPP) and select “.NET Micro Framework” as a product of interest. If you are already a WEPP member, make sure you logon and select .NET Micro Framework as one of your products of interest to start receiving our communications.
Brought to you in collaboration with the Windows Embedded team, registration with this program provides access to exclusive partner-specific content for a variety of Microsoft embedded technologies. Additionally, the program allows you to select specific embedded products to subscribe to detailed product information. You will also be able to use the Windows Embedded and .NET Micro Framework partner logos, and receive invitations to participate in partner-specific events.
Through the .NET Micro Framework partner initiative, we aim to create a supportive eco-system for our platform, foster deeper partner relationships, and to actively promote partners who contribute to our vision of making the Micro Framework be the platform of choice for resource-constrained embedded systems.
Please email netmf_ba@microsoft.com in case of questions.
Raj Misra
Principal Product Manager
The .NET Micro Framework v3.0 includes a full-featured DPWS stack and a code generation tool, MFSvcUtil.exe, that generates Hosted Service Stubs and Client Proxies from a standard WSDL.
The DPWS stack on the Micro Framework has been developed exclusively for the Micro Framework, and will not run on a Windows platform unless you are running it in the Micro Framework emulator.
...
Read More
A recently published Forrestor report identifies efficiency and cost reduction as the two key strategies that companies are leveraging to weather the current economic storm. Projects are being scrutinized for ROI and frequently, a smaller staff is forced to make hard decisions about where to put resources.
In this changed economic climate, companies are increasingly looking at solutions like .NET Micro Framework to reduce their development costs, improve operational efficiencies, and achieve greater product differentiation through innovation.
This increased interest in the .NET Micro Framework is evidenced by the substantial increase in website visits, SDK downloads, and business inquiries we have seen in the past couple of months.
So, why not send us an email today to discuss how we can help you and your business succeed in 2009?
Read Colin's detailed blog article on this topic
So, you are now ready to take the plunge and start building the device you’ve always had in mind. Grab our Porting Kit for less than $600, a set of tools from ARM, Keil, or GCC and get cracking. Adding to a real-time OS is easy through Interop now included in V3.0 or you can design straight to the metal. And the new Solution Wizard helps utilize only the components you really need, keeping overall memory requirements to a minimum. Move beyond the hobbyist/experimenter category and show how superior UI, simple managed driver creation and easy Visual Studio application development can create a cool new connected device within months!
Read more
I've just posted an article on using interop in .NET Micro Framework V3.0.
Abstract
The .NET Micro framework provides a rich level of support for embedded systems development from handling interrupts on GPIO pins to talking to hardware on an SPI or I2C bus. Unfortunately, sometimes, that’s not quite enough. For example, an A/D converter built into the chip that is memory mapped to the processor core is unreachable by managed code in V2.5 and earlier. For this, and many other reasons, the .NET Micro Framework V3.0 Porting Kit supports extending the .NET run time libraries with custom interop code to call into native (C/C++) code.
This article will cover the process of creating and using custom interop libraries through an example. The sample library provides managed applications access to OEM defined named memory windows in the system for direct access to memory mapped devices in a safe, bounds-checked manner.
