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Book review [part 1]

May 20th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

Last week, I talked about learning about embedded software and suggested various sources of information, including books, promising a review of a new book sometime soon. In the meantime, I have had the chance to take a look at the new book “Software Engineering for Embedded Systems” by Robert Oshana and Mark Kraeling.

My first impression was that the book is enormous – over 1000 pages and weighing more than a couple of kilograms. My second impression is that its size is an indication of its comprehensive coverage … Read the rest of this entry »

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Everyday rhetoric

May 16th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

Although I am essentially a monoglot, I am interested in languages, which I have written about before. As I travel to countries where English is not the first choice, I do try to master just a little of the language. My starter is 6 words and one phrase: “Yes”, “No”, “Please”, “Thank you”, “Hello”, “Goodbye” and “Please may I have a beer.”

The basic greetings are clearly the place to start, but I often find them confusing in English … Read the rest of this entry »

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Embedded education

May 13th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

I am often asked – typically by young engineers and college students – how to learn about doing embedded software. It is a fair question. Although there are some good college courses around nowadays, they can still be hard to find.

So, how do you acquire the specialist skills needed to develop software for embedded systems? … Read the rest of this entry »

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Gone flying

May 9th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

As I was lamenting last week, I spend a lot of time on aircraft as a result of the need for me to travel on business. I often think that it is odd that I subject myself even more of this treatment in my personal life – although we do not tend to take long vacations, we do make 3-4 leisure trips by air each year. For example, we just had a long weekend in Berlin.

All of my air travel is normally in commercial aircraft, but recently I thought that I would try something different … Read the rest of this entry »

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Hardware and software development in synch

May 7th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

It has always seemed obvious to me that a particular characteristic that makes embedded software different from desktop programming is the close relationship with hardware. As most embedded devices are custom designs, the hardware platform is something of an unknown. So, it is clear that the development of the hardware and software should be done in a cooperative fashion.

Mentor Graphics is unique among the major electronic design automation [EDA] companies in having made a great investment in embedded software development, which is manifest in the Embedded Software Division, a.k.a. Mentor Embedded. On the other hand, Mentor Embedded is unique among embedded software tools/RTOS vendors by being part of a large company involved in hardware design. In any case, we should be in a great position to bridge the gap … Read the rest of this entry »

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Why is traveling so hard?

May 1st, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

Over the years, I have done a lot of business travel. This is not a complaint, just a fact. Sometimes it is enjoyable and I certainly like working in a multi-national environment; I cannot imagine what it must be like to be professionally confined to a single country. A lot of business travel is very mundane: airport to hotel; hotel to office; office to airport. One could be anywhere. Once in a while I am lucky enough to visit someone’s house. I have even visited a school and talked to the kids. But those are rare privileges that I value.

I have no idea how many flights I have taken – in the hundreds anyway. I estimate that I have made more than 50 trans-Atlantic crossings. And it is not getting any easier … Read the rest of this entry »

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After Design West

April 29th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

Back from my travels, so a brief post painting with my impressions of last week’s event …

Design West [which I guess should now be called something different, as Design East has gone - preferably go back to it being Embedded Systems Conference] consisted of the conference itself and the trade show alongside. The show part seems to have been getting smaller each year. Although I have not seen the visitor numbers, it also felt quieter. The conference was another matter entirely … Read the rest of this entry »

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Great expectations

April 26th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

So often in life, we have expectations. We anticipate enjoying some upcoming event (or not, as the case may be), but often our experience is different from what we expected. When we acquire things – which all of us do far more than is really necessary – we certainly have expectations and often these are entirely unreasonable … Read the rest of this entry »

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Design WEST

April 22nd, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

This week I am at Design WEST in San Jose, California. This is an annual pilgrimage for me – even though I still think of it as being the Embedded Systems Conference.

This year I am participating in the conference in two events:

First, I have a class titled “How to Measure RTOS Performance“, which takes place on Thursday at 09:15. If you would like a copy of the slides, please email me.

I was also asked to participate in a session being run by Clive Maxfield titled “10 Computer Languages in 45 minutes“. The idea is compare and contrast a whole bunch of programming languages and HDLs. I will be talking about C++.

For most of the show hours I will be on the Mentor Graphics booth – #1908. If you are attending, do stop by and say hi.

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Get lost!

April 18th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

For many years I rejected the idea of getting a GPS [sat nav] for my car. I did not feel that I needed one. I have a set of maps in the car and very rarely traveled anywhere “strange” by myself. If we were going somewhere as a family, my late wife was an excellent navigator. Basically, I admired the fact that such technology, worthy of science fiction of just a few years before, could be so cheap and capable, but just did not see the need of it for myself.

In due course my circumstances changed. My wife died and my lifestyle increasingly involved traveling alone, so I purchased a GPS … Read the rest of this entry »

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What is an FPGA?

April 15th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

In the early days of embedded systems, software engineers typically had some understanding of hardware design. Indeed, in many cases, it was the hardware designer who implemented the software. Over the years, as the amount of software development has increased, engineers have become less and less “hardware aware”. I find this transition interesting from the viewpoint of an embedded software specialist working in a company where 90% of my colleagues are hardware design experts.

It does not follow that software engineers are not interested in hardware. A common topic that I have received inquiries about is FPGA technology. Engineers wonder what they are all about and how they might matter to a software specialist … Read the rest of this entry »

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How big is a sheet of paper?

April 11th, 2013, by | Permalink | 2 Comments

When I was a kid, the size of a piece of paper was described by a name, some of which were almost poetic. A “standard” working pad would be “Foolscap”, which was 13″ x 8″ – somewhat similar to the current US “Legal” size which is 14″ x 8.5″. A full Foolscap sheet was actually 17″ x 13.5″ and this was halved and trimmed for everyday use. Other sizes include “Emperor” [72" × 48"], “Antiquarian” [53" × 31"], “Grand Eagle” [42" × 28.75"], “Double Elephant” [40" × 27"], “Colombier” [34.5" × 23.5"] and “Atlas” [34" × 26"] and a whole load of smaller sizes. There seems to be a certain amount of fuzziness in the definitions of these archaic dimensions.

Nowadays, most countries outside of the US talk in terms of “A4″ and its cousins … Read the rest of this entry »

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Debugging with printf() or not …

April 8th, 2013, by | Permalink | 2 Comments

My colleague Richard Vlamynck [who has been a guest blogger here] and I were discussing tracing and debugging. Like me, he has been doing software for a few years. Hence, when we considered tracing and instrumenting code, he commented “It used to be easy to see what effect trace statements had on your program because, as you put more or less trace cards in your Fortran deck, you could visually see it growing or shrinking.”

We have come a long way from the use of punched cards, but tracing and debugging are still very much a matter of concern … Read the rest of this entry »

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New thoughts on Evernote

April 4th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

I have written about Evernote here before and continue to be an enthusiast for the product/service. I observe that I am far from alone, as they claim to have something over 50 million users worldwide. It is very much the “control panel” for both my business and personal lives. It is the default place that I keep information and documents, enabling me to seamlessly access stuff from my PC, iPad, iPhone or any Internet connected device.

Previously, I have given some tips on using Evernote, many of which still stand. However, I have changed the way I work recently and I wanted to share my new approach … Read the rest of this entry »

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Power management webinar

April 1st, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

Some time ago, I recorded the content for a Web seminar about power management in embedded software. Although I am talking about the subject generally, I am, of course, strongly alluding to the capabilities incorporated into Nucleus RTOS.

The session was “broadcast” last week, but, if you would like to experience a rare example of me being caught on video, you can watch the recorded version. If you would like a copy of the slides or have any questions, please email.

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Time annoyance

March 28th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

I have ranted about the stupidity of daylight savings – messing with clocks unnecessarily – before. Once again, it is the time of year when life is confusing. Normally, I am 6 or 8 hours ahead of many of my colleagues, as they are located in the Central and Pacific timezones in the US and I am in the UK. Since the US introduced the idea of messing with clocks earlier each Spring, I have to contend with the time difference being 5/7 hours for a few weeks until we indulge in the practice, which we will do this coming weekend. I observe that, since I last wrote about this topic, Russia has abolished daylight savings. I was surprised to learn that my influenced reached that far East.

Although messing with time is silly while stationary, when traveling it gets so much worse … Read the rest of this entry »

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Reading the meter

March 25th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

I remember reading a book about nuclear power, which had been written in the 1950s. It confidently foretold that an era of cheap energy was about to commence – so cheap that electricity would not need to be metered. I, for one, am still awaiting this golden age. Of course, things did not work out like that and meters for gas and electricity are still with us.

The technology of those meters is changing fast … Read the rest of this entry »

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Integer money

March 21st, 2013, by | Permalink | 2 Comments

The modern concept of money has evolved over a considerable time period. The idea made sense as soon as humans began to be specialists. If I have cows and you have chickens, how many chickens should I expect from you in return for a cow? There are numerous arguments that would result in different answers. The idea of being able to assign a monetary value to a cow and to a chicken is a straightforward way to ease the problem, even if it does not neutralize all the arguments.

The first money was very simple: just individual tokens, which could be used singly or in any number to perform a transaction. But, in due course, it all got more complex … Read the rest of this entry »

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Endianness

March 18th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

In almost all modern embedded systems, memory is organized into bytes. CPUs, however, process data as 8-, 16- or 32-bit words. As soon as this word size is larger than a byte, a decision needs to be made with regard to how the bytes in a word are stored in memory. There are two obvious options and a number of other variations. The property that describes this byte ordering is called “endianness” [or, sometimes, "endianity"].

Broadly speaking, the endianness in use is determined by the CPU. Because there are a number of options, it is unsurprising that different semiconductor vendors have chosen different endianness for their CPUs. The questions, from an embedded software engineers perspective are “Does endianness matter?” and “If so, how much?” … Read the rest of this entry »

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An intimate evening with Al

March 15th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

A brief bonus posting today! I wanted to share an experience that we had yesterday evening.

My work frequently involves me standing up in front of an audience and pontificating about stuff. That’s what I do and [most of the time] enjoy doing it. Broadly speaking, the larger the audience, the easier it is. The dynamic in the room is strongly affected by the number of people present. With just a few people, it can be very hard to get a reaction or even know if you have anyone’s attention.

I was, therefore, quite empathetic with a performer yesterday. We went to see Al Lewis at a small venue in a nearby town. He is a young Welsh singer-songwriter, whom we have seen a couple of times before. We really enjoy his music and hope that he can make it. We were so disappointed yesterday because the venue, which must have a capacity of well over 100 people, was rather sparsely occupied – I think there were about 15 people there. However, Al soldiered on and gave his performance just as much energy as he would for a full house.

All the people were sitting around the periphery of the room. After a couple of songs, Al said that he felt a bit lonely and we were all welcome to get a bit closer. Nothing happened, so he just continued his singing. I whispered to my wife “Let’s move”. She reluctantly agreed [not wanting to stand out from the crowd] and we moved to a table much nearer to the stage. Guess what happened then. Almost everybody else moved as well – nobody had wanted to be first. The atmosphere in the room was immediately warmer.

Al explained to us that, in the business, you do not have a “small audience”, but you perform in an “intimate setting”. I felt that this exhibited a very good attitude. At the end, I went to chat with Al and buy his latest CD and congratulated him on a good performance. I was pleased to hear that tonight’s gig is a sell out.

Keep a look out for Al Lewis and do go and see him if he’s a venue near to you.

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Counting on your fingers

March 14th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

How do you count things? The obvious answer is that you start with 1, 2, 3 and carry on from there. Nothing hard about this – most of us can do it with minimal thought. Many of us can do it in multiple languages and be confident in our ability to count indefinitely. But what if you are counting something under circumstances when you might be interrupted? Then, of course, you need to keep a tally. If you have the means to write it down, a common method is make a stroke for each count and, when you have 4, put a line through them for the fifth.

If you have no means of writing, the obvious answer is to count on your fingers. However, this has its limitations. Using both hands, you can only count up to 10. If you had very agile toes, I guess you could push this limit up to 20. Wouldn’t it be useful if it were possible to count to much higher numbers using just our fingers … Read the rest of this entry »

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Getting sorted

March 11th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

I am always pleased when one of my colleagues volunteers to make a guest posting. Apart from the obvious benefit that I have less work to do, it does broaden the range of topics covered. A frequent guest blogger is Brooks Moses who always has something interesting to say. Today he is musing on sorting algorithms … Read the rest of this entry »

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Judging distance

March 7th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

Sometimes I think that I fully understand something, but then I have doubts. I have been reflecting on something very everyday and simple: how we judge distance.

We all know how to assess a distance. You just need to look and you intuitively have an idea how far away something is. The question is: how do your brain/eyes arrive at this information … Read the rest of this entry »

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Innovate!

March 4th, 2013, by | Permalink | 1 Comment

I recall a few years ago, I was at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, CA. We had a presentation theater on the booth and my job was to manage it. That meant that I got to do some of the presentations and persuaded colleagues to do others. One session, that was not mine, was particularly successful. I am not sure whether this was because of the unique style of the presenter or the words she used. One particular word in fact: “free”.

I am going to try it. Hey guys! How about some free software … Read the rest of this entry »

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Wildebeest

March 2nd, 2013, by | Permalink | 2 Comments

It has been a rather busy week with traveling, so I only have time to [rather tardily] share a random thought for now …

A while ago, I made a reference to the wildebeest. More recently, I heard about an African story. It seems that, when God was creating all the animals that walk the Earth, he had some parts left over. He used those to create the wildebeest. Looking at a picture, it is almost enough to make me believe in Intelligent Design … Read the rest of this entry »

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Embedded World 2013

February 25th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

This week I am on my annual pilgrimage to Nuremberg, Germany to attend Embedded World. This is the first major conference of the year that covers embedded software and is, I am sure, now the largest event serving this community anywhere in the world.

I have written about past visits and this year’s trip will be quite similar, except that I will be rather busy … Read the rest of this entry »

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A 1000 days with an iPad

February 21st, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

I figured out that I have been using an iPad for just about 1000 days. I do not just mean that it is around 3 years since I first bought one. I mean that I have used it every single day for the last 1000 days. As I described, when I wrote my my initial impressions, I was not sure what I wanted an iPad for when I made that initial purchase. I was just sure that tablets were the way forward. My usage of the device has evolved. In my interim report, I set some of the directions, but was still trying stuff. I also appraised how I felt about the iPad.

After six months, I felt that my usage of the device had settled somewhat and I documented what apps I used. It was 2 years later, after I had upgraded to an iPad 3 that I updated my description of the apps I used. Now I really do feel that the way the iPad fits in to my life has matured and stabilized … Read the rest of this entry »

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Why C is faster than assembly

February 18th, 2013, by | Permalink | 2 Comments

I am very interested in the pros and cons of various programming languages for embedded applications. Although I mostly favor C, I sometimes prefer C++, but I am open to suggestions. I started out writing assembly language and still feel that this is the “real thing”. This is a topic I posted about some time ago. I expanded my thoughts in a more recent article on embedded.com

I am always pleased when one of my colleagues offers to write a guest blog, as I think that different views can be interesting. Brooks Moses [who has kindly contributed a number of times before, like here] has some very interesting views and experience to share … Read the rest of this entry »

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Chocolate is good

February 14th, 2013, by | Permalink | 2 Comments

So, today is Saint Valentine’s Day. I will adopt my usual practice and ignore it. It is not because I am unromantic. It is just that it has become an excuse for lots of people to sell stuff. It used to be the day on which you sent a message of love/admiration/passion/desire to somebody you had your eye on. In other words, it was a special day for single people. However, nowadays, all the big marketing companies have figured out that singles are a minority and sell to couples, as they have the largest pool of available cash.

Today has drawn my attention to something important, which is commonly used in Valentine’s greetings. I speak, of course, of chocolate … Read the rest of this entry »

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Reentrant write-only ports

February 11th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

Recently I posted about the challenges of using a write only port. Then I followed that up with another posting that illustrated the use of C++ to encapsulate the necessary coding nastiness. Hopefully, these two postings conveyed the general ideas – defining the problem and outlining a solution.

However, one aspect of the solution was not addressed: the proposed code was not reentrant … Read the rest of this entry »

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Losing the penny

February 7th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

Here in the UK our currency is the pound, which is divided into 100 pennies. Technically, they are “new pennies”. Prior to 1971, there were 20 shillings to the pound and 12 [old] pennies to the shilling. In the US and Canada, the dollar is divided into 100 cents, which are colloquially called “pennies”. The Euro is also divided into 100 cents, but I do not believe that anybody calls them pennies – not even in Germany where the Deutsch Mark used to be divided into 100 pfennigs [which is essentially the same word].

The term penny is very ingrained in the English language, but that may be temporary … Read the rest of this entry »

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More on low power CPU design

February 4th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

I recently wrote a posting about designing a CPU for low power by creating an instruction set where common sequences of instructions would have the minimum number of logic transitions. I hoped that I would get some feedback and I did. I had an email from Apostolos Leventis. I am always delighted to be contacted by blog readers, either by comment or email – even if it is critical or correcting my errors!

In this case, I was fully prepared to hear that the approach that I described would not work for some reason. However, what Apostolos told me about was some work that approached the problem in a different, but very interesting way … Read the rest of this entry »

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The Hype Cycle

January 31st, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

I have always been interested in technology and innovation. I do not think of myself as a “gadget freak”, though others might have a different view. However, when something new comes along, even if I am not an “early adopter”, I am always on the lookout for things that might improve my life.

Sadly, I am often disappointed. So often a device either does not work at all or simply fails to live up to expectations. This is making me more cautious. I thought that this was just a phenomenon that was associated with age, but I recently discovered that it is much more general … Read the rest of this entry »

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Write-only ports in C++

January 28th, 2013, by | Permalink | 2 Comments

I recently wrote about write-only ports and discussed how they worked and the challenges presented to software developers who need to program them. The solutions proposed were quite straightforward, but the challenge remained to ensure that all the code utilizing the ports complied with the requirements.

I commented at the time that there are several ways to mandate the correct handing of write-only ports, but an approach that interested me was the use of C++ … Read the rest of this entry »

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An alternative to online dating

January 24th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

Meeting that Special Someone in this day and age is tough. The workplace is fraught with difficulties and, if you have a challenging job, you may be limited in off-hours social possibilities. As I have written about before, I am a strong advocate of online dating. Used right – that is, as a means to meet others who are broadly compatible and “in the market” – it is an idea solution. I have very good reasons to believe in its success.

I recently ran into an old friend who took a rather different approach … Read the rest of this entry »

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Designing a low power CPU

January 21st, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

First up, please remember that I am a software guy, not a chip designer. Please read this posting with that in mind.

I was chatting with someone at a conference recently and they planted an idea in my brain. I am not sure what to do with the idea, so I thought that I would exercise it here. The topic was the consideration of power consumption in embedded systems – a subject I have written about before: here, here and here for example. But this was a new angle … Read the rest of this entry »

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The mayonnaise jar and the two pints of beer

January 17th, 2013, by | Permalink | 2 Comments

This is an old story – almost definitely an urban myth. But I think that it makes some good points, so I do not apologize for telling it again.

When life just seems too hard and there simply are not enough hours in the day, remember the mayonnaise jar and the two pints of beer… Read the rest of this entry »

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Write-only ports

January 14th, 2013, by | Permalink | 2 Comments

I often joke that my job puts me in a difficult position, as I am a software guy and a very large proportion of Mentor Graphics employees are hardware design specialists; I am consorting with the “the enemy”. Although I am making a light-hearted comment, there is, sadly, something of an “us and them” attitude between software and hardware teams in many companies. It is in everybody’s interest to make this a thing of the past.

Sometimes, it seems as if this view is reasonable, when hardware seems to be designed specifically to make life hard for software developers … Read the rest of this entry »

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The new Box Brownie

January 10th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

In 1888, 125 years ago, George Eastman coined the slogan, “you press the button, we do the rest”; and the world was never the same again. With the advent of the Box Brownie, photography went from an elitist activity, that was only within the financial reach of the idle rich, to become an everyday activity for almost anyone. The technology was rapidly accepted and snapshot photography was born.

I read somewhere that every day more photographs were taken than on the previous day. This got me thinking about how everyday photography is developing … Read the rest of this entry »

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OS configuration

January 8th, 2013, by | Permalink | No Comments

I have always characterized the difference between desktop systems and embedded along the lines of “desktops are all the same; embedded systems are all different.” Although, if I think about platform based designs, this is less universal, but the distinction still mostly holds true.

Commonly, I would cite this difference when considering the needs of embedded software engineers with respect to development tools – compilers, debuggers etc. However, it gets interesting when you start looking at operating systems … Read the rest of this entry »

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New Year in Berlin

January 3rd, 2013, by | Permalink | 2 Comments

First off, I hope that you had a good holiday and I wish you all the best for 2013.

I am not overly excited about Christmas, but I do think that a mid-Winter holiday is a good idea. I also like the forward-thinking attitude that most people take to New Year as well as looking back and taking stock. For me, 2012 was a great year that I will look back on fondly; for other people that I know, it is a year best forgotten. There is another reason why I like to celebrate New Year: my wife’s birthday is 2 January, which could easily get lost in the holiday celebrations. So, we usually like to do something special, which is normally a trip away. This year, we went to Berlin … Read the rest of this entry »

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Holiday time!

December 21st, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

I am sorry that my posting yesterday was less than cheerful. I just needed to get that off of my chest.

This will be my last posting of 2012. Thanks for reading my ramblings through the year – I always appreciate the comments and emails. I will be here again on about 3 January.

If you celebrate Christmas, I hope that you and your family have a joyful holiday. For all of us, I hope that 2013 might even be prosperous, but, above all, let’s hope that it is peaceful. Happy New Year!

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This cannot continue

December 20th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

Today I am going to break my self-imposed rule, with regard to what I discuss in this blog, and touch on two subjects that I normally avoid: politics and religion. I normally avoid these because most politicians are idiots, who have no understanding of the real world, which means that most politics is just a farce, but a lot of people take it seriously. I find religion very interesting, but do not subscribe to any particular faith myself; all “believers” therefore think that I am wrong because I do not sign up to their program.

The events of recent days have touched me, as they have people all over the world, which is why it is clear to me that something must change … Read the rest of this entry »

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Not so much of a puzzle

December 17th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

Yesterday evening we had dinner with friends. The guy works on real time control systems and was talking about the trouble he is having with some young, well qualified engineers, who think that they know everything, even though they have very little experience of the real world. Our wives exchanged glances – they knew that he and I were on common ground, but a place outside of their world. He continued: “But they do not really understand the whole point behind writing code”. As this is a subject close to my heart, that I have written about before, I explained my view on the matter. He said “Exactly.” And, to the relief of our better halves, we moved on to other topics.

The subject of why code is written was stuck in my brain … Read the rest of this entry »

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Another article

December 14th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

The second of my series of articles on embedded.com has now been published. You can see it here.

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Why bother with a DSLR?

December 13th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

One of my main hobbies is photography, which I have talked about before [here and here for example]. To me, it is the pictures that matter – taking them myself and looking at images at every opportunity. That might sound obvious, but there are actually quite a few people, who I run into at camera clubs etc., who seem less interested in the pictures than the technology. Often, this is manifest in someone who always has the latest camera/lens/gadget and is for ever “testing” it. Or it might be the geek who knows all the most obscure Photoshop shortcuts and spends more time in front of the screen than with their camera.

I do, however, have some strong feelings about photographic equipment, where I think the best interests of the consumer are not being served and some people may even be put off of photography … Read the rest of this entry »

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In the news

December 10th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

It is quite common, as I am sure it is for you, that someone asks me what I do for a living. Most of the time I try to get away with just saying that I work for a software company. If pressed for more detail, I end up explaining what embedded systems are all about. Sometimes, when really pushed, I talk about how I actually spend my time – writing articles, do webinars, presenting at conferences, etc. I have been known to call myself a “professional enthusiast”.

Last week the completion of a couple of my outbursts of enthusiasm … Read the rest of this entry »

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Back to Mars

December 6th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

There is a saying: “Be careful of what you wish for, as you might just get it.” It is odd how often this seems to apply to life. In my case, I wonder if there is a valid variant: “Be careful about having wacky ideas, as they might just come true.” I commonly post here about ideas which are not 100% serious, but hopefully have enough validity to not be beyond the realms of possibility. An example was my plan for the 8 day week.

Another idea was the one way trip to Mars, which looks like it could happen … Read the rest of this entry »

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Less puzzled

December 3rd, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

Some weeks ago, I made a posting in which I presented some code and then considered how it might be optimized and asked for input from readers. I was confident that I would not have found every possibility. Indeed, there were some useful comments, which I really appreciated. [It is nice to know that there is someone out there!]

Apart from the comments, I had an email from Michael Luber in Germany, who looked at the problem in some detail. With his permission, I have reproduced his results here … Read the rest of this entry »

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Connecting online

November 29th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

When I was a student, in the late 1970s, I spent one year of my course working in industry. There was a young man working in the lab who had a problem: he could not get a girlfriend. He was a nice guy – kind and friendly, with a good sense of humor. And, I was told by female friends and colleagues, he was good looking too. I always felt that he went about it the wrong way. He would spend Friday and Saturday nights hanging out in bars and clubs, hoping to meet someone. From time to time he did “get lucky”, but these encounters never blossomed into a meaningful relationship. I was unsurprised, as the kind of girl he wanted was unlikely to be hanging out in bars.

Eventually, we persuaded him to take another approach: to spend a little money and let modern technology solve his problem … Read the rest of this entry »

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USB 3.0

November 26th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

In the world of computers, I have always felt that USB is one of the good things of life. It [mostly] just works and simplifies our lives. As USB has been around quite a few years, it is hard to remember what life was like before. It is interesting technology, because, as it is so easy to use, it is easy to forget how complex it is “under the hood”. This is a topic that I have talked about at quite a few conferences – email me if you want any materials.

The latest USB specification, 3.0, was finalized a couple of years back and PCs and devices using USB 3.0 are now becoming quite common. Naturally, embedded developers are interested in implementing USB 3.0 and are asking about what has changed … Read the rest of this entry »

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Rant: insurance and sex discrimination

November 22nd, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

Today I have something that is nagging me and I just need to get it off my chest. I hope that you will forgive me for having a little rant.

I am mostly in favor of the European Union and the UK being part of it. I am strongly against discrimination and unjust practices. I am really offended by the implementation of laws that, whilst having good intentions, have not been thought through and are fundamentally flawed … Read the rest of this entry »

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Power and compilers at the NMI

November 19th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

I recently attended an event focused on power and embedded software hosted by the NMI in the UK, where I had been invited to make a presentation. My session was titled “Power Management in a Real Time Operating System”. If you would like a copy of the slides, please email.

Of course, apart from presenting myself, I was interested in the other sessions, in particular one about compilers and power consumption … Read the rest of this entry »

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Are you shy?

November 15th, 2012, by | Permalink | 2 Comments

I have always thought of myself as a shy person. I can find social interactions difficult. For me, a party is rarely fun, unless I have a “job” – taking photos, handing around drinks, etc. Just hanging out and chatting mostly does not appeal.

However, there is a paradox. On the one hand, I do not like to be the center of attention, on the other I enjoy presenting to an audience … Read the rest of this entry »

Webinars

November 12th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

I often tell people that my job is that of a “professional enthusiast”. I get enthusiastic about products/technologies, then infect other people with that enthusiasm. Well, that is the idea anyway. I enjoy doing this most of all when I get to stand up in front of an audience, as a direct connection with real live human beings is the best way to communicate.

However, there are times when an alternative means of communication is very satisfactory and the usual vehicle for that nowadays is the Internet … Read the rest of this entry »

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Big Issue!

November 9th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

I read a lot and I have posted before about my enthusiasm for e-books and Kindle. I read various kinds of books: fiction, biographies and other non-fiction. Whatever I am reading, I hope that I will learn something. That might expand my knowledge of the world in many ways. I could be history, geography, science or just about other people’s way of life.

The book, that I am reading at the moment, is the autobiography of a guy who is a recovering drug addict trying to get his life back on track. He was in rehab and trying to make some money by busking on the streets of London. Then he found an alternative way to make a living …

Anyone who has spent time in the towns and cities of the UK will have encountered people on the roadside calling out “Big Issue!” and trying to sell passers-by a copy of a magazine. I had a vague idea what it was about. “Big Issue” is a weekly magazine, which is sold exclusively by homeless people and gives them a better option than begging. But now I know there is a bit more to it.

The Big Issue Foundation was set up to help people who have hit rock-bottom. People for whom employment is not a possibility and social services or begging seem like the only options. Their philosophy is grounded in the idea “Give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you will feed him for life.” Their strap line is “A hand up, not a hand out”, which I think are fine words.

Each person who wants to sell the Big Issue is vetted to ensure that they meet the necessary criteria – primarily their housing status is checked. After some training in how to operate and in the strict standards of the Foundation, they are given 10 magazines and allocated a “pitch” – a regular location from where they can sell. Big Issue sellers are only allowed to sell from their allocated pitch.

Although, every seller is given 10 magazines to start them off, thereafter they have to buy them. The cover price is currently £2.50 [about $3.75] and that is the price that sellers must ask. They purchase them with a 50% discount. They can buy as many or as few as they like. If they get too few, they miss the opportunity to sell more. If they buy too many, they can find themselves with redundant stock when the next issue comes out. The idea is that sellers do not simply make money from selling magazines, they also learn something about how to run a business.

This is a rather simplified view of what the Big Issue Foundation is all about. But I was interested to learn about the way they operate and I am likely to take a much more sympathetic attitude to sellers that I encounter in the future, who occupy a world quite different from my own [and most readers of this blog, I would guess].

My daughter told me a curious story. In the city where she lives, there is a Big Issue seller, who has an odd accent or speech impediment. When she calls out, it sounds like “Big Tissue”. A guy, who seems to live on the street nearby and spends most of his time drunk or stoned, thought this was amusing. He took to sitting on the curb with a large box of Kleenex, chanting “Big Tissue”. The odd person even took one and put a coin in his hat.

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Blinking is good

November 5th, 2012, by | Permalink | 3 Comments

I like simple things. In particular, I like clean and simple ways to solve a problem. For example, user interaction with an embedded system might be something very slick – touch screen LCDs seem to be fitted to everything nowadays. But sometimes a simple LED indicator is enough.

I was entertained to read a blog by Ken Wada on embedded.com recently, where he sang the praises of a simple, blinking LED. This got me thinking about the various nuances of programming such a humble device … Read the rest of this entry »

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Just Julian

November 1st, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

I do not watch much TV. The medium seems to be dominated by sitcoms [that I do not find funny], reality TV [that seems very unreal] and talent shows [where the word "talent" seems to have been redefined]. It is the last of these genres that I know least about, to be honest. I have heard of the shows – “Britain’s Got Talent”, “X-Factor”, “Pop Idol” – maybe there are others, but I just do not watch them.

However, I do enjoy going out to live performances, as I have posted about before. A few weeks ago I received an email from a venue in a nearby town, which we visit from time to time, promoting an upcoming event. They included a link to a YouTube video of the performer’s appearance on Britain’s Got Talent. For some reason, I took a look … Read the rest of this entry »

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ARM TechCon 2012

October 30th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

This week, ARM TechCon 2012 is taking place in Santa Clara, CA. This conference seems to grow bigger every year, reflecting the significance of ARM devices in the embedded world. It is a 3 day event, with days 2 & 3 [Weds/Thurs] devoted to software and systems design.

Sadly, I am not attending the event this year, but a number of my colleagues from Mentor Embedded will be there … Read the rest of this entry »

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Repair or replace?

October 25th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

About 30 years ago, my late wife and I bought a sofa. That may sound like nothing to be excited about, but it was the first “serious” piece of furniture that we ever bought. It came from Habitat, which was très chic in those days. The name of the product in the catalog was Hannibal, so that was how our new sofa came to be known. The sofa was an indulgence, as it was very expensive – leather furniture cost much more in real terms back then. But we never regretted the purchase.

Hannibal lived with us over the years, as we moved from one house to another – 5 in all. It was sat on, slept on, climbed on and generally abused in the way that only a family can. Two years ago, when I moved to my current house, I sadly concluded that Hannibal was probably coming to the end its life … Read the rest of this entry »

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A puzzle

October 22nd, 2012, by | Permalink | 6 Comments

I am always interested in some of the subtle effects that coding can have on not just the behavior of code, but also its performance. Recently, I stumbled across some benchmarking code – I cannot recall how I actually found it. It was not written in C, so I translated it.

In the process, I realized that a literal translation might not be ideal … Read the rest of this entry »

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On the weekend

October 18th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

Although I enjoy my job [mostly], weekends and other time off is important to me. Last weekend was particularly interesting because I took a day’s FTO to extend it to 3 days and there were some contrasting experiences.

Although I do not normally publish a journal of my life, I will see whether I can give you a flavor … Read the rest of this entry »

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VSIPL++ Standard goes Global

October 15th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

Having recently made another posting on High Performance Computing, I was quite surprised to receive a guest post from my colleague Pete Decher, who is HPC Business Development Manager at Mentor Embedded. Apart from providing tools and IP for embedded software development, the Mentor Embedded team have a lot of history and experience of contributions to the open source community and the definition of standards. It is the latter efforts that concern us today.

I will hand over to Pete … Read the rest of this entry »

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A surprise meeting

October 11th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

I am always fascinated by coincidences and wrote about an interesting one a while ago. Although experiencing such events can make me feel as if there are hidden forces at work, I do not actually believe that. A coincidence is just the surprising alignment of things/people in time and space.

One such alignment occurred recently that proved very interesting … Read the rest of this entry »

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HPEC ‘12

October 9th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

My colleague Faheem Sheikh recently attended the 2012 IEEE High Performance Extreme Computing Conference (HPEC ‘12) at Waltham, MA USA. It would seem surprising, on the surface, that such an event would be of interest to specialists in embedded software. However, Mentor Embedded’s HPC Library products, like Sourcery VSIPL++ play very well in this space and illustrate how the scope of embedded software is expanding and why Mentor Graphics was a gold sponsor of the event.

Faheem has kindly allowed me to share some of his observations … Read the rest of this entry »

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Choice = stress?

October 5th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

Having choices is a good thing. At least that is what we, in the Western world, tend to believe. I am sure that, in many respects, this is true. The more affluent you are, the more control you can exercise over your life and, hence, the more choices you can make. Most of us have a significant degree of choice when it comes to employment, where we live and with whom we share our lives.

Although the choice we have in bigger things may be great, I wonder about the benefits that we gain from smaller choices … Read the rest of this entry »

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ECS2012

October 1st, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

As I have in previous years, this week I am attending the Embedded Conference Scandinavia [ECS] in Stockholm, Sweden. This event seems to get bigger every year and is certainly for foremost embedded conference in the region.

I was pleased to have two proposals for papers accepted … Read the rest of this entry »

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Viva Las Vegas

September 27th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

There are places in the world, which I have visited, that evoke a simple question in my mind: why? One such place is Las Vegas. In most deserts, there is loads of sand with periodic oases, that provide a haven for travelers where water and shade are on offer. Las Vegas started off in that kind of way. The artesian wells in Las Vegas Valley meant that it was an obvious railroad stop. Long after its importance to cross country transportation passed, the city re-invented itself to become the place it is today. A place that, IMHO, really should not exist.

I visited Las Vegas once – more than a decade ago. My memories of that visit persist and, if I were a betting man, I would put money on things not having changed a whole lot since then … Read the rest of this entry »

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Embedded software tools – then and now

September 24th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

Although I have a broad interest in embedded software, I started out in tools – compilers, debuggers etc. – and, in some ways, my loyalty still lies there. My eye was caught, therefore, by a recent report by VDC which looked at the state of the embedded software development tools market.

They looked at how the market has developed and where it is going. I thought that it was interesting to compare their analysis with my own experience and where I find myself today … Read the rest of this entry »

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Dimensionally intelligent

September 21st, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

I have often mused on what constitutes intelligence. We all know people who are, perhaps, academically brilliant, but useless at practical matters. Another person may possess an intuitive understanding of, say, machines, but be barely literate. IQ is not really a measure of anything useful. Even though I get a high IQ score, I do not really regard it as a test of anything more meaningful than my ability to do IQ tests, as I mentioned a while back when talking about mind mapping.

I think that the best definition of intelligence that I have come across is that it is the ability to connect ideas … Read the rest of this entry »

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ESC Boston

September 17th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

This week I am making a flying visit to DESIGN East [a.k.a. ESC Boston] to present a couple of classes. When I say “flying”, I am not alluding to my mode of transportation, but the duration of my visit. My first paper is Wednesday afternoon and my second is lunchtime on Thursday; I fly in Wednesday morning and out again Thursday evening. I even manage to pack in some other activity while I am there, but I do not think I will be suffering jet lag when I get home! Even though it is a short visit, I look forward to be in Boston again – it has been a while.

My two papers address RTOS oriented topics: one is about designing for low power; the other looks at measuring RTOS performance … Read the rest of this entry »

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Doh!

September 14th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

I have been on a week’s vacation. After a long, wet, miserable Summer in the UK, it seemed only sensible to go find some sun. With that in mind, the Greek island of Kefalonia (also spelt Cephalonia or misspelt by tour companies as Kefalinia) seemed just the ticket. I visited the island a decade ago and thought that it would be interesting to see how it had changed. But now I am on my way home (about 7 miles over Albania as I write) and back to real life.

As I ponder this sad situation, I muse on what happens to my intellect when I have down time and relax … Read the rest of this entry »

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The floating point argument

September 10th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

I am on vacation and, all being well, by the time this posting goes live, I will be sunning myself on a Greek island. A couple of weeks ago, I posted a blog about the use of floating point. My colleague Brooks Moses [who did a guest blog post a while back] made a comment on that posting, pointing out that I had over-simplified my example. I am always happy to get such feedback.

It transpired that Brooks had some bigger issues with what I had to say, so I was pleased to offer him an opportunity to have his say. Over to you Brooks and, waiter, bring me another beer … Read the rest of this entry »

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iPad apps

September 5th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

It has been quite a while since I last reviewed how I use my iPad and what apps are important to me. Earlier this year, I upgraded my original iPad [which I bought when they were first on the market in April 2010]. My old device was passed on to my 80 year old mother-in-law, who is very happy with it [as nobody has yet told her that it is a computer, so she is not afraid of it]. I rationalized my decision to upgrade by considering the fact that I had used my original iPad many times every day since I first got it. Over two years, it had cost me $1 day to own. Good value, I thought.

I took the opportunity to review my portfolio of apps when I was setting up my iPad 3 … Read the rest of this entry »

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The Power Pyramid

September 3rd, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

Power consumption of embedded systems is currently a hot topic – one I have posted on several times before. With the conference season coming up, I am working on a few papers that address this subject and I will talk about those nearer the time. However, there is one aspect of designing for low power that I thought it would be worthwhile putting under the spotlight.

I want to introduce the “Power Pyramid” … Read the rest of this entry »

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The smallest room

August 30th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

Speakers of the English language love euphemisms – we say one thing when we actually mean something else. As far as I can tell, this is a universal practice, though some of the actual euphemisms vary between countries [the US and UK, for example]. I have often wondered whether this practice is confined to English or do users of other languages do the same thing?

I am thinking about a topic which is second only to sex in the amount of euphemistic terminology that is applied to it. I want to talk about the – ahem – smallest room in the house … Read the rest of this entry »

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Floating point

August 28th, 2012, by | Permalink | 1 Comment

Nowadays, most embedded systems are built using 32-bit CPUs. These devices give plenty of scope for performing the arithmetical processing required for various applications. Calculations can be performed on signed or unsigned integers and 32 bits gives a good range of values: +/- 2 billion or up to 4 billion respectively. Extending to 64 bits is reasonably straightforward.

If you need to stray outside of these ranges of values or perform more sophisticated operations, then you need to think in terms of floating point and this presents a range of new challenges … Read the rest of this entry »

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Left to right

August 23rd, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

I recently wrote a blog post about a number puzzle, which provoked a few interesting comments. One of them, in particular, made me think. My colleague Brooks suggested that another [unconventional and therefore incorrect] way to perform the calculation would be to perform the operations from right to left.

I never thought of that. I am stuck with left to right thinking … Read the rest of this entry »

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Evaluation boards

August 20th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

Just about all the embedded CPU manufacturers produce evaluation boards employing their devices with a suitable selection of peripherals.These boards are generally offered at a very reasonable price and are readily available, along with good software support from vendors like Mentor Embedded.

So, what use are these boards to the embedded developer, who may be looking at the design of custom hardware? … Read the rest of this entry »

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5 + 5 + 5 – 5 + 5 + 5 – 5 + 5 x 0 = ?

August 15th, 2012, by | Permalink | 5 Comments

I quite like puzzles and “brain teasers”. Although I would never describe myself as a mathematician, I do like playing with numbers and I am quite good at mental arithmetic [even though I am rarely far from a calculator, having bought my first one in 1973]. So I was interested in a recent puzzle that has been doing the rounds on Facebook.

The puzzle is expressed as 5 + 5 + 5 – 5 + 5 + 5 – 5 + 5 x 0 = ? The options for answers were 0, 15, 20 and 40. What answer did you go for? … Read the rest of this entry »

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Curiously embedded

August 13th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

As I talked about last week, the news lately has been dominated by the Olympics, but NASA managed to grab a few headlines by successfully landing the Curiosity rover on Mars.

I have always been interested in space exploration and I am curious about what the inside of embedded systems look like. To me, Curiosity is just an embedded system with 6 wheels and 17 cameras … Read the rest of this entry »

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Infected by Olympic fever

August 9th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

If you had asked me about the Olympics two weeks ago, I would have dismissed the discussion with “I don’t do sport.” That was true. I have almost zero interest in watching sport. I could see the point of useless activity providing healthy exercise. Doing it was OK, but why would you want to watch someone else doing it. I have been known to draw parallels with pornography, but I am not going to pursue that here. In short, I was, as a lady on the radio so eloquently described herself, an “Olympic Refusenik”.

But all that has changed … Read the rest of this entry »

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RTOS memory footprint

August 6th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

Most of the time, I subscribe to the view that “the only stupid question is the one you did not ask”. However, I do have trouble with a question that I have been asked countless times at trade-shows, seminars etc. The question is “How much memory does Nucleus RTOS need?”

It is not that this is a stupid question. It is very sensible to be fully aware of resource utilization with deeply embedded systems. The problem is that I am rarely sure how to give a meaningful and useful answer, so I resort to generalities and this is often viewed with suspicion. The reason for this is that the answer is dependent upon a great many variables … Read the rest of this entry »

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Are you happy?

August 2nd, 2012, by | Permalink | 1 Comment

I recently wrote about the concept of having fun. At the time, I commented that happiness is easier to identify, but elusive nevertheless. The pursuit of happiness is a major driver to all of mankind’s activities. Indeed I can quote from the United States Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

I would describe myself as basically happy, but I have “down days”. That is when I try to find things to make me happy … Read the rest of this entry »

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Why should I care about software standards?

July 30th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

From time to time I am pleased to receive submissions from colleagues, who can give different perspectives on embedded software. This week, Carlos O’Donell is talking about software standards and why we should all care about them … Read the rest of this entry »

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I give up

July 26th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

We all have habits. Some of us have addictions. I am not 100% certain that I understand the difference. I guess that, in most situations, an addiction is really just a very strong habit. Interestingly, the term “drug habit” is normally just a euphemism for drug addiction.

I am very interested in analyzing my own behavior and motivations in life and I have paid some attention to my habits and possible additions … Read the rest of this entry »

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Going to sleep

July 23rd, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

Once again, I am thinking about embedded software and low power design, as I have discussed before. I still find it interesting that a characteristic of electronic devices, which until only recently would have been considered purely a hardware issue, is now very much on the agenda for software developers.

The challenge now is to keep up with the capabilities provided by the chip makers … Read the rest of this entry »

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Having fun

July 19th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

I often ponder on the nature of being happy and having fun. Happiness is elusive, but we all have an idea of what it is about. I will talk about that another day, as I think there are some interesting angles.

But there is the question of having fun. I have more trouble identifying that … Read the rest of this entry »

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Munich Embedded Developers’ Forum

July 16th, 2012, by | Permalink | 2 Comments

Last week, I attended the Embedded Developers’ Forum in Munich, Germany. This is an increasingly common type of event – a small conference, with a somewhat broad subject coverage, with multiple streams offering a greater level of specialization. In this case, there were about 4 “mini-conferences”. I was presenting in part of the Embedded Software event. Another set of streams focused specifically on ARM development.

The location of this event was slightly odd. Last year they ran it in a different city, near to Stuttgart. Moving to Munich seemed reasonable, but they used a hotel at the airport. The logic was that this would be good for people traveling to the event (but this is unlikely to a small conference) and the airport is well connected to the city (but it is some distance and takes time). I think that this logic was ultimately flawed. If such an event is targeting a city, it should actually be in the city, unless the airport is very close by.

My presentation was about the measurement of RTOS performance and seemed to be well received. If you would like a copy of my slides, please email.

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Evernote hints & tips

July 12th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

A while ago, I wrote about Evernote – the cloud computing platform that I use all the time. Although most valuable when I am traveling, Evernote helps me on an everyday basis too, as it lets me access and update information from all my “toys” – PC, iPad and iPhone.

Evernote is available free of charge. The free version gives plenty of capability for most users, but this can be enhanced for a modest month/annual fee. Having used the software/service for quite a while now, thought that I would share a few hints and tips … Read the rest of this entry »

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A more powerful phone

July 9th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

The subject of power in embedded systems just does not seem to go away – like my postings here and here. And I do not see the situation changing any time soon. If it is not design consideration for your current project, I promise that it will be on your agenda before long.

As smart phones become increasingly ubiquitous, it seems worthwhile considering how concerns about power have influenced their design … Read the rest of this entry »

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A very special day

July 6th, 2012, by | Permalink | 2 Comments

For my American friends and colleagues, yesterday was a special day. I hope that everyone had [or is having] a great time. But, for me, today – 6 July – is very special. I am to be married … Read the rest of this entry »

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HPC

July 2nd, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

Over the years, I have found it very interesting tracking trends and “fashions” in embedded software. At any given time, certain technologies are “hot”. Sometimes the source of excitement seems to come out of nowhere; other times, it is a natural evolution. And thus it is with HPC – High Performance Computing.

Somehow this does not sound like the province of embedded software, but, with ever more powerful embedded CPUs becoming available, things are changing … Read the rest of this entry »

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Reinventing the wheel

June 29th, 2012, by | Permalink | 3 Comments

I have always been interested in science and took that route through education, ending up with a science degree. I guess I am rather left-brained and certainly tend to look for a methodical way to do something, as opposed to an intuitive one. Having said that, I enjoy photography, which is something of a fusion of science and art, and I am told that I have a “good eye”. I also enjoy hearing, seeing and generally experiencing other people’s artistic endeavors.

I have often wondered whether scientists – or technical people generally – might learn something from the approach taken by artists … Read the rest of this entry »

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More on low power

June 27th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

Further to yesterday’s post, here is a video in which my colleague Rich Rejmaniak demonstrates the power management features of Nucleus RTOS.

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Power Suckers

June 26th, 2012, by | Permalink | 1 Comment

I have often observed that the world of embedded software is usually dominated by a small number of “fashionable” topics – technology that everybody is talking and/or concerned about. The key one just now, which I have discussed before, is the influence that software has on device power consumption. This is a topic to which I will certainly return.

A number of the Mentor Embedded team were at the Freescale Technology Forum [FTF] last week and my colleague Kamran Shah has written a guest blog about some of the fun that they had there, while talking about low power design … Read the rest of this entry »

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Too many pixels

June 21st, 2012, by | Permalink | 2 Comments

If I were to tell you that manufacturers of certain very popular electronic devices had a policy of producing newer, higher technology versions of their products at frequent intervals, you would, I am sure, be unsurprised. However, if I could show that some of these newer, “better” devices were actually inferior to their predecessors in some key respects, that might be news.

The technology, to which I am referring, is close to my heart: digital cameras … Read the rest of this entry »

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In a state

June 18th, 2012, by | Permalink | 1 Comment

Once again, I am going to look at a topic helpfully suggested by my colleague Rizwan Rasheed. Unless you have used UML, or a similar tool/methodology, you may not have encountered state machines.

Although they are the basis of some formal methodologies, the concept of a state machine can be used by itself as an approach to program design, which, IMHO, is particularly appropriate to many embedded applications … Read the rest of this entry »

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Multicore thread synchronization

June 15th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

An article by my colleague Faheem Sheikh has just been published in EE Times, which covers multicore thread synchronization. Apart from the interesting topic of the piece, it is also an opportunity to learn more about symmetric multi-processing [SMP] – an option increasingly available for real time operating systems, like Nucleus.

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Let’s all hold hands

June 14th, 2012, by | Permalink | No Comments

Sometime or other, all of us hold hands with someone else. Whether it is with a “significant other” or with a child, it is just something that humans do. You would probably imagine that there was very little to say on this topic, but you might be surprised.

Researchers have been looking into hand holding. I have to admit that I would like to see their application for funding for this work. I heard about the results of their investigations and decided to do a little research myself … Read the rest of this entry »

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This blog is a discussion of embedded software matters - news, comment, technical issues and ideas, along with other passing thoughts about anything that happens to be on my mind.