Old Hardware Emulated : Windows Mobile 2003 Device Emulator

 

Pocket PC 2003

Pocket PC 2003

The PocketPC 2002 device emulator was not one of the easiest to use. The shared folder feature had to be defined manually, along with network configuration. Apparently, many developers were not that amused either. As such, Microsoft greatly improved the user interface of their emulator. Microsoft made shared folders seamless, along with network support. Networking was provided via a driver that was part of Virtual PC, which Microsoft recently acquired from Connectix. 

The device emulator operated very differently from this release compared to previous ones. With the CE 2.x SDK's, the "emulator" was actually more of a simulation of the WinCE user interface. The SDK simulator was basically WinCE ported as a runtime that ran directly under Windows. Since it was essentially a Windows application, it conformed to the processor that was used by the host, which in this case, was x86. As such, the SDK simulator could only run Intel-based WinCE applications, which were basically non-existent. 

The WinCE 2002 SDK had a true device emulator that made use of hardware firmware. However, for the sake of performance, the emulated device made use of x86 virtualization that was provided by the host. The device emulator for PocketPC 2002 couldn't run ARM-based applications, while Intel-based x86 programs were largely non-existent (again).

With the 2003 SDK, the device emulator now featured emulation of the ARM processor. Compatibility was thus greatly enhanced. However, because the ARM CPU operates very differently from an Intel x86 CPU, the ARM processor had  to be emulated completely. Thus, each instruction of the ARM processor has to be translated line by line, and not simply passed like in a virtualizer. Thus, the price gained in compatibility is lost in performance. However, for modern CPU's, this isn't all that bad as our multi-core processors are much faster than the Pentium 4 processors that most developers would have used  used back in the day.

Even with the latest processors, certain feats aren't possible. Video playback within the emulated PDA isn't possible. However, MP3 playback was very smooth within both Pocket WMP and PocketMVP.

On the whole though, their is not that much to say about Windows Mobile 2003. It basically 2002 with extra features. The core OS changed little. However, the main area of noteworthy discussion is the evolution of the devices that CE 2003 ran on. The PDA still reigned supreme. However, smartphones were becoming much more prominent. As such, CE was making a lot more accommodations for smartphones  now. 
Competing smartphone form-factors

The smartphone market in 2004 was completely different from what we are accustomed to now. The slabs of glass were non-existent. The smartphone consisted of a flip-phone with a mobile OS crammed into it. However, the QWERTY smartphones were very popular. These were basically PDA's with a keypad and phone functionality. Many devices conformed to this form-factor, most notably the Blackberry handhelds and Handspring/Palm Treo.
Software
Windows Mobile 2003 came with Windows Media Player by default. The OS incorporated MP3 playback along with video support. The video codec support in Pocket WMP was WMV (Windows Media Video) version 7.  Many other third-party players would hit the scene. PocketMVP would support the DIVX codec, along with MPG1. Windows Mobile came with a image viewer, along with the standard appointment-keeping apps. Like it's desktop counterpart, Solitaire was their for one's amusement. For those who needed Internet access, Pocket IE and MSN were preloaded as well. Several of the Windows CE devices shipped with Pocket Word and Excel as well for those who needed to edit such documents on the go.

The next article will focus on WinCE's exploding software library (massive, at least by WinCE standards). The software library for WinCE started to grow at a very rapid rate, and this rapid growth will be focused on the next article. Until then, happy emulation!

Pocket Word and Excel in action.

Articles of Interest

Wikipedia : Windows Mobile 2003 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile_2003

Wikipedia : Form factor (mobile phones) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Form_factor_(mobile_phones)

TechRepublic : Get up and running with Windows CE - https://www.techrepublic.com/article/get-up-and-running-with-windows-ce/

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