Embedded TechCon Day 2 saw a large variety of topics being covered, more great discussion between our expert speakers, some development kit giveaways, and practical, hands-on labs.

Vijar Parmar, Business Development Manager, Connectivity Group at Anaren, went over Bluetooth Smart for embedded devices and included a giveaway of the Anaren Bluetooth Smart Development Kit. Vijay went over how to use the kit and Anaren’s Atmosphere platform.

Sari Germanos, Technology Marketing Manager at the Ethernet POWERLINK Standardization Group, talked mechatronics, networking technologies, and how to synchronize mechatronic systems with FPGAs and Industrial Ethernet.

Patrick Mannion moderated a great panel discussion on IoT security where David Kleidermacher, Senior Vice President and Head of Product Security at BlackBerry; Skip Ashton, VP of Software Engineering at Silicon Labs; Gary Davis, Chief Consumer Security Evangelist at Intel Security; Dr. Jacob Engblom, Product Line Manager at Wind River; and Eran Briman, VP of Marketing at CEVA, discussed various challenges and strategies with attendees. As a universally agreed upon important part of IoT development, there wasn’t much debate but a lot of great discussion between industry experts.

Stefan Milnor, Technical Fellow at Kontron, went over different board types that can be used for IoT systems, with an in-depth look at COTS boards, standard boards in PICMG, SGET, VITA, and PC/104, and custom and semi-custom boards.

David Kleidermacher came back after lunch to discuss automotive security. He discussed how the industry has been handling security, like patching, and how to best approach security in infotainment and other automotive systems. David emphasized assurance in security, and avoiding snake oil claims in security, and the need to improve security standards.

RC Cofer, Field Applications Engineer at Avnet, discussed FPGAs. He went over the top challenges and issues associated with development and tools, and the best design decisions in all areas of development.

Jean Labrosse, Founder, President, and CEO of Micrium, demonstrated bringing up an RTOS with a Renesas evaluation board and free access to Micrium’s uC/Probe visual tool for attendees in this hands-on lab. Participants received a kit to use during the live demonstration and conducted lab exercises to get a working knowledge of the system. It was a great way to end Day 2.