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Embedded Systems Articles

• Extending RISC-V ISA With a Custom Instruction Set Extension (Jun. 03, 2019)
  RISC-V ISA (Instruction Set Architecture) is designed in a modular way. It means that the ISA has several groups of instructions (ISA extensions) that can be enabled or disabled as needed. This allows implementing precisely the instruction groups that the application needs, without having to pay for area or power that will not be used.
  
  
• New AI Computing in Consumer Electronics (May. 20, 2019)
  The market for AI processors is vast, but it can be organized into segments, and those segments can be targeted.
  
  
• Nucleus SE RTOS initialization and start-up (Mar. 13, 2019)
  For any kind of operating system (OS), there is some type of start-up mechanism. Exactly how this works varies from one system to another, but most "classic" RTOSes use a much simpler (and hence faster) process than found in desktop OSes.
  
  
• Why vehicle security may require a different approach (Oct. 17, 2018)
  With more than 152 million vehicles connnected to the Internet by 2020, it’s no surprise that engine control units (ECUs) are easy targets for attackers and other adversaries. This is supported by published reports on recent attacks on Volkswagen/Audi, BMW, and Tesla vehicles. And as cars become more connected, this trend will continue to grow.
  
  
• PCI Express 3.0 needs reliable timing design (Oct. 15, 2018)
  PCI Express (PCIe) is an important standard for chip-to-chip communications and serves as a standard for connecting motherboards to peripheral cards. It can be challenging, however, to implement the reference clock so that it meets the various requirements of the PCIe standard.
  
  
• Understanding virtualization facilities in the ARMv8 processor architecture (Sep. 21, 2018)
  Virtualization facilities in ARMv8-based systems play a special role in these systems and consist of several components. While ARMv7 had a special CPU mode to run a hypervisor as an extension, in ARMv8, it has become a part of the architecture, and it has been integrated into the privilege-level system under the name EL2.
  
  
• The evolution of embedded devices: Addressing complex design challenges (Sep. 18, 2018)
  We expect our devices to be smart, upgradable and accessible over the Internet and security is no longer optional. Existing standards and stack libraries can help developers complete a project in a timely, secure way. This article outlines the key design challenges an embedded developer faces today, and some of the new technologies that will help designers address these challenges.
  
  
• Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI) - Breaking the Network Aggregation (Jul. 30, 2018)
  The networking industry is moving faster than ever before. The reason to expedite the pace lies in the network device disaggregation which leads to the evolution of the white box switch concept. What enables the network disaggregation? What are the problems with traditional networking? Let us look at it in the discourse ahead.
  
  
• The architecture of ARMv8-based firmware systems (Jul. 16, 2018)
  Since its release in 2011, the ARMv8 processor architecture has become quite widespread in the mobile device market. According to the forecasts of the ARM Limited CEO, the processors of this generation will acquire a world market share of up to 25% by 2020. It is natural enough that the software support was established and has been developing further by inheriting the features and general principles of the historically formed infrastructure.
  
  
• Why FIR sensing technology is essential for achieving fully autonomous vehicles (Jun. 13, 2018)
  The automotive industry is experiencing an influx of new technology as it never has before. Automakers are promising to deploy fully autonomous vehicles on public roads within the next few years and are predicting that mass market adoption will not be far behind
  
  
• How to reuse your IIoT technology investments - now (Apr. 11, 2018)
  While we can all relate to wearables for sport and fitness, smart homes, and even “Siri” and her many step sisters, the real surprise is how the Industrial IoT (IIoT) is quietly gaining significant momentum among businesses and industries throughout the world.
  
  
• Aircraft Jet Engine Failure Analytics Using Google Cloud Platform Based Deep Learning (Apr. 09, 2018)
  This white paper presents an aircraft jet engine sensor fault diagnostics and prediction implementation using Google cloud platform. The use cases covered are effectively implemented to demonstrate the GCP capability to implement such a prognostic system.
  
  
• Managing energy consumption in wireless IoT devices (Apr. 04, 2018)
  Battery life is one of the last thing on the minds of developers rushing to complete their designs but there are a number of things they can do...
  
  
• Tackling IoT system interoperability (Mar. 05, 2018)
  IoT application development has already evolved largely into an integration problem. Developers can find all manner of IoT hardware devices that provide a growing number of near drop-in solutions for populating an IoT system's layers of terminal sensor nodes and edge computing devices.
  
  
• Machines can see, hear and analyze thanks to embedded neural networks (Feb. 27, 2018)
  The potential applications around artificial intelligence (AI) continue to grow on a daily basis. As the power of different neural network (NN) architectures are tested, tuned and refined to tackle different problems, diverse methods of optimally analyzing data using AI are found.
  
  
• IoT security: hardware vs software (Jan. 22, 2018)
  We are now in the business of connecting everything to everything. And with this, the Internet of Things (IoT) is born. Once this total connectivity is accomplished, the collective effort this brings lets us start the next string of new and exciting systems. This results in massive amounts of data that must be trusted and processed.
  
  
• Achieving MPU security (Jan. 17, 2018)
  Encryption, authentication, and other security methods work fine to protect data and program updates passing through the Internet. That is, unless one end can easily be hacked to steal secret keys and possibly implant malware for future activation. Then, unbeknownst to the system operators, confidential information is being stolen daily and possible major service disruptions lie ahead.
  
  
• Wind Turbine Fault Detection Using Machine Learning And Neural Networks (Dec. 18, 2017)
  Offshore wind turbines in farm locations are hard to reach and may pose problems in maintenance cycles, the cost of repair, and repair procedures. The smart solution is to utilize remote monitoring and diagnostics based on the sensor data.
  
  
• Authentication Flash: Closing the Security Gap Left by Conventional NOR Flash ICs (Sep. 18, 2017)
  In response to demand from security-conscious OEMs, the manufacturers of modern microcontrollers and systems-on-chip (SoCs) commonly equip their products with a broad range of security capabilities: standard, off-the-shelf 32-bit MCUs for mainstream, non-financial applications will today often feature a hardware cryptographic accelerator, a random number generator (RNG) and secure memory locations.
  
  
• Designing for safety and security in a connected system (Sep. 07, 2017)
  Good embedded software has always been designed for both safety and security. However, connectivity has introduced intolerable levels of security vulnerability in safety-critical applications such as medical, autonomous vehicles, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
  
  
• Optimizing flash memory selection for automotive & other uses (Aug. 21, 2017)
  Over the past few years, there has been an increasing demand for NOR Flash memory for use in automotive applications. Initial uses included applications such as infotainment and engine control. However, as advancements in automotive computerization continue to progress, NOR Flash memory is seeing use in a wider range of various automotive applications.
  
  
• The whys and hows of secure boot (Aug. 14, 2017)
  With the proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, which now span just about every walk of life, from smart cities to wireless jewellery, the need to prioritize security in IoT-style embedded systems has never been greater. The secure boot process is a vital first step in securing any embedded system, a necessary part of your application’s anti-malware fortress. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons, with a focus on one of the most popular processors in electronics – the i.MX6.
  
  
• Introducing ARM Cortex-M23 and Cortex-M33 Processors with TrustZone for ARMv8-M (Apr. 10, 2017)
  The Cortex-M23 and Cortex-M33 processors are the newest members of the highly popular Cortex-M product family. As such, the two processors maintain the expected characteristics of the embbeded profile such as real-time deterministic interrupt response, low power, low area, ease of development, and 32-bit performance. The security foundation is introduced via the addition of TrustZone® technology. The two processors, with such a vibrant ecosystem, will open the door for opportunities across many diverse market segments.
  
  
• Easing the Development of Functionally Safe Controllers (Apr. 03, 2017)
  This paper identifies the need for increased adoption of functional safety and describes how processors can help address the high level of criticality more simply. It details how the provision of fault detection and control features for random errors can be offered together with protection against systematic software errors, while meeting the demanding high-performance and deterministic execution.
  
  
• The Functional Safety Imperative in Automotive Design (Mar. 20, 2017)
  Functional safety is about ensuring that products operate safely and do so even when they go wrong. Here’s why you can’t choose to ignore it.
  
  
• Optimizing compilers for ADAS applications (Mar. 07, 2017)
  All major OEMs and software suppliers of the automotive industry are committed to advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). A close look, though, raises questions on the demands ADAS applications place on compilers and toolsets. There are differences between traditional automotive applications and ADAS, and current compliers need some adaptations to better address ADAS needs.
  
  
• Applying DevOps to IoT solution development (Mar. 07, 2017)
  In order to weather the big changes of IoT transformation in near future, IoT application developers and product companies must understand that faster time-to-market is very critical to success in the IoT marketplace. To achieve that, you must allow IoT development platforms to do most of the heavy lifting.
  
  
• Upgrading 8- and 16-bit MCU designs: Development ecosystem (Feb. 28, 2017)
  In this article, we’ll cover how modern software tools, hardware development ecosystems, and ready-made firmware stacks with code examples ease system design and development of 32-bit systems.
  
  
• Designing a low-cost, low-power multicore ARM-based AV player (Feb. 20, 2017)
  This article describes the use of a low-cost, low-density Zynq FPGA in creating a computational platform for implementing infotainment systems for passenger vehicles, such as cars, buses, trains, airplanes and ships. Other applications for this kind of platform include digital signage and information displays in private and public venues such as hotels, hospitals, gas pumps, or kiosks as well as digital picture frames for consumer markets.
  
  
• Debugging hard faults in ARM Cortex-M0 based SoCs (Feb. 09, 2017)
  Programmable system-on-chip (PSoC) architectures integrate a wide range of capabilities, including MCU cores like the Cortex-M0, programmable analog blocks (PAB), programmable digital blocks (PDB), programmable interconnect and routing, a wide range of interfaces and peripherals, and advanced capabilities such as capacitive touch sensing. These architectures over many advantages over traditional microcontrollers and can substantially reduce design time and system bill of materials (BOM) cost.