Today at Tech•Ed 2007, Microsoft Corp. and Analog Devices Inc. announced that they are further expanding options for embedded developers through the porting of the Microsoft® .NET Micro Framework to Analog Devices’ Blackfin processors. Developers of resource-constrained portable devices offering multimedia and other specialty applications will for the first time be able to use Microsoft’s field-proven productivity tools, .NET and Visual Studio®, with the Blackfin processor, speeding the design of small-footprint, low-power embedded systems.

“The .NET Micro Framework was created from the ground up as a .NET solution for small embedded devices from industrial sensors and instrumentation to home automation systems and healthcare monitors,” said Colin Miller, product unit manager of the .NET Micro Framework at Microsoft. “The addition of Analog Devices’ Blackfin to the .NET Micro Framework fold will make high-performance, low-power digital signal processing (DSP) capabilities accessible to developers, using the world-class development tools of Visual Studio.”

In addition to being fully integrated with Visual Studio, the .NET Micro Framework software development kit (SDK) comes equipped with an extensible emulator to simulate targeted hardware capabilities. The framework enables device developers to connect diverse hardware solutions to virtually any peripheral device through industry-standard communication connections and custom-managed drivers.