Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector (SPS) DragonBall platform application development system based on ARM technology now supports Microsoft's Windows CE operating system.

The companies also announced that Motorola's SPS has joined the ARM Consortium for Windows CE. Motorola's SPS said it will provide continued support for Windows CE, and future Windows CE platforms to help meet the group's goal of optimizing development of Windows CE-based solutions on the ARM architecture.

"As the industry leader in applications processors for handheld computing, Motorola is a natural partner for Microsoft," said Todd Warren, general manager of the Embedded and Appliance Platforms Group at Microsoft. "Microsoft is pleased to be able to add Motorola's DragonBall processor family to the list of processors that support Windows CE. The combination of the DragonBall processor with the Windows CE operating system will enable designers to build innovative, small footprint, mobile devices that include support for rich applications, multimedia, and Internet connectivity."

According to the companies, features such as multimedia support and wireless Internet connectivity, while standard on many wireless devices, consume significant battery power. This means less usable time and more time spent recharging batteries. The companies claim design and manufacturing techniques, such as "doze" and "sleep" modes, used for DragonBall processors translate to less power consumption, even with support for advanced PDA applications. In addition, other integrated features of the DragonBall processors, such as the multimedia extensions and video port, enable original equipment manufacturers (OEM) to use fewer components in their wireless devices, thus reducing system costs.

Motorola's DragonBall platform application development system based on ARM technology with Windows CE 3.0 support is now available. Support for Windows CE .NET is expected by the end of the year.