Embedded developments; What’s needed to push things further?

Itzi — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:43:20 +0000

Due to the increasing importance of solutions using embedded software and the relatively small numbers of skilled and experienced programmers, embedded systems development is being undertaken in a wide cross section of industries by the very same experts.
The availability of target-specific testing and development tools, and the desire to use standard development tools for the majority of the code work are the main reasons for these OS to be sought after.
According to the study “standards conformance and interoperability” and the “ease of porting code to new target platforms” seem to be less important to developers.
This might be because decisions concerning the choice of OS on which to build embedded applications, are more related to the device that will house the application than in other areas of software development.
Embedded system development is still a young area and likely to grow in importance. Click here to read the whole article at The Register.

Multicore programming made easy?

Itzi — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:57:27 +0000

The first multicore platforms have found their way into embedded systems for entertainment and communication, especially thanks to their greater computational power, flexibility, and energy efficiency. However, as we will show, mapping applications onto these systems remains a challenge that is costly, slow, and prone to errors.
Although the multicore programmable architectures have a huge potential to tackle present and future applications, a key issue is still open: how can developers map an application onto such a multicore platform fast and efficiently, while profiting from the potential benefits of parallel processing?

Click here to continue reading this article at Embedded.com

The Cost of Coexistence

Itzi — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:56:47 +0000

Can a large organization adopt agile approaches to software development when the organization holds the notion that not all projects should be agile? In other words, can there be a mix of waterfall-type projects and agile projects in the same organization? The short answer is yes, however there is a cost that must be paid for this coexistence.

In transitioning to agile, most companies gradually transition a few teams at a time, learning from their successes and mistakes and applying the new knowledge to the rollout of new agile teams. This process can take months or years, depending on the size of the organization and the stability of management and agile champions.

Click here to continue reading this article at Sticky Minds.

A world without embedded systems

Itzi — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:57:50 +0000

The question “what is embedded?” continues to plague many of us, even those who are deep in the throes of the technology. It’s sometimes easier to make a point using a negative. For example, could you imagine a world without embedded technology. Probably not. If that were the case, we’d be without computers, vehicles as we know them today, any type of aircraf, cell phones, the Internet…
In fact, most of our industries would not be doing business the way they do it today without embedded technologies. And yet, a vast majority of the general population will have a perplexed look on their face when you ask them “what is embedded?”

Click here to continue reading this article at Embedded.com

Virtualization ready to fly

Itzi — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 10:57:26 +0000

Virtualization, a concept of the mainframe computing and business IT world, is no longer a technology restricted to large computing centers and business computing environments. Increasingly confronted with the requirement to communicate with business IT and to integrate complex processing environments, programmers and developers of embedded systems increasingly rely on virtualization techniques.

Click here to continue reading this article at Embedded Europe.

How Agile Practices Reduce Requirements Risks

Itzi — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 10:34:24 +0000

Requirements risks are among the most insidious risks threatening software projects. Whether it is having unclear requirements, lack of customer involvement in requirements development, or defective requirements, these troubles are a major culprit in projects that go awry. Project teams can make a difference by adopting and implementing agile practices. When implemented correctly, agile practices greatly mitigate the most common risks associated with requirements on software development projects.

Click here to continue reading this article at Sticky Minds.

How a Compiler Can Aid Embedded Software Developers

Itzi — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:49:07 +0000

When a software developer is acquiring a compiler, a primary consideration is the code quality produced by the compiler. But other features that are not required by the ANSI language description (that are tailored to embedded developer needs) can make the developer’s task simpler to maintain.

Click here to continue reading this article at Embedded Computing Desing about some desirable features of compilers used in embedded application development, and some techniques for making use of these features.

The best coding standards eliminate bugs

Itzi — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:21:12 +0000

The topic of coding standards is an emotive one among software developers, whose divergent opinions raise questions that range from “Why do we need such restrictions?” to “How could we possibly operate without them?”
Software engineering has always wrestled with standards, and the development of the C and C++ languages brought the issue into even sharper focus. These flexible and powerful languages are now deeply rooted in industrial and embedded environments. In the past decade, developers have accepted the need to control and restrict these languages for industrial, commercial, or other safety-conscious purposes.

Click here to continue reading this article at Embedded.com

Deception and Self-deception in Software Testing

Itzi — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:35:47 +0000

Have you heard any of these lately?
“The testers are finding too many bugs and holding up the project.”
“Anyone can test. We just have to give them the right process to follow.”
“Our test cases will provide complete system coverage.”
Not one of these common statements about testing is true. At least one of them could have been said by a tester.
Delivering and promoting accurate communications about testing is essential to the tester’s and test manager’s job. We have a responsibility to dispel myths and misconceptions about good testing and what it can and cannot do. We must also be alert to and prepared to address distortions or attempts to spin the message about testing from any source—including ourselves.

Click here to continue reading this article at Sticky Minds.

Bringing together real-time and Virtualization

Itzi — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:03:48 +0000

Virtualization is a long established technology in the server world. It has been used for decades as an enabler for platform consolidation. In the recent years, the technology has also gained new public interest due to its availability for Desktop PC platforms. The fact that it can provide strong isolation between applications and that this level of isolation can be achieved with only a very small layer of trusted code has also raised interest from the security related field of applications.

The possibility to integrate multiple independent subsystems in a single physical machine could also prove beneficial for many safety-critical applications.However, in addition to the spatial isolation that virtualization readily provides, most of these applications also require some level of temporal determinism: Each subsystem typically interacts with a technical component and, consequently, it has to keep up with that component’s timing properties.

Click here to continue reading this article at Embedded Control Europe.