The San Jose version of the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) in this year began with Al Gore throwing down the gauntlet.  Socially and environmentally conscious companies need not sacrifice the environment for profit.  In fact, the bottom line and the ozone layer may have mutual allies as emphasis on more efficient systems makes sense for both.  If the types of technology under discussion and on display at ESC are applied to the problem of creating more efficient systems, Gore explains, embedded engineers can make a significant difference in the troubling trends threatening Earth’s environment.</ … Read More → "Smaller is Bigger"

Embedded Systems have tracked the progress in desktop and enterprise computing, only faster. Development practices and standards have been much slower to mature, however, and this week’s Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose will surely show an industry struggling to keep pace with the rapid rate of change in technology demands. Embedded computing systems have gone from bit-stingy, machine coded, custom crafted, one-off jobs to standards-based, memory-rich, multi-processing, IP-re-using, connected wonders – in an improbably short period of time.

As systems have changed, so have the engineers and teams that design them. Rapidly disappearing is … Read More → "Bigger, Faster, More Connected"

You’re designing a new handheld device. You’ve got your processor picked, your software platform selected, your debugger dialed-in, and your battery bolted into place. Marketing has signed off on the baddest list of requirements ever – convergence has taken a turn for the terrible, and your device has to connect to ubiquitous wireless standards, seven kinds of mass storage, USB2.0, SDIO, and even PCI (Don’t ask why you’d need all of those – this is a fictional project, OK? Suspend disbelief for a moment.) The point is, you need … Read More → "ArcticLink"

“The translation of a conception, which was at the beginning, which is intended for ASIC in a FPGA, can poor and ineffective results give.”

So says the Google Translate tool, when offered the sentence:

“Translating a design that was originally intended for ASIC into an FPGA can yield poor and inefficient results.”

…and asked to translate from English to French to German and back to English.  Google’s translation technology is actually very good – and the quality of these results is much higher than what … Read More → "ARM Optimizes for FPGA"

Zoom-Zoom. Vrooom, vroom. Beep-beep-beep, click, whir, bong. Pop quiz: which is the sound of a car? If you answered, “all of the above,” you’re right. Today’s cars have more computing power then even a high-end PC and more software, too. Yet, paradoxically, racing cars have less technology than before, a victim of competition rules and crass commercial realities.

In fact, racing is surprisingly low-tech. Even the pinnacle of the sport, Formula One Grand Prix racing, bans antilock brakes, traction control, and active suspension – features even a mid-price family sedan would … Read More → "Mixing Fossil Fuel and Electrons"

Middle Manager makes his way through the maze of chest-high walls, passing members of his team as he plans his morning, pausing a couple of times – pretending to understand what he’s watching as he peers into cubes where startled engineers suddenly switch from doing real work to doing things they think will look more like real work. This daily double-ended dance of deception lasts only seconds. Middle Manager moves on down the corridor, hoping to hear a hint of the mood in executive staff as he passes the cracked conference room door.

… Read More → "Managing the Middle Manager"