Role Of IoT Software Expanding


IoT software is becoming much more sophisticated and complex as vendors seek to optimize it for specific applications, and far more essential for vendors looking to deliver devices on-time and on-budget across multiple market segments. That complexity varies widely across the IoT. For example, the sensor monitoring for a simple sprinkler system is far different than the preventive maintenanc... » read more

Embedded Software: Sometimes Easier, Often More Complex


Embedded software, once a challenge to write, update, and optimize, is following the route of other types of software. It is abstracted, simpler to use, and much faster to write. But in some cases, it's also much harder to get right. From a conceptual level, the general definition of embedded software has not changed much. It's still low-level drivers and RTOSes that run close to the hardwar... » read more

The Changing Automotive Industry Landscape


By Lance Brooks and Brendan Morris Consumer demand for sophisticated highly connected vehicles that provide advanced features is forcing the global automotive industry to develop more advanced electrical and electronic (E/E) architectures. The increasing adoption of connected features in all categories and segments, including on and off-road vehicles, is also driving powerful smart features ... » read more

Big Changes In Embedded Software


Every good hardware or software design starts with a structured approach throughout the design cycle, but as chip architectures and applications begin focusing on specific domains and include some version of AI, that structure is becoming more difficult to define. Embedded software, which in the past was written for very narrow functions with a minimal footprint, is increasingly getting blended... » read more

Continuous Integration And Deployment Flows With Virtual Prototypes


Not so long ago, embedded software developers huddled side by side in chilly bring-up labs, integrating and testing their code on physical prototypes of the final systems. Beyond the inconvenience, there were two major issues with this approach. The cost of replicating prototypes across a large software team was considerable, and these systems had to be maintained and managed. It became common ... » read more

Two Methods For Debugging SW Workloads On Arm-Based SoCs


By Andy Meier and Tomasz Piekarz In a typical system-on-a-chip (SoC) development project, chip architects will make a given SoC's initial specification available to design teams years in advance of the silicon. As requirements change, they will modify both the hardware and software specifications. Typically, a large portion of the software development occurs much later in the development pro... » read more

Debugging Embedded Applications


Debugging embedded designs is becoming increasingly difficult as the number of observed and possible interactions between hardware and software continue to grow, and as more features are crammed into chips, packages, and systems. But there also appear to be some advances on this front, involving a mix of techniques, including hardware trace, scan chain-based debug, along with better simulation ... » read more

Shifting Vehicle System Development Left With Virtual ECUs


Developing electrical and electronic content for vehicles has always been an engineering and manufacturing challenge. The road is an exceptionally rough environment for components: temperature and humidity change constantly while noise and vibration pummel all parts of the vehicle. The nature of high-speed travel requires safety and reliability, which must be achieved in the presence of the dif... » read more

Embedded Processor Requirements And OS Choice


For each embedded product, software developers need to consider whether they need an operating system; and if so, what type of an OS. Operating systems vary considerably, from real-time operating systems with a very small memory footprint to general-purpose OSes such as Linux with a rich set of features. Choosing a proper type of operating system for your product – and consequently w... » read more

Embedded Multicore: Enablement Of Heterogeneous OSes And Mixed Criticality Systems


The implementation of multicore embedded systems is becoming increasingly common. The decision to realize a design using multiple processors may be influenced by a number of factors; broadly these are technical goals to attain, a time to market to achieve, and target design and production costs. Using multicore in a design requires a number of key decisions, which, as with most embedded systems... » read more

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