XScale PPCs and WinCE.NET?!

[jlp]

As you know, the iPaq comes with 48 MB of ROM.

You also know that most people think that WinCE 3.0/PPC 2002 seems to be responsible for the poor overall performance of all XScale PPC devices compared to devices with half the clock speed.

In other words people have been craftily led to believe that devices with double the clock speed and an enhanced CPU core would perform twice as fast and even more.

This is what's been expected, especially since it's now been well over 2 full years that the previous CPU generation has been on the market and that long since Intel has annouced the XScale CPU, putting forth its 400-1000 MHz speed.

Since S2 2001 we've seen PDA prototypes displaying WinCE.NET on their screens and word has been out since close to 6 months now that this OS is available to run on the medium specced Cassiopeia BE-300 (150 MHz MIPS CPU).

So everybody could wonder:
1) why in the world the current crop of PPCs don't come now with WinCE.NET already installed?
2) if the current crop of PPC ARE EVEN COMPATIBLE with WinCE.NET?
3) if WinCE.NET (i.e.WinCE v.4.0) is even backward compatible with the many thousands of current WinCE 3.0 apps?
4) if the current crop of PPCs can be upgraded to WinCE.NET?
5) if WinCE.NET would run much faster on current XScale (PXA-250) devices ?

I'm afraid that point 1 is negative because points 2, 3, 4 and/or 5 could be negative?!?!

Anybody has firsthand knowledge about definite answers to these 5 questions???

[Dave Conger]

1) why in the world the current crop of PPCs don't come now with WinCE.NET already installed?

You can't have a Pocket PC that runs CE .NET! Then it wouldn't be a Pocket PC. Devices like the Casio BE-300 are not Pocket PC's simply because of that fact.

2) if the current crop of PPC ARE EVEN COMPATIBLE with WinCE.NET?

Yes, CE.NET can be compiled to run on current Pocket PC devices.

3) if WinCE.NET (i.e.WinCE v.4.0) is even backward compatible with the many thousands of current WinCE 3.0 apps?

It is likely that CE 4.0 is, but unclear (at least to me) if CE 4.1 is. 4.1 is optimized for XScale, so that could create some issues.

4) if the current crop of PPCs can be upgraded to WinCE.NET?

Could be, if the platform was built for using Plaform Builder, no real reason you couldn't. CE .NET is able to run on many different styles of systems, many PDA's included.

5) if WinCE.NET would run much faster on current XScale (PXA-250) devices ?

Windows CE 4.0 isn't optimized for XScale. Windows CE 4.1 is optimized for XScale. There aren't really any Windows CE 3.0 devices that use XScale, so I don't know how you would be comparing this. Pocket PC's run Pocket PC, and though it is based on CE 3.0, it isn't exactly CE 3.0.