Digital Signage and Windows Embedded Standard 7

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Last week at the Screenmedia Expo Europe 2010 in London, Intel® and Microsoft announced the commercial availability of their joint platform for Digital Signage media players, and the availability of the Digital Signage Evaluation Kit (DSEK-10). The DSEK is a reference platform that is designed to help digital signage developers quickly prototype and develop digital signage solutions. The DSEK is based on an Intel® Core i5-based reference design and Windows Embedded Standard 7 OS.

The device itself is made up of:

  • Intel® Core™ i5 Processor (520-M) with Intel® Active Management Technology
    • - 3MB Cache, 2.40 GHz
    • - 2 processor cores, 4 software threads
    • - Integrated Graphics Engine
    • - Hardware Accelerated HD Video Decoder
    • - Mobile Intel® QM57 Express Chipset
  • 2GB SODIMM DDR3 1333MT/s memory x2 (total of 4GB)
  • SATA 2.5” Hard Disk
  • IEEE802.11a/b/g/n Intel Wireless PCI Express* Half Mini Card (6200)
  • Small form factor (185mm x 125mm x 55mm) with an aluminum chassis and an EPIC based mainboard
  • Gigabit Ethernet interface (Intel® 82577 Gigabit Ethernet PHY)

As you can see, it’s quite a bit of power tucked into a small form factor device. What this gives you is the power to drive extremely rich user experiences (like this one) while also delivering a small enough size and high reliability to be practical for Digital Signs.

From the Windows Embedded side, the device comes pre-installed with a Standard 7 OS that simply boots up into an application that talks a bit about the DSEK device. We also include an evaluation copy of the Standard 7 OS toolkit so that you can immediately start building your own OS customized for your digital signage applications.

Some features that Standard 7 brings to the table that are especially helpful for digital signage include:

  • Microsoft .NET 3.5, Windows Presentation Framework, and Windows Touch support for building rich user interfaces
  • Internet Explorer 8 and Windows Media Player 12 (plus MPEG and H.264 codecs) for delivering internet and video content
  • Embedded-enabling features such as Dialog Box Filter and Application Locker for ensuring your digital sign only displays the content you want it to display

The DSEK-10 kit is available for order now from Winmate by visiting this address: https://www.winmate.com.tw/DigitalSignage/DSEK-10.htm

Go forth and build your digital signage solutions on this great hardware from Intel® and OS from the Windows Embedded team!

- Robert

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