Embedded System Project in .NET

Is it possible to develop an embedded system p开发者_Go百科roject using Microsoft Products? Can anyone tell me?

Yes, this is possible.

You can use the Micro Framework.

The .NET Micro Framework is .NET for small and resource constrained devices.

There are hardware devices for development out there that use the framework (for example the Netduino which is inspired by the arduino platform and is mostly compatible with it.

Just to add some additional information to the previous answers:

The Netduino reference is good, another source is TinyCLR.com and GHIElectronics.com

There are several Netduino / .Net Micro Framework projects at Codeplex

Microsoft has a new site at: NetMF.com

I just got my Netduino yesterday, installed the SDK for the Framework, then the SDK for the Netduino, the followed the simple 'Blinky' tutorial. Worked the first time with no issues. could not have been a better experience.

As others have stated the Netduino or any device running the .NET Micro Framework is suitable for embedded development depending on what your definition of embedded development is.

If you are looking to do a project that interacts with physical hardware but does not have very stringent timing requirements then .NET Micro Framework is a good choice since you get to use Visual Studio to do your debugging. I personally feel that the Netduino is a much faster way to get into this kind of embedded programming and feel productive than the Arduino.

However, once you start getting into projects that have strict timing requirements you may shy away from it. This is because .NET Micro Framework's managed code hides things like garbage collection from you. If garbage collection fires up while you're in a timing critical section of your code you will get unexpected results. There are ways to minimize this but there's always the possibility that it will happen at the worst possible moment. If you're curious when I'm talking about "timing critical" code I'm thinking of code that must run in or under a few milliseconds or the system fails (ie. bit-banging protocols that don't have hardware support like I2C or serial).

All that said I still think its a great platform and the hardware just keeps getting better. If you're moving to production with a .NET Micro Framework design from the Netduino and need more horsepower take a look at some of Microsoft's turnkey hardware providers.