I often find that developers initialize task code in seemingly random places throughout their application. This can make it difficult to make changes to the tasks, but more importantly just difficult to understand what all is happening in the application. It also makes it so that the application is not very scalable or easy to … Continue reading A Simple, Scalable RTOS Initialization Design Pattern
Category: RTOS
3 Common Challenges Facing RTOS Application Developers
Real-time operating systems (RTOS) are now included in many embedded applications. They can dramatically simplify time and task management in a system and help improve scalability and maintainability (if the application is designed correctly). I’ve found though that there are several common challenges that face RTOS application developers. Let’s examine these challenges and discuss a … Continue reading 3 Common Challenges Facing RTOS Application Developers
5 Tips for Developing an RTOS Application Software Architecture
Real-time operating systems (RTOS) are finding their way into nearly every IoT device. An RTOSes ability to manage low-level resources and complex timing requirements make them well suited for these applications. It is not uncommon though to struggle with how to design a software architecture that includes an RTOS. In today’s post, we will examine … Continue reading 5 Tips for Developing an RTOS Application Software Architecture
Simplify Debugging using RTOS Aware Debugging
Many embedded applications have reached a complexity level that requires them to use a real-time operating system (RTOS) to manage task timing, memory and many other activities within the application. Using an RTOS can be a welcome component to help simplify development but at the same time, an RTOS can add complexity and the potential … Continue reading Simplify Debugging using RTOS Aware Debugging
5 RTOS Best Practices for Designing RTOS-Based Applications
I often see developers struggling to properly write applications that use an RTOS. These struggles range from properly determining how many tasks to have in their system, how to set their priorities, coordinate task behavior, avoid common pitfalls and sometimes just making the application work! Nearly two-thirds of all embedded systems use an RTOS today … Continue reading 5 RTOS Best Practices for Designing RTOS-Based Applications
The Big Tech Cloud Wars Ramifications on the Embedded Industry
Several years ago, Amazon acquired the open source operating system FreeRTOS(TM) and with it, launched a new operating system named Amazon FreeRTOS(TM)? which provides developers working on IoT devices an integrated path to connect with Amazon Web Services (AWS). The idea seems simple, provide developers with a free method to connect to the cloud and … Continue reading The Big Tech Cloud Wars Ramifications on the Embedded Industry
7 Tips for Getting Started with Amazon FreeRTOS
Nearly every company at this moment is rushing to connect their products to the internet. The IoT has become the modern-day gold rush only the gold is data. Companies are discovering that by connecting their devices, they aren’t only able to change to a subscription-based business model but can innovate their products in ways they … Continue reading 7 Tips for Getting Started with Amazon FreeRTOS
Tools – Real-time Application Visualization Using Tracealyzer 4.2
It has often been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. When it comes to debugging embedded software, a picture is worth a hundred thousand lines of code. For most of my career, I’ve always felt apprehensive about running code on a target and verifying a few external features to say that the … Continue reading Tools – Real-time Application Visualization Using Tracealyzer 4.2
3 Ways to Perform a Worst-Case Stack Analysis
Figuring out how to size the stack for an embedded application and the tasks within it can be challenging. In many cases, developers will pick a value that they feel should be enough. These estimates are sometimes a little short, most of the time a gross estimation and rarely spot on. While I always encourage … Continue reading 3 Ways to Perform a Worst-Case Stack Analysis
Amazon FreeRTOS: Behind the Scenes
I recently wrote an article for embedded.com entitled “A Peek Inside Amazon FreeRTOS” where I started to analyze the high-level behavior that the Amazon FreeRTOS application exhibits while running on an STM32F475 IoT Discovery Node. In this post, I will continue the analysis by demonstrating how a developer can follow the communication flow and examine … Continue reading Amazon FreeRTOS: Behind the Scenes