14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is working to introduce support for Visual Studio 2010 RTM into the next version of the .NET Micro Framework. The Redmond company is already hard at work on version 4.1 of the .NET Micro Framework, despite having open-sourced the project. In this regard, the team behind the project did promise from the get-go that open-sourcing the framework would not be synonymous with abandoning it to the community. Instead, the software giant continues to push the .NET Micro Framework forward, although contributions from the community are also welcomed.
In addition to support for the recently released to manufacturing Visual Studio 2010, version 4.1 of .NET Micro Framework will also bring to the table Open Source TCP/IP and SSL, DPWS enhancements and Big Endian support, according to a member of the team.
‘The Open Source TCP/IP stack is the LWIP stack with OpenSSL. These two Open Source stack elements will be available under the BSD license rather than the Apache 2.0 license that we use for the rest of the product. We are in discussions with EBSNet about continuing to have their full featured and supported commercial stack available. More on that later. The current crypto binaries will also continue to be available for anyone using them,” a .NET Micro Framework team representative noted. “There are several more processor ports on the way. I will not steal our partners' thunder by pre-announcing those but there are some very interesting new additions coming.”
Microsoft did not say exactly when it plans to offer .NET Micro Framework 4.1. .NET Micro Framework 4.0 was released on November 16th, 2009 at the Microsoft Professional Developer Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles. Prior to offering version 4.0, the .NET Micro Framework was open-sourced, as such, the latest version is now available under the Apache 2.0 license.
“We will make version 4.1 available at the Microsoft Download Center as before. We will continue to make approximately annual releases through that channel. After version 4.1, we will also have the evolving codebase and issue tracking database on Codeplex so that you can get the most current drop or the last major drop - whichever works best for your needs,” the .NET Micro Framework team member added.
.NET Micro Framework 4.0 SDK is available for download here.
.NET Micro Framework 4.0 Porting Kit is available for download here.
Visual Studio 2010 Premium is available for download here.
Visual Studio 2010 Professional is available for download here.
Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate is available for download here.
Visual Studio Test Professional 2010 is available for download here.
.NET Framework 4 RTM is available for download here.