Atmel has released free Windows embedded board support packages (BSPs) for its AT91SAM9 (ARM926EJ-based) embedded MPUs.

The Windows Embedded CE 5.0 BSP and the Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2 BSP, initially developed by Adeneo Embedded and now supported by Atmel.

"These BSPs were previously provided by Adeneo under a fee-paying software license agreement," said Atmel.

A BSP is software that implements and supports an operating system on a development board. It consists of a boot loader, adaptation layer for the specific hardware architecture, device drivers, and run-time image configuration files.

"It greatly simplifies application development on the target device, by creating a hardware-independent interface for use by the application code," said Atmel. "It also enables application code to be rapidly ported from one hardware platform to another."

The website also has documents and a ready-to-run demonstration.

The first five supported products are AT91RM9200, AT91SAM9260, AT91SAM9261, AT92SAM9263, AT91SAM9G20, AT91SAM9RL64 - added in coming months.

More information: www.at91.com/windows4sam