Mentor Blogs

When I first heard the term “Smart Energy”, I confess that I had no idea what it meant. For a while, a precise definition seemed to elude me, as people would talk about smart meters and the Smart Grid, but not actually say what smart energy was. It is now a little clearer. Smart Energy is really a catch-all term for a bunch of technology associated with energy efficiency primarily in a … Read More

Nucleus, smart meter, SEP 2.0, smart energy

One of the great things about software, compared with hardware, is the ease with which it may be changed and updated. The big downside of software is also the ease with which it can be changed. This ease can make software developers lazy, as they know that they can always fix things later. This is a sharp contrast to chip developers who are fearful of errors, as an ASIC respin is both time consuming … Read More

DFU, Device Firmware Upgrade, USB, Nucleus

I always find it satisfying to see simple solutions to apparently complex problems and the world of embedded software certainly lends itself to some creativity. My concept of “simple” is quite broad, but essentially encompasses anything that is easy to understand [for me] and ideally avoids reinvention of any wheels. A while ago, I wrote about incorporating a Web server [HTTP server actually] … Read More

TCP/IP, Medical, Nucleus, RTOS, SMTP, POP3

Free Nucleus RTOS source code? Just a few years ago if you would have told me that Mentor Graphics would be offering free-source-code for one of the most successful, popular and distributed RTOS’s in the world, I would not have believed it. Yet, for the last few quarters, Mentor is doing just that! The Nucleus Innovate Program was announced November 2012 and adoption is picking up quickly! To date, … Read More

RTOS, Medical, ARM, STMicro, Nucleus ROTS, NXP, TI, Mentor Embedded, Nucleus

In the high-tech market, the IoT is driving connectivity requirements in devices across many segments. Considering the number of embedded medical devices hospital, you can quickly imagine areas where Wi-Fi connectivity can be used to connect devices, patients, administrators and doctors. For example, Wi-Fi can be applicable in the doctor’s office, in the operating room, at the nurse’s station, in the … Read More

Freescale, Medical, Wi-Fi, Nucleus, RTOS

Nucleus, our flagship RTOS offering has been around for several years now. In this time, it has been designed into more than 3 billion embedded devices in various applications such as mobile, medical, consumer electronics, industrial and more! The phrase “been there done that” could not be more appropriate to Nucleus. Regardless, when it came time to design yet another cool demo, our engineers were … Read More

industrial, Nucleus, DESIGN West, RTOS, Zigbee

In the early days of embedded systems, software engineers typically had some understanding of hardware design. Indeed, in many cases, it was the hardware designer who implemented the software. Over the years, as the amount of software development has increased, engineers have become less and less “hardware aware”. I find this transition interesting from the viewpoint of an embedded software … Read More

Verilog, RTOS, VHDL, FPGA, MicroBlaze, NIOS, Nucleus

My colleague Richard Vlamynck [who has been a guest blogger here] and I were discussing tracing and debugging. Like me, he has been doing software for a few years. Hence, when we considered tracing and instrumenting code, he commented “It used to be easy to see what effect trace statements had on your program because, as you put more or less trace cards in your Fortran deck, you could visually … Read More

Sourcery Analyzer, Linux, lttng, Nucleus, multi-core, Multi-OS

Here at Mentor Graphics we are always pleased to get customer feedback on the use of our technology for embedded software development. One such customer is Imagination Technologies whose “Pure” product division has used our embedded user interface (UI) technology and services to create and power the UI in their outstanding “Pure Avalon 300R Connect Freeview+ HD Digital TV Recorder”. … Read More

HMI, Inflexion, RTOS, UI, Nucleus, Nucleus ReadyStart

Some time ago, I recorded the content for a Web seminar about power management in embedded software. Although I am talking about the subject generally, I am, of course, strongly alluding to the capabilities incorporated into Nucleus RTOS. The session was “broadcast” last week, but, if you would like to experience a rare example of me being caught on video, you can watch the recorded version. … Read More

Low Power, Nucleus, Power Management

I remember reading a book about nuclear power, which had been written in the 1950s. It confidently foretold that an era of cheap energy was about to commence – so cheap that electricity would not need to be metered. I, for one, am still awaiting this golden age. Of course, things did not work out like that and meters for gas and electricity are still with us. The technology of those meters is … Read More

Nucleus, smart meter, SEP, smart energy

I recall a few years ago, I was at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, CA. We had a presentation theater on the booth and my job was to manage it. That meant that I got to do some of the presentations and persuaded colleagues to do others. One session, that was not mine, was particularly successful. I am not sure whether this was because of the unique style of the presenter or the words she … Read More

Nucleus, start-up, Nucleus RTOS

NXP has joined the Nucleus Innovate Program with its line of LPC ARM Cortex M4 family of microcontroller devices. The first Nucleus BSP available for NXP will be on the Hitex LPC4350 evaluation board. Just to mention a few of the onboard goodies, the LPC4350 has speeds up to 204MHz, USB, LCD, Ethernet with 1MB FLASH and 264kb SRAM, making the LPC3450 a very capable development platform. Moreover, the … Read More

NXP, Nucleus, RTOS, LPC1800, LPC4000, free software, MCU, multi-core, LPC4300, LPC4350

I have always characterized the difference between desktop systems and embedded along the lines of “desktops are all the same; embedded systems are all different.” Although, if I think about platform based designs, this is less universal, but the distinction still mostly holds true. Commonly, I would cite this difference when considering the needs of embedded software engineers with respect … Read More

RTOS, device tree, BSP, ReadyStart, Linux, Nucleus

RTOS’s have been around for a long time in the embedded industry.   And with the introduction of the TI RTOS, Freescale’s MQX, FreeRTOS and several others, I hear all the time that “RTOS’s have become a commodity.”  And to some extent, I agree.   While every RTOS has its pros and cons with various features and benefits, selecting the right one for “your” application requirements can be a little tricky.  … Read More

OSS, RTOS, Freescale, Android, Mentor Embedded, Nucleus, Linux, Medical