Embedded Computing Design

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.

The Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) provides a new approach to cybersecurity and outlines a great model for developers to follow. Like the name implies, you should trust no one, at least initially, and assume that all networks and traffic are potential threats.
 

Maher Matta, the President of the Americas division of Infineon Technologies agreed to join Rich and Vin on this podcast episode. The audience will likely relate to the route taken by Maher, as he came up through the engineering ranks, starting as a bench engineer. As you might expect, there were some bumps and bruises along the way. If you subscribe to the theory that the proof is in the pudding, the evidence is clear—the reign under Maher is working. The company is thriving and is a leader in many of the spaces in which it competes. Hear what Maher had to say about his rise through the ranks.

We’ve talked a lot about the software-defined vehicle. This week, we are discussing the electrification of that same automobile on the Embedded Executives podcast.As you might expect, it means removing some of the car's mechanical components and replacing them with electrical components. As Sayeed Ahmed, a director at Infineon Technologies, states, the benefits of doing that are great, but there are still some issues to be solved and some tradeoffs. It has to do with software, semiconductor technologies, and so on.

We spend a lot of time talking about the software-defined vehicle (SDV), and there are two very good reasons for that. One is that is it occurring, whether you know it or not or whether you want it or not. The second reason is that it is very complex, even if you’re just dealing with the HMI, as it all ties back together at some point.

To sort through the issues, I invited Marcelo Williams, a Global Senior Director for Infineon Technologies to be my guest on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

Great hardware is useless without great software, and vice versa. The hardware industry continues to evolve, as always, but the software side operates quite differently than it did in the past, thanks to the groundswell of open-source software.