Embedded Computing Design

The space program has come quite far in the last decade when it comes to sending people to Mars and building a colony there. If you’re wondering what it would take to accomplish that, check out the book Colonizing Mars by Frank Norris. Or, take the easy way out and check out the latest DevTalk with Rich and Vin podcast, where we invited Frank on as a guest.

We spend a lot of time talking about the software-defined vehicle (SDV), and there are two very good reasons for that. One is that is it occurring, whether you know it or not or whether you want it or not. The second reason is that it is very complex, even if you’re just dealing with the HMI, as it all ties back together at some point.

To sort through the issues, I invited Marcelo Williams, a Global Senior Director for Infineon Technologies to be my guest on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

Great hardware is useless without great software, and vice versa. The hardware industry continues to evolve, as always, but the software side operates quite differently than it did in the past, thanks to the groundswell of open-source software.
 

If you’re not familiar with Zephyr, shame on you. It’s an open-source, real-time operating system (RTOS) for resource-constrained devices. That’s how it differs from Linux, which is more of a mainstream OS.
 

Avnet’s Embedded Solutions group is undergoing a change, with a new name attached to it. Known as Tria, the group will be responsible for a range of branded hardware modules, boards, and systems and all the software that comes with them. That combines the company’s vast tech support network and state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities.

As you might expect, the code base in the software-defined vehicle is growing in leaps and bounds, with more features being added and the functionality within those features growing (and becoming more complex).

Is the downside to that ballooning code base the fact that more holes are being introduced to welcome hackers?

Do you know what a software-defined vehicle (SDV) is? You likely have your definition, which may or may not be the “right” definition.

Just getting that baseline is where my discussion started with Ray Notarantonio, Infineon’s Senior Director of Vehicle User Experience in this week’s Embedded Executives podcast. We explored what’s possible with an SDV, when you should expect it, and what’s holding up the various aspects.

Memory technology continues to move along at a healthy pace. Innovations continue to come, and there does not seem to be a slowdown on that horizon. Whether it’s NAND, NOR, or something else, you can expect to see advances in densities, speeds, costs, and so on.

As the complexity of our embedded systems has exploded, particularly in the automotive space, a requirements-management tool has moved into the “must-have” category.

Bluetooth has been around for a quarter century. That’s a very, very long time in technology years. It’s evolved into one of the most omnipresent standards ever produced. That said, it continues to grow with new features and enhancements, which result in new use cases.

I spoke to Shantanu Bhalerao, the Vice President of Bluetooth Products for Infineon Technologies on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast to understand how that works and what's still to come for Bluetooth.

Everything is connected, everything is smart, and AI controls everything. And it all comes back to the “smart Edge.”

While these statements seem to be a bit over-arching, there’s a lot of truth to them. But building and then designing around that smart Edge can be quite tricky. Add TinyML to the equation, and it should become clearer (well, maybe).

To better understand what that means exactly, I spoke to Amir Panush, the CEO of Ceva on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

The software-defined vehicle (SDV) requires lots of horsepower, and in many cases, extensive use of AI. Is the world ready for this application? More importantly, are the automakers ready?

This is the avenue I went down with Frantz Saintellemy, the President and CEO of LeddarTech. We discussed the ecosystem, the available products, the activities in different regions, and the prevailing perceptions in this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

Engineers know how important it is to test their prototypes. What they don’t seem to get is that the testing process needs to start at the beginning of the design process, not at the end. And testing must continue all the way through the entire design process. The reasons for this are what Rich and Vin go through on this episode of DevTalk with Rich and Vin.

Many of the memory suppliers choose a niche to be an expert. It may be automotive, consumer, industrial, medical, etc. In the case of Apacer Technology, the company has chosen to do it all. In my discussion with Gibson Chen, the General Manager of Apacer, I challenged whether that’s the best approach, trying to serve just about any market. Listen to this week’s Embedded Executives podcast and decide for yourself if that’s the right strategy.

The latest wearable medical devices are designed to help consumers make better decisions regarding their care. Until recently, the space has been somewhat limited. Size and power were the two biggest constraints. Those constraints aren’t going away, but they are definitely being lessened thanks to some of the latest innovations on the semiconductor side.

To hear more about these innovations, I spoke to Andrew Baker, the Co-Founder and CEO of Orca Semiconductor, a startup in the emerging connected health arena. Check out this week’s Embedded Executives podcast to learn more.

If the software-defined vehicle (SDV) comes off as planned, life for consumers becomes a whole lot easier. “If” is the key word in that sentence, and there’s tons of debate as to when that might actually happen.
 

One of the best parts of my job is seeing products we write about being manufactured, whether it be semiconductors, boards, systems, tools, and so on. In many cases, we have to take the manufacturer's word. We can follow up with customers and suppliers, and we do, but seeing the manufacturing actually taking place, and watching the products roll down an assembly line is quite gratifying.

Is Wi-Fi even a thing anymore? What I mean by that is, at least from the users’ perspective, Wi-Fi just works, and that’s not much to think about. However, behind the scenes, a lot has to happen to make that “ubiquitousness” happen. To get a better understanding of what is happening back there, I spoke to Sivaram Trikutam, the Vice President of Wi-Fi Products for Infineon. We get into the latest standards, including Matter, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

Can batteries last for 40 years? And what is the application that would require such a timeline?

That’s the discussion I had with Sol Jacobs, the Vice President and General Manager of Tadiran Batteries.

The topic arose after the company’s recent whitepaper crossed my desk. To understand whether this was fact or simply a click-bait headline, I went to the source. Hear what Sol had to say on the matter in this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

No trip to COMPUTEX would be complete without a visit to the AVerMedia booth. And as usual, the products and demos on display did not disappoint. If you’re not familiar with Taiwan-based AVerMedia, the company has been designing and manufacturing leading-edge AV peripherals and professional capturing, streaming, and embedded vision solutions for about 30 years. That would also include high-definition video and real-time AV products.