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Embedded Software
Industry Insider
Over $25 Billion: Total Size of the Embedded Software Engineering Market A series of Embedded Systems Market Statistics reports from Venture Development Corporation ResearchRead More...
USB 3.0 Boosts Speed 10x, Broadens Embedded-Systems Applicability
USB has become the interface of choice for many PC and consumer products, having reached an installed base of more than six billion units and counting. It is the ubiquitousRead More...
COMs vs. SBCs: Forward Thinking Helps Make the Best Embedded Choices
The end application of any design typically helps define the choice of the computing form factor used. From there, the desired level of performance and scalability can be built intoRead More...
Recent Trends in FPGAs Drive Adoption in Mil Apps
The adoption of FPGAs into rugged applications continues to increase at a rapid pace thanks to a number of factors. These factors, which make FPGAs more attractive and easier toRead More...
APIX Starter Kit for Development of Robust, Inexpensive Control Units
APIX Starter Kit for Development of Robust, Inexpensive Control Units Automotive Pixel Link (APIX) technology was originally developed for transferring image data in vehicles,Read More...
Building Fault Tolerance into Embedded Data Management
Small resource-constrained applications are getting so complex that we can’t even start comparing the requirements from 10 years back with what we see today. Nonetheless there has beenRead More...
Concept to Reality: An Application Architecture with MicroTCA
Much has been written about the virtues of MicroTCA platforms and AdvancedMC (AMC) modules. Both of these technologies have been maturing and there are now numerous options andRead More...
USB and StackableUSB: Enabling Efficiency and Scaling for Embedded Designs
Board-level system designers have benefited from Moore’s Law of exponential improvement in size, cost, density and speed over the years as processor boards have packed more horsepowerRead More...
Eurotech—from Sensors to Supercomputers
What kind of embedded computing company also produces Petascale supercomputers—computers running at over 1,000 Teraflops—and considers them integral to their embedded business? TheRead More...
Graphics Processors Running General-Purpose Code Set to Revolutionize Embedded Computing
The quest for ever higher performance in embedded computing has seen successive generations of microprocessor come and go, with quad core the latest to rise to the challenge. DSP andRead More...
RTI DDS Selected for Upgrade of Grand Coulee Dam’s Control System
Real-Time Innovations has announced that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has selected RTI Data Distribution Service (DDS) for an upgrade of the Grand Coulee Dam’s control system.Read More...
CPU Architectures Bring C Programmability into Formerly Specialized Devices
Given all the hardware assists that are continually appearing to speed specialized parts of applications such as I/O, signal conditioning, graphics processing, signal processing, etc.,Read More...
Beyond Drivers: The Critical Role of System Software Stack Architecture in SoC Hardware Development
It’s no secret in the semiconductor industry that software development costs for a new system-on-chip (SoC) can exceed the hardware development costs by a significant margin. HavingRead More...
Embedded Database Upgrade for Scalability and Flexibility in Real-Time Apps
Embedded Database Upgrade for Scalability and Flexibility in Real-Time Apps With version 4.0 of its flagship eXtremeDB embedded database product, McObject offersRead More...
Technology Advancements Enable Accelerated Development of Digital Signage Deployments
Companies are embracing digital signage as never before. One cannot step inside a retail store, airport or healthcare facility without seeing a kiosk or video display. And, there isRead More...
Development Platform Features Blackfin Processor and .NET Micro Framework
Development Platform Features Blackfin Processor and .NET Micro Framework A new VITA 57-compatible development platform features the Analog Devices Blackfin BF518F processor and alsoRead More...
Development Platform Features New Texas Instruments Multicore DSP
Development Platform Features New Texas Instruments Multicore DSP An off-the¬-shelf multiprocessor, multicore development solution features dual Texas Instruments (TI)Read More...
Tools for Motor Control Improve Efficiency and Performance and Reduce Development Time
Tools for Motor Control Improve Efficiency and Performance and Reduce Development Time Two new low-cost development systems enable the rapid development for motor controlRead More...
Embedded Technology, Multicore, and Virtualization. Are You Keeping Up?
The embedded design world has changed markedly over the last decade, and the progress shows no sign of slowing. Multicore processing (in the form of both symmetric multiprocessingRead More...
Life in the Cloud (sans Harp and Halo)
Sometimes a minor observation can lead you to realize that the world around you is fundamentally changing. Last week I went in for my yearly physical, which of course always involvesRead More...
Capacitive Touch Development Suite for Atmel AVR Microcontrollers
Capacitive Touch Development Suite for Atmel AVR Microcontrollers A complete development suite for capacitive touch buttons, sliders and wheels using AVR microcontrollers fromRead More...
Multicore Silicon and Virtualization Software—Made for Each Other
Embedded virtualization is finding increasing deployment in intelligent devices of all kinds. As in the enterprise and on the corporate desktop, embedded virtualization meets the needsRead More...
USB Offers Many Choices for Use in Embedded Systems
USB is not a peer-to-peer protocol like Ethernet. One USB device, called the USB host, acts as the master. Other USB devices, called USB devices or USB peripherals, act as slaves. TheRead More...
Advancing Advances in Technology
Two innovative companies have different takes on what could be called “conventional advanced technologies”—graphics and wireless networks. Both highlight ways these slightly differentRead More...
Intel’s “Tunnel Creek”—A New Thrust for the Atom into Embedded
What is a system-on-chip? Maybe we thought we knew, but the definition seems to be shifting and that has some interesting implications for the embedded space. Time was, an SoC wasRead More...
The Multicore Developer's Toolbox
All major embedded processor architectures—ARM, Intel, MIPS and Power—have spawned multicore processors, and designers across a range of industries are snapping them up due to theRead More...
Energy Management in Multicore Designs with Embedded Virtualization
Energy conservation is increasingly an important requirement in the design of computer systems. In the desktop and server space the main driver is the cost of electricity and airRead More...
New Intel Processor Family Extends the Embedded Span of x86
With the announcement of a new family of processors and chipsets, Intel is enhancing its CPU offerings for the desktop and mobile space while also tailoring some of them to theRead More...
Software Quality a Matter of Life or Death—and Not Just for the User.
I think it started with that little “check engine” light. I had for some years been blissfully driving a number of cars that were equipped with the enigmatic little light but hadRead More...
Hypervisor Enables MSI Support for all Operating Systems
A bare metal (Type 1) hypervisor allows the execution of real-time operating systems (RTOSs) in parallel to operating systems like Linux or Microsoft Windows XP without adding anyRead More...
nanoETXexpress Starterkit for Wind River VxWorks
A new Atom Processor-based COM Express-compatible nanoETXexpress Starterkit for the latest VxWorks platform is designed to enable easy and efficient development and validation ofRead More...
On-Chip Debug Solutions Support ARM Cortex-A8
The ARM Cortex-A8 processor now has a full debug suite available with on-chip debug technology. The Cortex-A8 is ARM’s first superscalar processor featuring technology for enhancedRead More...
Embedded Application Lifecycle Management Solution Targets 50% Cost Reduction
Embedded Application Lifecycle Management Solution Targets 50% Cost Reduction A new end-to-end application lifecycle management (ALM) system for the embedded space merges productRead More...
Multicore Trace Tool Enables Event Analysis
A new multicore-enabled development tool enables embedded developers to visualize and better understand the behavior of their real-time systems by showing thread and core activityRead More...
Industrial Automation Software Supports Controller Redundancy, User Interface, Reporting, Trending and Alerts
A full set of software applications and utilities for the Snap Pac System of automaton controllers from Opto22 provides control programming, HMI development, OPC connectivity,Read More...
Power, Processing and Communication
When we talk about embedded systems, the word “power” is commonly associated with two other words: heat and processing. Sometimes it is easy to confuse them, but both are central toRead More...
Gap Remains Between Multi-core Potential and Software Realization
VDC’s embedded hardware and systems research practice recently surveyed over 200 embedded developers who were using multicore processors. The results showed that there is still a majorRead More...
Autonomous UIs—A New Path for Customizing Application Look, Feel and Function
Embedded computing has its roots in industrial automation and instrumentation. The vast majority of traditional systems was headless, or communicated with operators and other usersRead More...
Low-Power in Small Systems Made Simple
Developing a power management plan is a critical step in embedded systems design. Consumers and manufacturers alike value long battery life, and engineers must focus on the same endRead More...
Look Before You Leap: Hypervisors Present New Design Challenges for Embedded Developers
Increasingly, hypervisors are being touted as a solution for consolidating multiple systems or applications onto a single piece of hardware. Using a hypervisor offers several potentialRead More...
Hypervisors Ease the World of Multicore Processors
In the realm of high-performance embedded 32-and 64-bit devices, it is becoming increasingly difficult to buy a single core processor. This means that systems that have beenRead More...
Tightly Integrated Devices Yield More Efficient Motor Control
Motor controls are comprised of the power electronics that control the application of voltage and current to the motor. Digital motor controllers manage the power electronics toRead More...
Ensuring Software Quality in Embedded Medical Devices
The term “medical device” is used to refer to any item that treats, diagnoses, prevents or monitors patients. This ranges from simple stethoscopes, to teleoperated surgical devices, toRead More...
Advanced Static Analysis: Evaluating Tools to Optimize ROI
Advanced static-analysis tools have become popular in recent years because they are capable of finding serious programming errors that might otherwise go undetected. UnlikeRead More...
Windows Embedded Compact 7 Supports Connectivity from Device to Enterprise
Microsoft has just unveiled the public community technology preview (CTP) for Windows Embedded Compact 7, the next generation of Microsoft’s Windows Embedded Compact platform forRead More...
Java Tackles Multi-Core Complexity
As VLSI transistor densities continue to rise, microprocessor vendors are increasingly turning toward multicore architectures as the most effective utilization of availableRead More...
Time to Rethink Software Testing for Embedded Devices
Whether they realize it yet or not, test teams and their software development colleagues at embedded product companies are headed for trouble—or are knee-deep in it already. There isRead More...
Medical Device Software: Why Has It Gone Code Red?
An FDA analysis of 3,140 medical device recalls conducted between 1992 and 1998 reveals that 79% of software-related recalls were caused by software defects introduced when changesRead More...
Security Considerations in Embedded I/O Virtualization
In any embedded system, there is inevitably a need for sharing a limited set of physical I/O peripherals across workloads. The embedded operating system provides abstractions, such asRead More...
DDS Component Links Incompatible Network System Interfaces to Build Multisystem Applications
By now, the world is familiar with machine-to-machine (M2M) systems in which autonomous or semi-autonomous nodes communicate and share data over a dedicated network to operate as anRead More...
CE Goes Multicore: Microsoft Windows Embedded Compact 7
Microsoft sells two operating systems tailored to the embedded community, confusingly named Windows Embedded Standard 7 and Windows Embedded Compact 7. Windows Embedded Standard 7Read More...
Newest Embedded Technology Used by Industry Leaders
10 GigE Switches Provide IP Carrier Class Routing on 6U cPCI, VME and VPX A family of switches supports jumbo frames, full-wire speed Layer 2 bridging as well as Layer 3 UnicastRead More...
USB I/O for the Embedded OEM
With the advent of the serial interconnect such as PCI Express and USB, the most obvious reaction and approach for designing new I/O has been to continue with just offering a connectorRead More...
The World of Embedded Systems Continues to Expand—but How Far into the Consumer Realm?
The editorial page in a magazine can, in our opinion, be used in a number of ways. Mostly it is used to express an opinion or perspective regarding the editorial focus of theRead More...
Transforming Code Analysis with Visualization
Code analysis tools for finding programming defects in large code bases have proven very popular in recent years because they are effective at improving software quality. These toolsRead More...
Storing Device Data in the Cloud
In the past few years, the business world has adopted a new buzzword—cloud computing. Although many industries are embracing cloud computing, the embedded device market has yet to findRead More...
Industry Insider
LynuxWorks and Themis Team to Demonstrate Rugged and Secure Server Solutions LynuxWorks and Themis Computer have announced that they have teamed up to demonstrate a new rugged,Read More...
Tracing Requirements through to Verification: Improve current practices for standards compliance
Recent quality concerns are driving many industries to start looking seriously at ways to improve the quality of software development. Not surprisingly, there are marked differences inRead More...
Windows 7 Goes Embedded
Windows Embedded Standard 7 (WES 7) takes the latest Windows desktop operating system, Windows 7, into the embedded space just as its predecessors, Windows XP Embedded and Windows NTRead More...
Software Verification Tool Boosts Automation and Transparency of Test Process
A test management and traceability component for the LDRA tool suite increases automation of verification tasks and result retrieval to complete workflow integration. TBmanager is aRead More...
Hypervisors Leverage Multicore Processors for Embedded Systems
The newest multicore processors contain hardware-assisted virtualization features that enable hypervisors to be constructed in such a way that they can support multiple operatingRead More...
Pick the Right Operating System for Your Consumer Device
Innovative consumer electronics products have replaced business information technology systems as the major force driving the electronics industry. The explosive growth in this marketRead More...
Power Debugging the Software: Optimizing the Power Consumption of an Embedded System
Power debugging is a methodology that provides software developers with information about how the software implementation in an embedded system affects system-level power consumption.Read More...
Large Operating Systems Have Embraced Embedded. Did Anyone Notice?
Here’s a riddle: What do Windows CE, Linux and Java all have in common? Answer: They were all originally designed with no thought to their use in embedded and real-timeRead More...
Safe Software: Things to Consider when Building Products that Can Cause Injury
A fair number of developers in the embedded software industry are now building products that are considered to be moderate or high level of concern devices. This terminology means thatRead More...
Android—Google’s Mobile Platform and its Capabilities for Embedded
Google Android deployment has been rising steadily since the introduction of the mobile/embedded OS in 2008. While most adoption has centered on building smartphones and moreRead More...
Advanced Controls Enable Airborne Wind Power Generation
Just a few thousand feet above our heads blows a vast untapped resource that could supply civilization with ample quantities of cheap, clean and abundant energy. No leaps of scienceRead More...
The End of an Era for Source Code
Software development engineers are front and center of the revolution in the capabilities of smart products. Embedded software in products ranging from agricultural machines toRead More...
Challenges and Opportunities For The Medical Device Industry: Meeting The New IEC 62304 Standard
The recent IEC 62304 standard for medical device software is causing companies worldwide to step back and examine their software development processes with considerable scrutiny.Read More...
Real-Time Java Virtual Machine Undergoes Overhaul
Since 1997, the PERC Ultra virtual machine has enabled developers of Java applications to deploy in contexts that require compliance with real-time constraints. Unlike traditionalRead More...
A Static Analysis Approach to Identifying Defects in Multithreaded, Multicore Designs
Multithreading adds entirely new classes of potential bugs to those that must be considered by developers. At the same time, the nondeterminism and sheer number of possibilitiesRead More...
Power Debugging—Minimizing Power Consumption by Tuning the Code
For a vast number of embedded, handheld and mobile devices—most of which are battery operated—minimizing power consumption is a goal of ever-increasing importance. Low-power CPUs nowRead More...
Use Power Debug to Optimize Software for Minimal Power Consumption
Long battery lifetime is an essential characteristic for embedded systems in market segments ranging from medical to consumer electronics. Traditionally, minimizing powerRead More...
Downloadable Modules Ease Memory Constraints in Small Embedded Systems
Embedded systems have always found themselves between a rock and a hard place with regard to the amount of memory available for their software and data. More is always desirable,Read More...
Reducing the Cost of Developing Safe, Secure and Resilient Industrial Control Systems
The cost of developing and certifying control systems that are safe, secure and resilient continues to escalate due to increasing complexity, demands for increased assurance andRead More...
The Yocto Project: New Possibilities for Intelligent Embedded Systems?
Anyone familiar with the embedded technology industry will acknowledge that the approaches to developing embedded systems are very fragmented. They are fragmented in the way theRead More...
Wind River Unveils Graphics-Rich Linux Platform
The latest Linux 4, Update Pack 2, is the latest release of Wind River’s commercial embedded Linux runtime and development platform. The company says it is the first commercialRead More...
Software Systems Collaborate on Security and Resilience for Cloud Deployments
LynuxWorks and TransLattice have announced that they have ported the TransLattice Application Platform 2.0 onto the latest version of the LynxSecure separation kernel andRead More...
Embedded Systems and Digital Signage: A Natural Fit
When it comes to digital signage, the present looks nothing like the past. Traditionally, these devices, in the form of billboards, kiosks and monitors, were simple electronic screensRead More...
The Windows Embedded Legacy Continues with Windows Embedded 8 Standard
In the past we would have been referring to Windows 8 as the latest desktop version of the popular Microsoft Windows operating system. However, this release of Windows has beenRead More...
App Servers and Lua Scripting Speed Rich Web Applications for Small Devices
Running a business used to be straightforward. You had development and production and marketing and sales, little of which had fundamentally changed for decades or more. And thenRead More...
Changing Demands Are Changing the Role and Applicability of SoCs and ASICs
Companies building embedded systems that depend on SoCs and ASICs have reached a tipping point. They cannot continue to meet their customers’ increasingly aggressive product-featureRead More...
ARM Debugger Adds New Support and Features
An updated version of an ARM debugger includes many new features. SourcePoint from Arium includes support for a lineup of JTAG-based debuggers and trace port analyzers (TPA). ThisRead More...
Requirements Engineering Today
Requirements engineering is the process of determining user expectations for a new or modified product. That sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Of course, those who are in the field ofRead More...
Future Proofing through Portable Software
Developing and deploying an embedded device is a complex and risky task. The embedded systems market is constantly changing as customers demand higher performance, more features and aRead More...
Common Weakness and Enumeration—Tracing the Path to Industrial Security
Cost reduction is the primary driver for connecting critical infrastructure components to the Internet. Utility meter reading and the control and monitoring of remote plantsRead More...
New Levels of Hardware Integration with LabVIEW 2011
National Instruments has unveiled NI LabView 2011, the 25th-anniversary version of its award-winning system design software. LabView accelerates the productivity of engineers andRead More...
Designing ASP-Type Devices: What Does it Take?
An Application Services Platform, or ASP, a name coined by RTC Editor-in-Chief Tom Williams, is a new class of IC that combines a CPU, a standard set of configurable peripherals and aRead More...
Platform Provides Lifecycle Management, Security, Safety and Reliability for Smart Grid Devices
A Next Generation Platform for Smart Energy provides a robust and expandable end-to-end solution for intelligent electronic device development and deployment including: optimizedRead More...
Android Poised to Move from Phones and Tablets to Wider Embedded Applications
It’s happened before. The development of a compelling operating system and/or software system envisioned for purposes unrelated to the unique needs of embedded and real-time systemsRead More...
Tool Suite Extension Offers Certification Validation for Altera Nios II Soft Core Processors
The LDRA tool suite offers independent verification support across the full development lifecycle from certification objectives of standards to requirements, code and target testing.Read More...
Windows Embedded POSReady 7: The Right Choice for Digital Signage
On July 1, 2011, Microsoft released their newest Embedded Operating System, POSReady 7. The previous versions of POSReady were well accepted and hold a dominant marketshare positionRead More...
ARM Yourself
If, like most SFF board suppliers, you’ve spent your career building x86-based embedded PCs, you must feel challenged by the announcements coming out of Embedded World regarding newRead More...
Approaches to Inter-OS Communication and Messaging for Multicore – Multi OS Systems
The fact that embedded hypervisors can be used to run multiple operating systems independently in parallel and under real-time constraints on multicore platforms has become publicRead More...
Harnessing the Potential of Multicore Processors for Real-Time Applications
Multicore processing provides many opportunities to the embedded community, including the potential to scale applications while using the same code. In spite of this, many within theRead More...
A Requirements Engineering Solution for Embedded Systems
The IRQA Systems Engineering Template, an extension to the IRQA Requirements Engineering Suite from Visure Solutions, is designed to address the challenges of increasingly complexRead More...
32-Bit Mixed-Signal MCUs Offer Easy Configuration of Rich Peripheral Set
A new microcontroller family offers a highly integrated, flexible architecture, a rich peripheral set, ultra-low-power, and Eclipse-based development tools that are downloadable at noRead More...
Linux OS-Based AMP Solution Supports Xilinx Zynq-7000 EPP
An open-source Linux OS with Asymmetric Multi-Processing (AMP) support for the Xilinx extensible processing platform (EPP), enables developers to put Zynq-7000 devices to work onRead More...
Accelerated Processing Units and Multicore Programming Innovation at the Cusp of Machine-to-Machine
Heterogeneous system architectures promise to transform many applications and the usability of machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions in these applications, enabling reliable and real-timeRead More...
Meeting Regulatory Demands—Is There Help from the World of IT?
Once upon a time in the early days of embedded systems, developers were tinkerers working on relatively small and dedicated projects—a braking controller, a vending machine, variousRead More...
Wireless HD Video Streaming: Struggling toward a Standard Solution
The world of high definition video took its time getting firmly established in the consumer space in the form of HDTV, which has since become practically so ubiquitous that we loseRead More...
Services Streamline FAA/EASA Certification at a Fixed Price
A comprehensive and fully compliant FAA/EASA certification solution brings together a team of certification industry experts who are fully accredited across all aviation disciplinesRead More...
Microchip Simplifies C Compiler Line, Optimizes Execution Speed and Code Size
Microchip Technology has simplified its line of C compilers that provide the best execution speed and code size for all ~900 PIC microcontrollers (MCUs) and dsPIC Digital SignalRead More...
Android—At Last A Ubiquitous Embedded OS?
This article is the third in a series written for RTC discussing the potential and reality for developing and deploying embedded systems using Android. The first, “Android Moves BeyondRead More...
Power Architecture Combines Rich Features for Embedded
Power Architecture processing technology is the common thread for a very broad range of devices, based on 32/64-bit Architecture. It is a ubiquitous architecture with more than aRead More...
Once the Network Was the Computer. Now the Network Is the World.
It is sometimes amazing how things develop in ways we never expected. Let us consider the humble “app.” Now, the word “app” is nothing new. It has long been used as an abbreviation toRead More...
Android Goes Beyond Google
As of Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), Android as delivered by Google is a software platform largely targeted at the mobile handset and tablet market. The Google Android software developmentRead More...
Software Platform with Enhanced Tools for Optimal Multicore Performance
A multicore software platform consists of a bundle of productivity tools and a runtime communications engine that simplifies the process of migrating to and developing applications forRead More...
Industrial Computers in Safety-Critical Applications: Out of the Ordinary
Wherever you go these days, chances are you have to put your faith in some type of electronic system that is controlling all kinds of equipment and amenities in our lives, and theRead More...
Out of the Passenger’s Seat: Requirements Traceability to Drive the Software Development Process
Requirements traceability has become ubiquitous in the software development process. While useful in many environments, it is especially so in regard to safety-critical systems. TheRead More...
Parallel Computing with AMD Fusion-Based Computer-on-Modules
Embedded computing tasks are getting more and more demanding across all applications. The same applies to the processors, which must be flexible and customizable in order to encode orRead More...
Secure Hypervisor Offers Increased Endpoint and Server Protection
A new version of a secure hypervisor has been designed to offer military-grade protection for the latest generation of laptops, desktops, servers and embedded systems, helping protectRead More...
Retooling Applications to Ride on Multiple Cores
It goes without saying that today multicore processors are all the rage. As silicon manufacturers attempted to obtain increased performance by simply flogging the clock faster, theyRead More...
Unlocking the Potential of a Multi-Touch Experience
Today’s smartphones and tablets have awakened the world to the capabilities and ease of use of multi-touch systems. Innovative OEMs, ODMs and systems integrators are designingRead More...
SequenceL: An Elegant and Efficient Approach to Exploiting the Power of Parallelism
In 2004 CPU providers made a major shift; rather than increasing the clock speed to increase the performance of each new chip generation, they began to add more processors cores toRead More...
Platform for Automotive Digital Instruments Targets Next-Generation Clusters and Telematics
Unlike legacy clusters in automobiles, which often run simple OSEK kernels, next-generation designs require a partitioning real-time system that can support a challenging combinationRead More...
Multi-Core Software: To Gain Speed, Eliminate Resource Contention
Deployment on multicore CPUs should make software faster by enabling tasks to run in parallel rather than waiting for a time slice on a single core. But in practice, parallelRead More...
Secure Remote Management Technologies Support Embedded Platforms
A rise in the level of network integration and ever larger bandwidth have paved the way for increasingly complex, remote IT management of embedded systems. Remotely managing andRead More...
Cloud Operating System Supplements Supplied Embedded OS
The practice of supplying complex embedded systems (COMs = Computer-on-Modules, SOMs = System-on-Modules) together with a specific operating system is the norm for nearly allRead More...
The Old-Timer in the Background – I2C Bus as a Cost Cutter on Small Form Factors
I²C is capable of assigning up to 1136 addresses configured as master or slave. While it is not the be all and end all in communications, it interfaces proprietary functional unitsRead More...
Tool Verifies Test Coverage Completeness
A stand-alone code coverage tool verifies that the source code of an application has been fully structurally tested. LDRAcover from LDRA responds to the needs of companies that wish toRead More...
OpenCL Programming: Parallel Processing Made Faster and Easier than Ever
Parallel processing isn’t really new. It has been around in one form or another since the early days of computing. As traditional CPUs have become multicore parallel processors, withRead More...
Need a Many-Core Strategy?
Most experts agree that the era of Moore’s law driving endless performance increases of legacy processors is ending, even though the transistor count may continue to climb.Read More...
Vote!
’Tis the season once again. Politicians seek elected offices, and we choose them by casting votes. Majority wins, and the weight of individual votes are equal. Winners go on toRead More...
Digital Home Devices to Offer Increased Opportunities for Embedded OEMs
With embedded systems spreading well beyond industrial environments, they have become pervasive in peoples’ everyday lives. The trick has been to design such systems so that theRead More...
Safety and Multimedia Collide in Next-Generation Automobiles
At last year’s CES trade show, I saw a snazzy car demo in which each rear-seat passenger had a different high-definition movie playing on the two screens mounted on seat backs.Read More...
JTAG Boundary Scan Tester/Programmer Relieves Users of Detailed Setup
A Universal JTAG Boundary Scan Tester and Programmer can be utilized as a production run time and application development system for performing circuit card assembly (CCA)Read More...
Industry Insider
Intel has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Wind River Systems, under which Intel will acquire all outstanding Wind River common stock for $11.50 per share in cash, orRead More...
Point Tool Enforces Programming Rules
A programming rule checker brings together a collection of rules from a broad spectrum of programming standards with the goal of improving software quality and consistency. ImplementedRead More...
Source Code Static Analysis Tool for Java
A source code static analysis tool is now available for Java. CodeSonar for Java from Grammatech works on all Java code, including code written for Android. The analysis flags qualityRead More...
Embedded Real-time Monitoring and Control Platform Based on NI LabVIEW
A new monitoring and control platform for embedded applications is distinguished by the fact that it is a third-party product designed to be programmable with the LabView system designRead More...
Simplify Development with Cost-Effective Bootloading Using I2C/SMBus Interfaces
Adding bootloading capabilities to embedded applications provides the framework to update firmware running on a microcontroller (MCU) at any time. This capability is beneficial ifRead More...
New Release Extends Data Distribution Service Infrastructure
Real-Time Innovations (RTI) has released the next generation of its RTI Connext product family. With over 70 new features, the latest release of RTI Connext provides a much moreRead More...
Making Embedded Systems More Secure with Windows Embedded Standard 7
Microsoft’s Windows Embedded Business supplies OEMs with platforms and technologies for embedded systems. Released in the spring of 2010, Windows Embedded Standard 7 delivers theRead More...
Development Tools Are Key for FPGA SoCs
Embedded designers have practiced heterogeneous computing by combining microprocessors and FPGAs within embedded systems since the advent of commercially viable FPGAs. FPGAsRead More...
Tools Support Advanced Development of Multicore Linux-Based Embedded System
A next-generation tool set aims at optimizing multicore performance in Linux-based embedded systems. The Embedded Sourcery CodeBench and Sourcery Analyzer products from Mentor GraphicsRead More...
Virtualization Software Enables Development of RTOS Applications to Run Alongside Windows or Stand-Alone
An updated release of INtime for Windows and the new INtime Distributed RTOS from TenAsys provide a new level of flexibility for embedded system developers in reducing system-levelRead More...
Integrated Gesture Recognition Coming to Consumer Devices and Beyond
The world is becoming well-accustomed to interacting with our devices via touchscreens. How many of us have sat at a desktop and instinctively tried to scroll with our finger only toRead More...
What Coding Standards Can Do for Critical Embedded Software Development
Reviews of faults and failures in high-reliability embedded systems ranging from medical devices to military systems show that all too frequently the source of the problem lies inRead More...
Trends in Mobility and Their Implications for Digital Signage – Revisited
It can be said that digital signage is a twenty-first century technology that uses 1950s measurement methodologies to quantify viewer engagement habits. It can also be said thatRead More...
Extension Microcontroller Card with Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC
An evaluation platform is fitted with a Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC that incorporates a range of peripheral functions and consists of an ARM Cortex-A9 MPcore with on-chipRead More...
Checking Rules for C: Assuring Reliability and Safety
At this point in the embedded industry, the C language has become not only the most widely used programming language, but almost the lingua franca of the whole computer world,Read More...
Developing Embedded Hybrid Code Using OpenCL
In recent years, the mechanism by which incremental computational performance has been achieved has shifted from clock speed to a proliferation of processing cores. This shift, beingRead More...
Linux or Android: Which Is Right for Your Next Design?
If your next device application will deploy a 32- or 64-bit processor and TCP/IP networking, chances are good that you are already considering either Linux or Android as yourRead More...
USB 3.0 Brings New Connection Capabilities to System Design
USB 3.0 has hit mass production. Not only is it mainstream in PCs, with support from Microsoft, Apple and Intel as a standard feature of mainstream products, it’s quickly migratingRead More...
Four Companies Team to Jumpstart x86 Developer Community for APUs
With the introduction of a small development kit, a group of four companies has launched GizmoSphere to foster innovation and development for x86-based embedded acceleratedRead More...
Adding Secure Boot Capability to Embedded Processors
Security threats to embedded systems have escalated to an unprecedented level with routine reports of serious intrusions or compromise. A recent presentation by a Navy securityRead More...
ARM Architecture Offers Challenges Along with Features to Help Meet Them
Embedded developers who create systems using the ARM architecture face challenges similar to developers who use other architectures. Some of these challenges involve initializingRead More...
Visualization Tool Enhancements Simplify Defect Detection
New enhancements to the CodeSonar software architecture visualization tool from Grammatech include a new tree map view designed to allow users to easily see the hierarchicalRead More...
Low-Power Development Tools Come with Supercapacitor-Charged Demo Board
Today’s highly integrated, high-performance and low-power processors demand accompanying tools that can enable configuration of the underlying silicon components to meet specializedRead More...
New Approaches to Combating Rootkits
Many computer security problems involve some form of malware that attempts to infiltrate a computer and subvert its security for nefarious purposes. A rootkit is a particular type ofRead More...
How Fast Can You Design an Embedded System with SoC FPGAs?
A new generation of devices integrates a popular microprocessor architecture—most popularly an ARM core—with its own extensive dedicated peripherals set, a large FPGA fabric withRead More...
Major Updates to Leading Tools for Low-Power Renesas MCUs
A new version of the development tool suite for Renesas RL78 MCU adds a large amount of new functionality for code writing and debugging. Among the improvements to the IAR EmbeddedRead More...
What’s Going on in My Multicore System?
Real-time systems must react quickly to external and internal demands. When a system uses a multicore architecture, the speed and number of interactions rises sharply. While thisRead More...
Encryption Engine Secures ASIC-Powered Devices
A compact, fast cryptographic engine delivers high-performance security and extends secure connectivity for resource-constrained, small-footprint processors to low-cost, high-volumeRead More...
Standardizing APIs across Fabric Interconnects Speeds Development and Performance in Multifabric Systems
The parallel buses have served the market very well for a few decades with a number of tuning and other enhancements applied to them to improve their speeds and capabilities. In manyRead More...
Real-Time PC Development System for Software Radio Applications
A new PC development system is pre-configured to speed application development for the expansive family of Pentek Cobalt Virtex-6 and Onyx Virtex-7 FPGA PCI Express software radio andRead More...
Using OpenCL for Network Acceleration
Microprocessor designs are trending in favor of a higher number of cores per socket versus increased clock speed. Increasingly, more cores are being integrated on the same die to fullyRead More...
Software PLC Technology Available for Altera Cyclone V SoCs
ARM Cortex A architectures provide new cost-effective and flexible options for automation technology. The ProConOS embedded CLR (eCLR) runtime system from KW-Software provides allRead More...
Facing the Needs of Today’s Connected Embedded Devices
The embedded device market is exploding, with the “Internet of Things” predicting tens of billions of connected embedded devices being online by 2015. Many of these embedded devicesRead More...
LDRA Integration with Lauterbach TRACE32 Simplifies Code Analysis, Test and Certification
LDRA, a tool provider in standards compliance, automated software verification, source code analysis and test tools, has integrated the LDRA tool suite with the Lauterbach Trace32Read More...
RTOS Adds New Security Features to Protect Embedded Connected Devices
The next generation of the LynxOS real-time operating system (RTOS) from LynuxWorks, LynxOS 7.0, is designed to enable embedded developers to add security functionality to theirRead More...
Establishing a New Virtual Prototyping Methodology for Hardware/Software Co-Design
In the early days of embedded systems, most of the design effort was focused on hardware rather than software. However, as embedded systems grew in complexity, demanding moreRead More...
Using OpenCL for Network Acceleration
Microprocessor designs are trending in favor of a higher number of cores per socket versus increased clock speed. Increasingly, more cores are being integrated on the same die to fullyRead More...
Standardizing APIs across Fabric Interconnects Speeds Development and Performance in Multifabric Systems
The parallel buses have served the market very well for a few decades with a number of tuning and other enhancements applied to them to improve their speeds and capabilities. In manyRead More...
Web Server Delivers Rapid Development of Dynamic Web Applications
A compact web server is targeted for rapid design of server-side web applications. Using the Lua scripting language, the Mako Server from Real Time Logic offers fast, efficientRead More...
Compiler Optimization: Getting the Most out of High-Level Code
Microcontrollers used to be very simple. They had no pipelining, a limited set of registers and the only peripherals were I/O ports that the hardware designer tied to other pieces ofRead More...
Software-Driven SoC Development
It is well known in the semiconductor industry that software development costs for a new SoC outpace the hardware development costs, and at an ever increasing rate. This dramaticRead More...
M2M Meets Web Applications Spawning the Internet of Things
With all the talk, and with all the very real activity around the Internet of Things, we hear of numbers like 50 billion devices connected to the Internet. The possible applicationsRead More...
Security: Key to Smart Energy Software Development
Smart Energy—with its intelligent distribution of power and ultra-efficient potential—offers hope for a holistic view of energy. Its combination of renewable energies, traditionalRead More...
Protecting the Smart Grid: Security for Legacy Endpoint Devices
“After years of vendors’ selling point solutions, utilities investing in compliance minimums rather than full security, and attackers having nearly free rein, the attackers clearlyRead More...
Windows Video Wall Management Software for Digital Signage
A software update from Matrox Graphics gives video wall integrators greater control over Mura MPX-based video wall content and layouts. Key new features of MuraControl 2.0 includeRead More...
OpenCL for FPGA – Bringing FPGAs to the (Relative) Masses—Part 1
Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have become very powerful and power-efficient processing engines. With their programmable hardware resources, they can be customized to aRead More...
Build IT: The Internet of Things
Surrounding us are hundreds of devices that, once connected, will know a lot about our everyday lives. Think of a light switch in the foyer of a home. An innocuous piece of equipmentRead More...
LabView or C?
Why is LabView better than C? A LabView Product Manager gets asked this question a lot. Honestly, it is the wrong question to ask. It becomes a valid question with a little nuance andRead More...
VSIPL: A Signal and Image Processing Standard Family
The Vector and Image Signal Processing Standards (VSIPL) is a coherent set of de facto standard application programmer interfaces for signal and image processing emphasizing floatingRead More...
“Dot-Org” Boards Signal a Shift in Development Strategies
The prototype. It doesn’t have to be pretty. The board doesn’t have to be the right size and shape. It can have wires hanging off it. It can have instruments attached to it. But itRead More...
Point Tool Automates Test Generation and Unit Test Management
An integrated framework for automating the generation and management of unit tests separates unit testing capabilities from the rest of the tool suite. LDRAunit from LDRA delivers aRead More...
Security Solution for Smart Home Devices
A software firewall protects connected Smart Home devices from Internet-based attacks. Floodgate at Home from Icon Labs features the Icon Labs suite of security products that providesRead More...
Raspberry Pi chipKIT Expansion Board with Prototyping-Friendly 32-bit MCU Package
Microchip Technology Inc., a leading provider of microcontroller, mixed-signal, analog and Flash-IP solutions, announced the expansion of its Arduino-compatible chipKIT platformRead More...
GUIs for Small Devices—Expanded Functionality in a Tighter Space
There was a time, but that time is past, when graphical displays in embedded systems were relatively rare and touchscreen user interfaces were completely unheard of. Today, of course,Read More...
Bringing FPGAs to the (Relative) Masses—OpenCL for FPGA Part 2
With their programmable hardware resources, FPGAs can be customized to a specific application and outperform central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) whileRead More...
Starter Kit for Multicore ARM-based Qseven Modules
A complete, out-of-the-box starter kit for Qseven modules is based on the Freescale i.MX6, which contains a Cortex-A9 RISC CPU with one, two or four cores. Using the MSC Q7-SK-IMX6Read More...
Processor Roadmap for the Coming Year
2013 is already shaping up as a banner year for embedded processors from 1W SoCs to quad and hex core machines with huge caches and innovative thermal solutions. The usual suspectsRead More...
Microcontroller SoCs Take on the Duty of In-Depth Software Support
Consider the humble microcontroller. From its early 8-bit origins in the late 1970s, through workhorse 16-bit versions and today appearing in powerful 32-bit incarnations, theRead More...
Finding the Right Modular Platforms to Satisfy Ongoing Digital Signage Deployment Requirements
The use and implementation of digital signage continues its pervasive track as more and more companies realize the benefits of quickly delivering targeted messages with the ability toRead More...
Using the Right Facial Recognition and Gesture Technologies for Digital Signage
Looking in the Technology crystal ball, the future of digital signage and customer interaction will evolve into a “human-like” interface—one that is a natural integration of the humanRead More...
Android for Embedded: The Good, the Bad and the [insert adjective here]
Android, Google’s mobile phone platform, has now climbed to the top of the embedded OS heap, where it reigns together with other versions of Linux and FreeRTOS. The ascendency of thisRead More...
POSIX – 25 Years of Open Standard APIs
The ability of an operating system to conform to established open standards application programming interfaces (APIs) is a key enabler for a critical mass of middleware andRead More...
Open Source Firmware - Coreboot for x86 Architecture Boards
Without a doubt, one of the key changes in software development has been the growth of open source software projects. The news is full of Linux- and Android-based systems, with AndroidRead More...
Speeding Time to Market for GUI Designs
In traditional GUI design, a user experience (UX) or user interface (UI) team creates a prototype on desktop software such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, HTML or Flash, submits itRead More...
Solutions from Data: Innovative Apps Can Bring Engagement, Loyalty and Revenue
Data. It is being relentlessly generated by almost every form of human activity—by commerce, government, research—and by billions of interconnected systems and devices all over theRead More...
Platform Architecture for the Internet of Things
All things must evolve—human anatomy, national constitutions, and religions—to handle the mercurial world around us. History is replete with examples of species gone extinct due to anRead More...
Multicore Processors Open Our Embedded World
Multicore systems are not new to the embedded world. In fact, most embedded systems use multiple cores or chips, with many of these cores or chips being used to help performance orRead More...
Embedded Development Platform Simplifies 32- and 8-Bit Development
Silicon Labs has introduced a new version of its Simplicity Studio development ecosystem that provides unified support for the company’s energy-friendly 32-bit EFM32 GeckoRead More...
The Power and Value of a Converged Real-Time, Deterministic Platform
Real-time operating system (RTOS) vendors and SoC vendors are racing toward the same destination. That is the next-generation platform for embedded systems that can handle bothRead More...
Software-Designed Controller is Part of Advanced and Open Embedded System Design Platform
National Instruments has announced the complete redesign of its new cRIO-9068 software-designed controller, which still maintains full NI LabView and I/O compatibility with theRead More...
Achieving Frictionless Parallel Processing with the Heterogeneous System Architecture
GPUs have transitioned in recent years from pure graphics accelerators to more general-purpose parallel processors, supported by standard APIs and tools such as OpenCL andRead More...
Conference Highlights the Computational Power of Graphics Processors and their Move into Mobile and Embedded
Humans are visual creatures, and interacting with computer systems large and small on a visual basis has been a distant goal that was largely frustrated by the enormous demands of theRead More...
Safety-Critical Expertise and Full Verification for Multicore Platforms
With industry’s continued emphasis on reducing size, weight and power (SWaP), safety-critical systems manufacturers continue to look for ways to achieve full verification and evenRead More...
Tool for Design of Embedded GUIs Autogenerates C Code for Rapid Prototyping On PC
Today, the performance enhancements in modern devices lead customers to expect correspondingly better graphics capabilities and display resolution for next-generation applications. ARead More...
Qseven Standard Guides AMD G-Series into Even Smaller Form Factors
In 2013, AMD shocked the embedded systems market by announcing the first x86 quad-core system on chip (SoC). Previously, x86 SoCs were limited to two CPU cores along with modestRead More...
Understanding Hypervisors and System Consolidation
It is amazing just how long it takes sometimes for new technology to become mature enough so it can be applied successfully without too many unwanted side effects. For hypervisorRead More...
Choose your Embedded Virtualization Solution Wisely
Consolidation of various processing workloads using partitioned multicore PC CPUs has been the promise of embedded virtualization for over a decade. There is a continuum ofRead More...
The Yocto Project—Portability, Compatibility, Support
For a number of years, Embedded Market Forecasters’ surveys have reported that acquisition cost and source code availability are main factors when choosing an OS for embedded systems.Read More...
The Yocto Project: Challenges and Opportunities
In just over four years since its inception, the Yocto Project has become the de facto standard build system for custom embedded Linux distributions. Virtually every majorRead More...