Embedded Computing Design

We’ve been talking a lot lately about what it means to be “real time.” In theory, it’s not something that’s achievable. But in practice, “good enough” is good enough for many applications.

New acronym alert—at least for me.

Since we’ve turned the page on a new year, it’s time to make some predictions.

Newark recently conducted a poll of Makers and Professional Makers, looking at their board choices, operating environments, architectures, and so on.

The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) continues to be a force to be reckoned with within our embedded space. And I mean that in a good way.

Arm’s SystemReady initiative is really picking up steam.

There’s been a confluence of negative trends as of late that are impacting the embedded design community.

There are many applications that require real-time interactions. Automotive certainly fits into that category. But the term “real time” is bothersome to me, as it’s not something that’s achievable.

According to the company, the Meta-Lidar Platform represents the industry’s smallest solid-state 3D sensing solution.

The more I dig into the Connectivity Standards Alliance, aka the CSA, the more intriguing it becomes.

EVs can be confusing from a “what voltage does it run at” perspective. We have the 12-V lead-acid batteries that have been around for decades. But there are many new sizes, types, chemistries, and voltages.

When designing your embedded system, the storage subsystem is not always at the top of the priority list.

We say it all the time: you are going to get hacked! The most important factor at this point is to minimize the damage when the inevitable occurs.

Acquisitions in our space are pretty common. Sometimes they make a lot of sense, sometimes they make me scratch my head.

ISI, or Interconnect Systems International, was acquired by Molex in the recent past. The company is in the manufacturing space, particularly in terms of packaging, at both the chip and board levels. That puts the company in an interesting position when it comes to the chip shortage, as the company’s engineers have the ability to help customers redesign the boards to accommodate for different parts to replace those that simply are not available. To that end, I spoke with Tom Casey, a Vice President at ISI to hear how that’s working out. Check out this week’s Embedded Executives podcast to hear Tom’s thoughts.

On this episode the Insiders track the return of analog computing.  Mythic is a company looking to revolutionize AI computing through an  innovative matrix processor that processes analog signals in on-chip  memory before outputting them to the digital domain. Where does this tech fit today?

If you could operate WiFi at the power levels typically associated with Bluetooth, do you really need Bluetooth anymore? I would think not, because WiFi offers so much more functionality, particularly the longer range. However, as this is usually the case, the answer is, “not so fast.” I asked that question (and many more) of Rob McCormick, a Director at InnoPhase, a company that specializes in low-power WiFi. He set me straight—for now. Check out this week’s Embedded Executives podcast to hear why.