Board Support Package (BSP) (Compact 2013)

  • Article

10/16/2014

A board support package (BSP) is a set of software components that allows the OS to run on a specific hardware platform. The BSP consists of the following components:

  • The kernel independent transport layer (KITL), which is the communication link between your development computer and the Windows Embedded Compact powered device
  • The OEM adaptation layer (OAL), which is the interface between the kernel and the hardware
  • The boot loader, which initializes the hardware, loads the OS run-time image into memory, and jumps to the OS startup routine
  • Device drivers
  • Configuration files, which control how the OS run-time image is built

Creating a BSP is one of the first steps in developing a Windows Embedded Compact powered device.

Platform Builder for Windows Embedded Compact 2013 provides board support packages (BSPs) for software development boards or hardware platforms that are readily available for purchase.

These BSPs cover the full range of supported microprocessors in Windows Embedded Compact 2013 and enable you to quickly evaluate various OS features on your hardware platform and reduce your time to market.

For information about the sample BSPs provided in Platform Builder and how you can order the hardware platforms for these BSPs, see the following topics:

Third-party BSPs are also available for different versions of Windows Embedded Compact. For more information, see Find Board Support Packages.

For reference information, see:

Sample code for each of the supported BSPs is available at %_WINCEROOT%\Platform\<Hardware Platform Name>.

Source code for the OEM adaptation layer (OAL) common library is available at %_WINCEROOT%\Platform\Common.

OAL programming elements specific to CPU architecture are available at %_WINCEROOT%\Platform\Common\Src\<CPU Architecture>.

Programming elements that are not hardware-specific are available at %_WINCEROOT%\Platform\Common\Src\Common.