Embedded Computing Design

Designing a device that incorporates AI can be daunting, for a good reason—it’s very complex. When you push that design out to the Edge, it brings in even more challenges, both on the hardware and software sides of the equation. 

To understand what these challenges are and where a designer can turn for help, I spoke to Amir Panush, the CEO of Ceva, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast. He addresses these issues on a regular basis and has a good understanding of what a designer needs to know.

Silicon Labs recently announced an MCU that has achieved the highest level of security possible to date, which is PSA Level 4. The questions you may be asking are, “What does that mean, and is this something I need to understand?” 

To get answers to these questions and many related ones, I spoke to Sharon Hagi, the Chief Security Officer at Silicon Labs, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast. You may be surprised by his responses, that not every design needs this level of security.

We’re in the era of quantum computing. That brings with it a lot of great things. But at the same time, it brings some not so good things. Once again, we’re in a race to stay ahead of the bad guys to keep our systems secure. 

Folks like the experts at Infineon are doing what they can to do just that. And the best part is that they are trying to insulate their customers from having to deal with all the different measures that must be put in place. 

Hear from Erik Wood, Infineon’s Senior Director of Microcontroller Cryptography and Product Security, to see if this sounds like a fit for your design. Check out this week’s Embedded Executives podcast to learn more.

The boom coming from AI is requiring data centers to be built as fast as we can build them. To that end, there is a lot of discussion about the power that’s needed to drive these data centers. What there’s not a lot of discussion about are the interconnects that are used within these power-hungry computing camps. And that’s the specialty of Point2 Technology, a fairly new company that boasts ultra-low power interconnect solutions. 

To understand how the company’s technology works, I spoke to Sean Park, Point2’s President, CEO, and Founder, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

For as long as we’ve been designing embedded computers and consumer electronics, we’ve had a problem figuring out how to handle the heat that’s created. Known as thermal management, the problem seems omnipresent as systems become more compact, processors run faster, and so on. 

Unfortunately, many designers don’t think about thermal management until it’s too late in the design process, which further exacerbates the problem. So what’s a developer to do? That’s what I asked Carl Schlachte, the President and CEO of Ventiva, who specializes in this technology, in this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

While it may not be as intimidating as it once was, antenna design can still be a make-or-break aspect of your end product. Make the antenna too big, and the end users balk. Make the antenna too small, and the device won’t function properly (and end users will balk). 

To understand where and how the antenna design should begin, I spoke with Dermot O'Shea, the CEO of Taoglas, an expert in antenna design and certification, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

TSMC recently announced its exit from the GaN space. Well, maybe “announced” is the wrong word, but they did let customers know that they will not be producing GaN devices going forward. 

Details are still coming out, so we don’t know exactly when that stoppage will occur. So what does that mean for TSMC partners who relied on them to produce their products? 

To understand what that means, I spoke to Johannes Schoiswohl, the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Infineon’s GaN Business Line. Infineon may have an easier time than others making this transition, but it’s an interesting time nonetheless. Check out this week’s Embedded Executives podcast to learn more.

Compute in the automobile is (again) moving toward consolidation and away from the discrete nature of multiple processors around the vehicle. Is this a trend that’s going to stick? I guess it depends on who you ask. 

In this case, I asked Robert Moran, the GM & VP for Automotive Processors at NXP Semiconductors. As we add AI and autonomous drive to the software-defined vehicle (SDV), a move like this is pretty much a requirement. Hear it right from the horse’s mouth on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

The Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) is a regulation designed to enhance cybersecurity for products mainly sold in Europe. It establishes common cybersecurity standards for hardware and software, requiring manufacturers to build security into their products from design through the products’ complete lifecycle. It’s this latter concept that can be troubling, as sometimes devices stay in use for a long, long time. 

So what’s a manufacturer to do? That’s the concept that was on the table for this week’s Embedded Executives podcast with Eystein Stenberg, founder and CTO of Northern.tech.

While most autonomous vehicle focus is on the automobile, Mozee is going in a slightly different direction, no pun intended. Mozee is focused on autonomous buses, or vehicles that transport large numbers of people. As you might expect, such a system has its challenges, in addition to those typically associated with an automobile. What makes the company’s solution different is that it operates in real-time, without the need for “pre-mapping” the city in which the vehicle travels. It does this through its AI engine. Hear more directly from Shawn Taikratoke, Mozee’s CEO, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

Two technologies seem to be barreling ahead at a rapid pace, and there is likely a convergence coming shortly, if it hasn’t already occurred. I’m referring to space travel and artificial intelligence. But in my limited knowledge, there appears to be a disconnect in this marriage, whereby how could AI make decisions on something it’s never encountered before? 

To boost my limited knowledge, I invited Sakya Dasgupta, the Founder and CEO, EdgeCortix, to be my guest on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast. He has experience in this space (pun intended) and we discussed what’s happening today and what we can expect in the near future.

Designing wearables with integrated AI /ML just got one step easier with Nordic Semiconductor’s acquisition of Neuton.AI. While the two companies had already been working together, you can expect a lot more integration between Nordic’s MCUs and the very low-power AI IP that Neuton.AI has become famous for. 

On this week’s Embedded Executives podcast. I spoke to Øyvind Strom, the EVP of Nordic’s Short-Range Business Unit. He explains why a developer should sit up and take notice, and what the design community can expect from this powerful combination down the road.

The line between a maker and a maker pro is quite fuzzy. In my opinion, the maker wants to build one of something, and likely won’t want to build more than one. The maker pro starts out building one, but knows somewhere down the line that the project could turn into a far larger volume. 

If you fall into that latter group, does that change some of your design decisions, even where you begin? 

Do you start with a Pi, or do you use something that’s more “professional?” 

This is the conversation I had with Okan Saracoglu, the Vice President of Growth at Sixfab. Hear what he had to say on the subject forward, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

If you believe all the hype, it seems that AI is being integrated into nearly every embedded computing platform. It may not be everyone, but the percentage is fairly high and growing. 

So, as a developer, do you know what your starting point should be for your project? 

What Vin and I discovered, thanks to Avijit Sinha, Senior VP of Strategy and Global Business Development at Wind River, is that a whole lot of questions need to be answered before you even get to the starting point. Hear it for yourself on this episode of the DevTalk with Rich and Vin podcast.

ISO 8800 is a standard aimed at functional safety in automotive applications, pertaining to artificial intelligence. It provides the guidelines for integrating AI systems into any safety-related functions of road vehicles. In full disclosure, I wasn’t aware of this standard, and I was frankly surprised I wasn’t. 

To remedy the situation, I invited Jill Britton, the Director of Compliance at Perforce, onto this week’s Embedded Executives podcast. Jill explained what the standard is all about and which parts of it are key for embedded developers to understand.

Here’s a walk down memory lane. The Eclipse Foundation dates back more than 20 years. Mike Milinkovich, the Foundation’s Executive Director, has held this role since its inception. The role of the foundation and the embedded industry in general has evolved more than anyone could have conceived. 

We talk about AI a lot here at Embedded Computing Design, and that’s a huge understatement. What we don’t talk about often is the power required to keep the data centers going, specifically the data centers that form the backbone of all this AI activity. 

When you talk to experts in this space, they’ll tell you that the amount of power needed, specifically the power density, is staggering. One of those experts, Tim Phillips, President, CEO, and Founder of Empower Semiconductor, joined me on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast. He gave some insight into what we need to do to handle the power (and associated heat) issue.

The best part about writing Tear Down articles is that I get to try out the latest/coolest products. The worst part is that I have to take the products apart, and only having a hammer in my toolbox, the products never work again.

Nordic Semiconductor is certainly one of the leaders in the embedded space regarding microcontroller technology. Frankly, I feel like the company is one of the best-kept secrets. When I had the opportunity to speak with their (sort of) new CEO, I jumped at it. 

Hear my discussion with Vegard Wollan, Nordic’s President and CEO, where he explains some of the moves he has made in his tenure, and what can be expected going forward, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

Some “experts” in the embedded space will swear that systems based on open-source software or hardware can never be secure. At the same time, others will say that such a notion is pure nonsense.

To get a better feel for the argument and understand what is accurate and what is not, I spoke to Jan Pleskac, the Co-Founder and CTO of Tropic Square, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

The company is a fabless semiconductor vendor that specializes in secure elements. Jan and I went through the process behind staying secure and the role that open source plays in it.