RemoteFX Support in Windows Embedded Compact (Compact 7)
3/12/2014
RemoteFX in Compact 7 supports both hardware-accelerated decoding and software decoding. Hardware-accelerated decoding offers the best performance, especially on low-end hardware. We recommend that you use hardware decoding on your thin client devices.
Software decoding requires a CPU processor that is enabled with the Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 (SSE2) instruction set and a large amount of system memory. Ultrathin client devices typically do not have the required processing power to achieve a quality remote access experience with RemoteFX software decoding.
The following RemoteFX features in a Windows Embedded Compact powered device work together with a server running Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 to provide a full remote desktop experience:
- Software Decoding
- Hardware-accelerated decoding
Client-Side Software Decoding for RemoteFX
Software decoding decodes the bitmaps that are transferred from the virtual desktop on the device by using software in the CPU or by using a hardware decoder. The flexibility to use the CPU or a hardware decoder helps provide a RemoteFX experience to a variety of devices that range from rich client devices to ultrathin client devices. Software decoding requires a CPU processor that is enabled with an SSE2 instruction set and a large amount of system memory. When you use software decoding, the client computer CPU handles RemoteFX data decompression. Software decoding does not require any additional processors or driver interfaces.
RemoteFX Decoder uses the SSE2 instruction set for acceleration of signal-processing operations. Because of this feature design, software decoding of RemoteFX data can only be performed on a CPU that supports this instruction set.
Client-Side Hardware-Accelerated Decoding for RemoteFX
RemoteFX hardware-accelerated decoding uses co-processor hardware such as ASIC on the RemoteFX-enabled device to decompress RemoteFX-compressed data. The co-processor hardware does the work instead of the CPU, which increases CPU performance. By using hardware-accelerated decoding, you can develop a thin client device running Windows Embedded Compact 7 that uses less powerful hardware compared to the typical thin client devices that are used with a remote server.
For example, the device receives drawing commands from the remote computer and then processes these commands to accurately decode what is being sent from the server. When you use hardware-accelerated decoding, the device can simply pass along a compressed bitmap that is received from the server to specialized RemoteFX hardware. The RemoteFX-enabled hardware decompresses the data and displays it, pixel-for-pixel, as it is seen on the remote computer. Hardware acceleration, by using a co-processor to display RemoteFX data, can significantly reduce the cost of remote-experience thin client devices because less-powerful processors and less RAM are required.