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Pocket PC 2002 XIP Regions FAQ
By Chris De Herrera,
Copyright 2002
Version 1.01 Revised 11/30/2002
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Introduction
So you've got a Pocket PC 2002 and you may have noticed that the service packs install in flash rom. By installing updates into flash rom, more ram is available to store and run applications you want. This article explains what an XIP Region is and how it relates to your Pocket PC 2002. All this information is totally undocumented. All the ideas presented here are my own ideas.
What's XIP?
XIP stands for Execute in Place. XIP means that a program is stored in rom or flash and it is actually executed right from the rom. Microsoft has extended XIP to also refer to the ability for specific areas of the flash rom to be updated without updating the whole flash rom at once. From what I can tell, the Pocket PC 2002 uses Intel Strata Flash which allows for selected rewriting of the flash rom. An example of this is the use of Intel Persistent Storage that allow some Pocket PCs like the iPAQ to offer additional flash storage for programs and data. Also, each time an XIP region is updated, it must be done when no other program is running. So after a soft reset, the XIPUpdate.exe program is run to install the new XIP regions.
What's an XIP Region?
At this time, Microsoft does not provide a comprehensive list of all the XIP Regions used in the Pocket PC 2002. Each XIP region is 1 to 4 MB in size so they are much smaller and easier to update than the whole flash rom. By opening the .CAB file for the Service Packs and viewing the file list, we can see that the following regions appear in the installation program:
For all Pocket PC 2002s:
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Kernel
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OS - The operating system
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Shell - The graphical user interface
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Browsing - Pocket Internet Explorer
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Coreapps - Inbox, Pocket Outlook
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Sync - ActiveSync
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Misc -
For 24 MB roms:
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Apps - Pocket Word, Pocket Excel
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Consumer - Windows Media Player, Terminal Services Client, MSN Messenger
Example XIP updates include Pocket PC 2002 Service Pack 1 (EUU1), Pocket PC 2002 Service Pack 2 (EUU2) and Pocket PC 2002 Service Pack 3 (EUU3)
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