RTC Magazine

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...

Hardware Trumps Software in Medical Devices

Let’s start by looking at the facts. Medical device recalls reached an all-time high in 2008—up 43 percent from 2007. The experts at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) haveRead More...

Increasing Reliability through Automated Enforcement of Design Rules

In the ongoing effort to improve software reliability, advanced static-analysis tools have proven to be effective at finding serious programming errors. These tools use sophisticatedRead 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...

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...

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...

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...

Power Analysis Debug, Java and Specs

Are you worried that perhaps your sub-watt processor core is drawing too much power? With an increasing number of CPUs offering more sophisticated power management options, such as aRead 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...

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...

Intel’s Core i7: What It Means to the Embedded Market

On Thursday, January 7 of this year, according to one editor in the embedded computing space, it “rained” Intel Core i7 press releases. According to another editor, theRead More...

Embedded Virtualization Manager Pairs Windows with RTOSs

Embedded Virtualization Manager Pairs Windows with RTOSs A new embedded virtualization manager software product enables different real-time operating systems (RTOSs) to runRead More...

A Tale of Two Embeddeds

Attending an embedded-focused trade show is always an interesting experience. For those of us who cover the broad embedded market, you’ll have to excuse us if we are unable to checkRead More...

The Application Services Platform: A New Class of Device for Embedded Development and Systems

There have been many attempts over the years to achieve a highly integrated system-level device on a single piece of silicon. There have been ASICs, ASSPs, SoCs and more. There haveRead 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...

Optimizing Multicore Software for Embedded Processors

The use of multicore processors in embedded systems is increasing. These processors, which are two or more processor cores on one package, enable increased computation performance andRead 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

An Integrated Real-Time Platform Can Deliver Improved DSP Performance at Lower Costs

Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) have specialized architectures that are optimized for heavy math computations and they have dominated the real-time digital signal processing marketRead More...

Multi-Operating System Support for Intel’s New Embedded Quad-Core Core I7 Processors

The Intel Core i7 family has been widely used in the desktop and laptop market, and now the quad-core versions of the processor are available for embedded designs. Now LynxSecure 4.0Read More...

Embedded Development Kit for Wind River Software and Intel Core i7

A new Embedded Development Kit  enables design engineers to quickly begin developing their application. Part of the Wind River On-Board Program, the Embedded Development Kit fromRead More...

Getting to Low Power Consumption Depends on the Right Data—and Using it.

With the proliferation of handheld and mobile devices, often used in conjunction with larger, server-based applications, and the spread of small, distributed devices that may beRead 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...

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...

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...

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...

Mandates for Power Efficiency Push Telcom Providers Toward Software Optimization

Power efficiency has emerged as one of the key areas for long-term improvement in telecom applications. Reduced energy usage means lower costs and diminished environmental impact. InRead More...

Configurable and Programmable: The Sweet Spot for the SoC

The February issue of RTC included the article titled, “MPUs Team with FPGAs to Solve Real-Time System Requirements,” a brief history of how FPGAs have evolved and how the programmableRead More...

SDK Targeted for Designs Using PCI Express 3.0 Switches

An upgraded and free software development kit (SDK) supports the PLX ExpressLane PCI Express (PCIe) Gen 3 switches. This suite of software tools works in conjunction with PLX’s on-chipRead 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...

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...

Plug-and-Play Integration of Avionics Software

A combination of DDS-compliant middleware with an ARINC 653-compliant RTOS dramatically reduces the time and cost required to develop and integrate distributed avionics software. TheRead More...

Monitor Provides Real-Time Visibility into System Performance and Health

A graphical software tool provides real-time visibility into systems that use Real-Time Innovations’ Data Distribution Service. RTI Monitor collects information and analyzes dataRead More...

Securing Your Embedded Designs: Encryption and Authentication ‘Keys’ To Success

While the world has focused on providing better security for servers and desktop computers, embedded systems have often been overlooked. As embedded devices are used to handleRead 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...

Standard Configurations for Electromechanical Development Tasks

Embedded Virtualization Meets Real-time Needs in Multi-OS Systems

Embedded systems often employ multiple computing platforms with each running different operating systems. Typically, there is a real-time operating system (RTOS) on one platform toRead 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...

Programming ASP-Type Devices: New Approaches for a New Paradigm

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...

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...

Embedded Virtualization on x86: A Technical Look at, Approaches and Solutions

With virtualization becoming an increasingly widely used technology in embedded systems, it is helpful to take a look at some of the “virtualization-specific” terminology and theRead More...

Open-Source IDE Covers Entire Microchip Line with Support for Linux, Mac OS and Windows Users

A comprehensive open-source integrated development environment has been created for the entire portfolio of 8-, 16- and 32-bit microcontrollers from Microchip Technology. The MPLAB XRead More...

Tool Suite Provides Requirements to Object-Code Traceability

In the safety-critical domain, devices required to meet the most critical levels of certification must verify software traceability from requirements through design to code at bothRead More...

Express Logic Introduces Memory-Protected Application Modules for ThreadX RTOS

Express Logic has announced the introduction of ThreadX RTOS Memory Protection for downloadable application modules. Downloadable application modules, introduced earlier this year,Read More...

Gang Tester Improves Efficiency During Boundary Scan in Mass Production

A new gang tester enables users to test or program up to 16 boards in parallel, applying only one central controller. With the SFX-TAP16/G from Goepel Electronic, users are now able toRead More...

Static Analysis for Multi-core and Multi-threaded Applications

Development teams are embracing multicore processors such as the new quad-core Intel Core i7 processor because they are the most promising avenue to better computing performance. ThisRead More...

Supercomputer Performance on a Chip Powers Next-Generation Embedded Image Processing

Current-generation imaging applications have exhausted every method for squeezing out additional performance. First, microprocessor vendors deepened on-die caches, created SIMD (singleRead 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...

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...

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...

Advanced Development Kit for High-Quality Digital Audio

A 32-bit microcontroller (MCU)-based development kit for the creation of high-quality, 24-bit audio applications features an 80 MIPS PIC32 MCU, a 24-bit Wolfson audio codec, aRead More...

Next Generation Wireless Server Supports New Software Development Kit

A next-generation wireless server allows design engineers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to easily add Wi-Fi and Ethernet networking to virtually any device. TheRead 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...

OpenComRTOS for Freescale PowerPC Processors Integrated into Designer Suite

For applications where performance is paramount, using less memory means higher performance and less energy consumption. The small code size of OpenComRTOS from Altreonic frees aRead More...

Evaluation Board for the New LPC1800 Family

For NXP’s new Cortex-M3-based LPC1800 microcontrollers, Hitex has introduced the Evaluation Board LPC1850 ensuring an easy evaluation of the LPC1800 family’s main features. TheRead More...

Simplifying Robot Software Design Layer by Layer

Robot software architectures are typically a hierarchi¬cal set of control loops, representing high-level mission planning on high-end computing platforms, all the way down toRead 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...

Software Platform for Medical Devices Comes with Compliance Documentation

A new software suite for medical devices is part of a comprehensive software portfolio designed for medical device development, including those devices requiring premarketRead More...

User Interface for Graphical JTAG/Boundary Scan Project Development

Intuitive system controls guide first-time users safely through the project development flow and improve their productivity with a new JTAG/Boundary scan graphical user interface fromRead 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...

JTAG/Boundary-Scan Tool for Debug & Repair

A new “no-netlist-required” JTAG/boundary-scan test and debug tool uses a “seek and discover” feature to scan completely a compliant design and then perform comparative tests usingRead More...

Software Radio Module with FPGA Preconfigured for Turnkey Operation

New JTAG Demo Kit to Promote Engagement in Open Source Initiative

Within the framework of the goJTAG initiative, Goepel Electronic has developed a new demonstration kit. In addition to the USB 2.0 controlled Boundary Scan controller PicoTAP 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...

RTOS Adds Real-Time SMP Support for ARM MPCore

The ThreadX RTOS from Express Logic has been adapted for ARM’s MPCore multicore processor architecture. ThreadX/SMP, an enhanced version of ThreadX, provides synchronous multicoreRead More...

Virtual Platforms from Xilinx and Altera Support Development on ASPs

Everybody has a different name for them: Programmable SoC (PSoC) from Cypress, SmartFusion from Microsemi, Extensible Processing Platform (EPP) from Xilinx and, most recently, SoCRead 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...

ARM Development Kit for Rich Media Applications

Premier Farnell’s global online eCommunity for electronic design engineers, has announced availability of the DM3730 ARM-based development kit, a complete embedded developmentRead 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...

Three Considerations for a Successful Vision-Guided Motion System

Vision-guided motion systems can automate tasks at accuracies and speeds that provide next-generation machines with faster throughput, higher quality and lower cost. Today, theRead More...

Compile-Time Analysis Spots Quality and Security Problems

An enhanced compile-time analysis tool identifies quality and security problems, helping companies to avoid failures in the field. CodeSonar 3.6 from GrammaTech provides a radicallyRead 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...

Free LabView Link for Data Translation USB and PCI

A library of Virtual Instruments (VIs) enables National Instruments LabVIEW programmers to access the data acquisition features of DT-Open Layers-compliant USB and PCI devices fromRead More...

Ethernet AVB Development Kit Enables Automotive Driver Assistance and Infotainment Development

An FPGA-based Ethernet Audio/Video Bridging (EAVB) network implementation is optimized for carrying high-speed data traffic within the automobile. As consumer expectations for higherRead 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Mentor Embedded Simplifies Linux and Open Source Development with Support of the Yocto Project

Mentor Graphics is releasing its next generation Mentor Embedded Linux platform, which includes support for the Yocto Project, an open source collaborative project established by TheRead 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...

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...

Architecture Visualization Scales to Millions of Lines of Code

A next-generation software architecture visualization system incorporates a new graphical interface for viewing the relationships between software program elements. The system isRead 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...

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...

Wind River Announces Software Support for Xilinx Zynq-7000 EPP

Wind River has announced support for the Xilinx Zynq-7000 extensible processing platform (EPP) on its VxWorks operating system platform and Wind River Workbench. The Xilinx Zynq-7000Read More...

Master API Package for the Development of CANopen

A solution for a quick and easy development of PC-based CANopen control test and service applications is now available and runs under Microsoft Windows. Along with the active CANRead 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...

Key Considerations for Designing Low Cost, Energy Efficient Smart Grid Devices

Our society’s ever-demanding energy needs have not only led to an increased investment in alternative renewable sources, but have also forced us to look at ways to effectively manageRead 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Intelligent Systems – The Power of a Name

The German novelist Thomas Mann once remarked on the power of names. “There is something mysterious about names,” he said in his novel, Joseph and His Brothers. He noted that havingRead 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...

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...

The Graying of Embedded

Embedded computing may be heading for some new territory. And success in that territory calls for new strategies and skills. Not that embedded will ever go away, of course. OnceRead 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Qseven Starter Kit Offers Quick Way to ARM-Based Designs

A new Qseven starter kit provides developers with a complete package to rapidly prototype embedded systems for ARM designs. Thanks to their compact size and extremely low power, QsevenRead More...

Four Key Steps to Address Security Threats in Embedded Systems

A piece of pop trivia: In the Rebooted series, what was so special about the Battlestar Galactica spaceship that it survived the initial Cylon attack and went on to lead the survivorRead 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

The Winows Embedded Legacy Continues with Windows Embedded 8 Standard

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...

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...

How Fast Can You Design an Embedded System with SoC FPGAs?

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?

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...

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...

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...

Software PLC Technology Available for Altera Cyclone V SoCs

LDRA Integration with Lauterbach TRACE32 Simplifies Code Analysis, Test and Certification

RTOS Adds New Security Features to Protect Embedded Connected Devices

Design Tool for ARM-based SmartFusion2 SoC FPGA Designs