ezbook 7" netbook with windows ce 6 embedded...can i do anything with this?

[severdhed]

well, today i was given an ezbook 7" netbook to play with.  it is a tiny little netbook running windows ce embedded 6.  it has wifi and can browse the net.  it has 256mb of ram, 2gb ssd, arm 926 cpu.

i really dont know what i would ever do with it, i have a real laptop that doesnt suck.  so i am trying to find something usefull i can do with this.  so my first thought was, will it run MAME?  i dont need a bunch of games, but i was thinking i could make a tiny little cabinet with a 4way for the classics.  i'm going to do some looking around, but i figured someone here may have already tried something similar and would have some advice.

if i can't run mame on it, what can i do with it?

[Ed_McCarron]

Use it to browse the net over wifi?

Kidding.  Find an older version of MAME and you might be able to run pac-man, donkey kong...  Does CE run programs like normal windows?

[MonMotha]

WinCE cannot run normal Windows applications.  Since it has an ARM CPU, you'll need an ARM binary, and you'll need one for WinCE, at that.  Somebody probably makes ARM WinCE builds of MAME for PocketPC.  It should run on your netbook thingie, though those PocketPC builds may assume a fixed screen res if they're older.

An ARM926 is no slouch, but it won't compare at all to even a low end atom or modern ARM Cortex A8.  It's probably 150-250MHz, which will compare very roughly to a 133MHz Pentium in terms of raw CPU performance (though it'll have better memory bandwidth and probably a larger cache).  Expect to be able to run only very old stuff.  Honestly, I'd be impressed if it could even emulate a Neo-Geo.

[leapinlew]

WinCE cannot run normal Windows applications.  Since it has an ARM CPU, you'll need an ARM binary, and you'll need one for WinCE, at that.  Somebody probably makes ARM WinCE builds of MAME for PocketPC.  It should run on your netbook thingie, though those PocketPC builds may assume a fixed screen res if they're older.

An ARM926 is no slouch, but it won't compare at all to even a low end atom or modern ARM Cortex A8.  It's probably 150-250MHz, which will compare very roughly to a 133MHz Pentium in terms of raw CPU performance (though it'll have better memory bandwidth and probably a larger cache).  Expect to be able to run only very old stuff.  Honestly, I'd be impressed if it could even emulate a Neo-Geo.

Agreed. I had an ipaq with a 200mhz ARM processor in it and I ran a MAME/NES emulator. More for kicks than actual playing. I wouldn't waste my time with this CE device on emulation.

Perhaps you can make a cool clock out of it or some kind of picture frame that flipped through pictures or something?

[JohnEDollar]

Perhaps you can make a cool clock out of it or some kind of picture frame that flipped through pictures or something?

Or add a 7"" touchscreen overlay to the display, and use it as a jukebox.   

- John

[severdhed]

Perhaps you can make a cool clock out of it or some kind of picture frame that flipped through pictures or something?

Or add a 7"" touchscreen overlay to the display, and use it as a jukebox.   

- John

i thought about that, however this thing seems to not even have the capability to do a slideshow, and i haven't looked yet, but since i can't install regular windows apps, setting up a jukebox might be difficult...i can't imagine there are many jukebox apps for windows CE.

[lilshawn]

if you can find a compiler for windows CE coughgooglecough then you can download the source code for MAME and then your set.

funny thing about source code, is it doesn't matter WHAT you have. compile and it's for your system... xbox, mac, calculator, linux, toaster, windows, whatever.