Embedded Computing Design

Just when you thought you’d done everything you could do with Bluetooth, along comes something new and unique. At a recent technical conference, I was witness to a very cool demo that was all based on Bluetooth. Rather than attempt to describe it myself, I asked Simon Ford, the Founder of Blecon, the company providing the demo, to explain what it is, how it works, and why it’s so difficult to achieve. Hear it on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

Common knowledge says that if you want to create an ASIC, you’d better have at least $1M in your bank account. The folks at Efabless say that my common knowledge is inaccurate by a long shot. They claim to be able to get folks started for far less than $100k.

I needed to understand how this is possible, so I invited Michael Wishart, the CEO and co-founder of Efabless, to explain how it works on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

At the LoRa Alliance, there’s a new sheriff in town. Alper Yegin is the group’s new CEO.

LoRaWAN, which stands for long range wide-area network, allows transmissions to occur at very low power, sometimes lasting many years without changing batteries.

Yegin believes the LoRaWAN spec is quite solid, but there’s always room for it to evolve. He feels that one of his primary tasks is increasing awareness and education around the standard. This can (and will) happen by increasing partnerships with complementary organizations, having more activity at industry events, and holding local meetups.

In this week’s Embedded Executives podcast, we also discuss how the spec competes in a crowded space and what the future holds.

Open tools are becoming the norm in the embedded software development space. And that’s definitely the case for Analog Devices’ CodeFusion Studio tool.

The IDE lets developers start with an SoC, and design their systems from there. The software development platform is based on Microsoft's Visual Studio Code (VS Code).

On this week’s Embedded Executives podcast, with Kumar Gala and Maureen Helm, both Distinguished Engineers with Analog Devices’ Software & Digital Platforms Group, we defined what “open” means in this space, then jumped into how and where a developer would get started.

What is the real definition of a software-defined vehicle (SDV)? It depends, mostly on who you are asking that question of.

I asked John Heinlein, the Chief Marketing Officer at Sonatus and he had a great response on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

We discussed the differences between various tiers of vehicles, how they are upgraded, and what we should be looking out for as we move forward.

Note that John has his podcast and was gracious enough to have me on as a guest recently. Hear that one here.

Is documentation an issue for your embedded project? Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to create that documentation yourself, yet have it be as good (or better) than you could do yourself?

That’s what the tool from Driver does. In full disclosure, I didn’t understand how the company’s technology worked, so I had a great discussion with Driver’s CEO and Co-Founder, Adam Tilton on this this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

With all the focus on AI and machine learning these days, we sometimes take other facets of design for granted, some of which are vital, like the wireless component.
 

I spent three days at electronica in Munich last month and saw some amazing technologies and products, in addition to meeting some old friends, and (hopefully) making some new ones. Rumor has it that there were about 80,000 attendees and almost 3,500 exhibitors, spread out over 18 halls. Oh, and it was cold, very cold.

What is rad-hard memory, and when and where should it be used? And what makes it different from conventional memory? The answers may seem obvious, but that’s not the case.

That’s exactly why I spoke to Helmut Puchner, Vice President and Fellow in the Aerospace and Defense division of Infineon Technologies in this week’s Embedded Executives podcast. Obviously, such memories cost more, so you want to be sure you understand when they need to be deployed and when they don’t.

The automobile's in-cabin user experience (UX) is undergoing some serious changes. We’re nearing the point where the automobile can be viewed as an office or entertainment center that also transports you from point A to point B.

With all those changes, it’s important to ensure that these non-mission-critical functions communicate with the mission-critical tasks at some point. To make sense of this, I spoke to Chet Babla, a Senior Vice President at indie Semiconductor on his week’s Embedded Executives podcast.