Moore’s law is well known in the electronics industry; it states that the number of transistors roughly doubles every two years. Since 1965 Moore’s law has proven to be true and the capabilities of digital electronics has enjoyed an exponential growth in capability. The embedded systems industry has greatly benefited from the growth in capabilities … Continue reading The Silent Firmware Revolution
Category: Design Cycle
The Key Factor Being Ignored by IoT Developers
If you’ve been paying attention to the progress being made on the IoT, you’ve heard about the billions of IoT devices that are currently connected and the fact that in the next decade, experts expect to see over a trillion devices connected. A trillion devices. That is just mind boggling especially considering that standards are … Continue reading The Key Factor Being Ignored by IoT Developers
An Ingenious Arduino to Breadboard Adapter
When I work on a development project, I’ve become a big fan of using development boards that have the Arduino headers on them. The vast number of shields that easily connect to these headers is phenomenal. The one problem that I’ve always had though was that there is always a need to use a breadboard … Continue reading An Ingenious Arduino to Breadboard Adapter
5 Tips for Optimizing the Heap in MicroPython
Python has been used by embedded software developers for many years on the PC side to interact with embedded systems. Over the past several years, Micro Python, a Python port that can run on a microcontroller, has been gaining in popularity. Python developers may be tempted to architect and write their Micro Python code similar … Continue reading 5 Tips for Optimizing the Heap in MicroPython
5 Lessons to Learn from the Boeing 737 MAX Fiasco
On Sept 17, 1908, Orville Wright and Lt Thomas Selfridge took off in a Wright Flyer from Fort Meyer Virginia. Shortly after take-off, the Wright Flyer suddenly pitched down, driving the aircraft into the ground, injuring Wright and killing Selfridge. The crash occurred when one of the wooden propellers split and pulled on the bracing … Continue reading 5 Lessons to Learn from the Boeing 737 MAX Fiasco
7 Tips for Creating a Reliable Embedded System
Despite the hopes and dreams of many embedded engineers, reliable code doesn’t happen by accident. It is a painstaking process that requires developers to maintain and manage every bit and byte of the system. There is usually a sigh of relief when an application is validated “successfully” but just because the software is running correctly … Continue reading 7 Tips for Creating a Reliable Embedded System
5 Techniques for Accelerating Engineering Development
The coveted, and often overused marketing phrases in product development as a whole revolves around decreasing costs, faster time to market while improving product quality. We have all heard these statements uttered by probably 90% of all engineering vendors ranging from parts and software suppliers through system integrators and even consultants. As humans, we want … Continue reading 5 Techniques for Accelerating Engineering Development
Defining the Meaning of Software Quality
It’s not uncommon for a software library, vendor or team to claim that they develop quality software. The problem with this proclamation is that the definition for quality can be interpreted quite differently between different developers and teams. One team may consider any code base that meets MISRA-C to be a quality code base while … Continue reading Defining the Meaning of Software Quality
Protect Your Tools when the Hardware Bites Back
I recently had an exciting experience where I was working with a client who was having I2C issues with a new board they had developed. To speed up the debugging process, I connected my I2C/SPI bus tool to their development board and custom-built hardware. Being able to view the I2C traffic would allow a quick … Continue reading Protect Your Tools when the Hardware Bites Back
The Hardware Abstraction Layer Design Process
Using a HAL is a great way to develop software that can be easily reused and ported from one application and platform to the next. Why would a developer want to do such a thing? For starters, reinventing the wheel over and over again gets pretty boring. I believe most developers want to be working … Continue reading The Hardware Abstraction Layer Design Process