Properly setting up interrupts on a microcontroller isn’t easy. The number of times an engineer has setup interrupts in their career doesn’t seem to make a difference. Configuring interrupts always has some gotcha hidden away that leaves the developer scratching their head and seeking answers in an obscure data sheet or online code snippet. Thankfully … Continue reading 10 Pain-free Steps to Configure an Interrupt Controller
Category: Software Techniques
CEC – Designing Embedded Systems using MicroPython
The C/C++ programming languages have long dominated the embedded systems industry, with very few other languages being able to find a foothold. The winds of change are upon us, however, and MicroPython may be the programming language you use to build your next product. Python’s shallow learning curve and the fact that even elementary-school students … Continue reading CEC – Designing Embedded Systems using MicroPython
5 Tips for Getting Started with Digital Signal Processing (DSP) on Arm Cortex®-M CPUs
Digital signal processing (DSP) provides developers with the ability to clean-up and analyze complex signals in a flexible and cost-efficient manner all from software. When developers typically think about DSP, they often picture expensive, dedicated processors, but modern microcontrollers, such as the Arm Cortex-M processors, now include DSP extensions that allow DSP algorithms to be … Continue reading 5 Tips for Getting Started with Digital Signal Processing (DSP) on Arm Cortex®-M CPUs
5 Embedded System Characteristics Every Engineer Should Monitor
No matter how complex an embedded system becomes, there are five key characteristics to every embedded system that develops should monitor closely. A few are obvious such as RAM and ROM usage; however, the others are often over looked by developers and can easily become a major sticking point in the design cycle. Characteristic #1 … Continue reading 5 Embedded System Characteristics Every Engineer Should Monitor
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
5 Benefits to replacing analog components with DSP software
The IoT is unleashing an unimaginable number of connected devices, many of which are sensor systems that are designed to sense and interact with the world around them. The world around us is analog and analog sensors are often used to provide the sensing mechanism to the microcontroller. Analog circuits are often big, bulky and … Continue reading 5 Benefits to replacing analog components with DSP software
7 Tips for Getting Started with TrustZone for MCU’s
The new Armv8-M architecture from arm® with its Cortex®-M23 and Cortex®-M33 processors is quickly gaining steam in the industry. The Armv8-M architecture includes a new security extension known as TrustZone that will revolutionize and forever change the way that embedded software developers create microcontroller-based systems. Below are my top seven tips to help you get … Continue reading 7 Tips for Getting Started with TrustZone for MCU’s
The Firmware Conundrum: Build or Buy
Every development team needs to make the decision as to whether they will design and build their software from scratch or buy software components. In many instances, the decision is not driven so much by a business decision as it is by engineer ego shouting, “I can do it faster and better than they can!”. … Continue reading The Firmware Conundrum: Build or Buy
Writing a Multi-Port ITM Function to Improve Debugging
In “Improve Debug Efficiency with the ITM”, I discussed how the ITM on the Arm® Cortex-M processors can be used to quickly, and efficiently print debug information to a coresight terminal. We saw that the ITM is extremely fast, much faster than a UART which minimizes the overhead associated with printing log and debug information … Continue reading Writing a Multi-Port ITM Function to Improve Debugging
7 Tips for Developing Great API’s
Embedded software developers have grown used to working at the lowest, nitty gritty hardware level within a microcontroller based system. Twiddling and manipulating bits and bytes is what embedded software developers were born to do. The embedded software industry is changing and that change is requiring developers to start working at higher levels of abstraction … Continue reading 7 Tips for Developing Great API’s