Jun 30 2008 11:59AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (6) |
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In a previous post I proposed that the differences between developing for embedded versus application-level systems are poorly distinguished and that, as an industry, we are paying an increasingly visible price for this lack of clarity. I personally came to understand some of the differences between the two types of development when I transitioned into the embedded world many years ago.

I did not think much of those differences as a public discussion until someone asked me why more embedded developers are not attending multicore conferences. That question made me realize that there are at least two very different perspectives on what multicore or multiprocessor means, and the typical embedded care-abouts are not the same as what I have seen as the major focus of contemporary muticore conferences (topic...Read More

May 14 2008 7:42AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (7) |
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I keep hearing people say that applications are becoming more embedded and that the line between applications and embedded systems is blurring. I think statements like these are a symptom of a lack of a clear distinction of what constitutes an embedded system. I believe the time has come that we should clarify the distinction between embedded and application-level software because we, as an industry, are now more visibly paying a price for this confusion.

An online search using the query "What is an embedded system" yielded a few definitions. The first definition on the list (from BDTI) includes a significant ambiguity. It says that an embedded system is "A system containing a processor where the processor is not generally reprogrammable by the end user. For example, a cell phone containing a DS...Read More

Apr 24 2008 7:13AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (3) |
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When I am at an industry show or conference, such as the Embedded Systems Conference last week, people often ask me if I have seen anything exciting while there. Most of the time when someone asks me this question, I feel their meaning for "exciting" is did I see anything that will radically replace the current way the world works and revolutionize how we will do something from now on—such as during the Internet bubble where "everything" was radically changing—or not. I've always taken a reserved perspective when I see such claims because frankly, time usually proves those claims to be exaggerated or overly optimistic.

However, I do get excited when I see people trying to describe challenges from different angles, because the different vocabulary or perspective gained from such an exerc...Read More

Apr 9 2008 7:57AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (7) |
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Like many students, I worked my way through college in the foodservice industry. During my last few years as a student, I was a bartender at a popular upscale Italian restaurant in Columbus, OH. One of the most popular dishes on the menu was a Shrimp Pasta Fra Diavolo; diavolo is the Italian word for "devil" and this term is typically used to describe food with a spicy or peppery bite. The dish was pretty simple, consisting of a few large shrimp in a spicy tomato cream sauce over linguine, and it cost about $15.

Years later, as an engineer and a product-line owner, I was curious as to just how much of a profit the restaurant was making from this dish. I called an old friend, and he passed on the secret recipe to me (note: do not share any secret recipes with me). I then went on to netgrocer.com to price the ingredients, and here's what I found:

Mar 26 2008 11:02AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (1) |
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I have an intense interest in autonomous systems, especially ones that incorporate learning to refine how they sense and interact with the world. Before becoming a technical editor at EDN, I devoted many years to research and development designing and building fully autonomous vehicles. A certain mission, which happened a few weeks ago, involving a satellite in orbit, had a personal significance to me, as I was part of the team that spent a few years working on the original technology that powered the final autonomous portion of that system. With systems as complicated as these, it can be many years, potentially decades, between the original work and a working demonstration in field conditions.

...Read More