Mentor Blogs

There is a lot of buzz about Android at the moment. Indeed, I have written about it here, as has my colleague Scott. A lot of the discussion is around the topic of the new Android-powered smart phones that seem to appear on a daily basis. Just about every handset manufacturer seems to have jumped on the bandwagon. I have no problem with this. Far from it. I really like my Android phone and would encourage … Read More

Android, Medical, E-Books, Home Entertainment

For some years, there has been discussion about how embedded devices are increasingly becoming connected. WiFi enabled home appliances are one possibility. Everyone has heard about fridges that order the groceries. I love the concept of the Internet enabled toaster, which checks the weather forecast and burns a symbol onto your morning toast to tell you what to expect. All of this is great, exciting … Read More

Android, Medical, Wireless, Wi-Fi

I have just been taking a short vacation and, while we were away, we met up with some friends. Their son was very excited to be the owner of the very latest model of iPhone. He was very keen to show us all the cool features and how slick it was to operate. I liked his enthusiasm and I was impressed by the device. But somehow I had two simultaneous trains of thought. First, I concluded that the iPhone … Read More

Medical, GUI, Inflexion UI, User Interface

It is an interesting question: when do you need the source code in order to reuse some software and when would binary [i.e. a black box] be quite satisfactory? With an embedded operating system the answer is far from obvious. There is even a question as to what source code really is. If you ask an engineer whether he would like to have the source code for an OS or any other reusable software, the … Read More

DO-178B, Nucleus, Medical, Avionics, Certification, Source Code, Nucleus Kernel, RTOS

We have a great many customers who are in the business of making medical equipment and instrumentation. Given the enormous increase in the use of electronics in hospitals and medical facilities, this is not too surprising. Our success in this area has come about naturally - the products just fit the needs of these developers. We have not really promoted ourselves in this space or adapted anything to … Read More

Nucleus Kernel, Medical, Wi-Fi, Wireless