Mentor Blogs

Nowadays, there is a perception that the higher end embedded CPU is dominated by ARM. Obviously, these devices are very popular, as evidenced by the various ARM Tech Con events around the world. However, I remember the world before ARM, when “embedded 32-bit device” meant Motorola 68000 family. Motorola Semiconductor became Freescale, who are still a force to be reckoned with. Freescale’s … Read More

Freescale, FTF, Low Power, Nucleus

I have posted a couple of times recently [like here] about a recent webinar that I conducted on measuring RTOS performance. This is a topic that appears to be of significant interest to most RTOS users, so I thought it might be a good time to pick up on a key detail of the issue. My colleague Rizwan Rasheed suggested a little while ago that the measurement and specification of RTOS interrupt latency … Read More

interrupt latency, Nucleus, RTOS

As I mentioned previously, I presented a Web seminar last week. The topic was the measurement of RTOS performance. To be frank, I was unsure how popular this might be, though I have found that, at conferences, the topic seems to draw a reasonable audience, so I was quietly optimistic. As it turned out, there was a very good attendance, with lots of questions, which kept me busy right up until the end … Read More

Nucleus, RTOS

There is still a common misconception that a real time system is simply one that responds quickly to demands. Although a real time system may, indeed, be fast, its key characteristic is predictability. A real time system is deterministic – its response to an event will occur in a timely fashion, neither too quickly nor too slowly. It is common to use a real time operating system [RTOS - like … Read More

Nucleus, RTOS, Webinar

I was having some trouble with my Internet connection recently. I will probably never know exactly what was wrong [as ADSL is, for intents and purposes, magic], but investigating the problem was interesting. I am not a networking specialist, so I would expect that messing with the settings inside a router would be hard, but the manufacturers have made it very simple. I began to wonder why there are … Read More

HTTP, Networking, Web, Nucleus

I am not really sure that I should be promoting this, but here goes … When I was at ESC the other week, I made the mistake of not hiding or looking frantically busy at some point. The result was that I got interviewed by some guys from ARM about the Stella robot that we were showing and the Nucleus RTOS that powers her. It has now been posted on YouTube. I do not think that this one is going … Read More

Nucleus, ARM

I have historically been somewhat skeptical about open source software [OSS]. I am always wary of anything that is “free” and subscribe to the TANSTAAFL ["there ain't no such thing as a free lunch"] principle. It has taken me quite a few years to understand that open software is not free – it is just a different business model from the usual “we make it, you buy it” approach. I … Read More

Linux, Nucleus

Well, tomorrow is the big day. ESC San Jose 2012 [now part of DESIGN West] runs for 3 days and looks set to be an excellent show for anyone interested in embedded systems software or hardware. I recently outlined our plans for the Mentor Embedded booth, but we now have more details … Our booth is set to be a hive of activity, with a continuous program of technical briefings in the theater and … Read More

Nucleus, Embedded Systems Conference, DESIGN West, Linux, Yocto

This week sees the 10th anniversary of the Embedded World conference in Nuremberg, Germany. This show and conference has been growing steadily over the years and I guess it is now the biggest event devoted to embedded systems in the world. I am fortunate enough to attend Embedded World most years, as I reported here and here, and this year is no exception. I have two papers in the conference: “USB … Read More

Embedded World, Nucleus, USB, RTOS

For quite a few years, the need to update the primary protocol used by the Internet – the Internet Protocol or IP – has been apparent and has been becoming increasingly urgent. There are a number of reasons why a protocol designed in the 1970s is inadequate for the 21st Century, but addressing capacity is the really urgent issue. I think it’s amazing that IPv4 [I have no idea what … Read More

IPv6, NAT, Wi-Fi, Networking, Nucleus

As I spend a lot of my time talking about embedded software via a variety of media – conferences, articles, Web seminars, this blog are examples – I frequently get emails requesting copies of materials or posing questions. All of this communication is very welcome and I do my best to respond promptly and, where I can, usefully. If I think a question might be of wider interest, it seems … Read More

Nucleus, Android

Last week I wrote about a test harness for applications using an RTOS. The idea was to have a library of functions corresponding to the API calls of a particular RTOS. Specific tasks of an application, that are under test, would be linked to this library to enable the code to be executed on a desktop computer in a useful way. I had some feedback on this posting from a couple of people, talking about … Read More

Debugging, API, RTOS, test harness, Nucleus

I was talking about OS-aware debuggers and someone asked me whether I could suggest a technique for unit testing of code for a multi-threaded application. It took me a while before I could fully understand what they were after, but it did become clear eventually. They were considering an environment where a number of engineers were working on an embedded application [using Nucleus]. Each guy was developing … Read More

Nucleus, test harness, Debugging, RTOS, API

Somebody asked me: “What is the plural of Linux?” Maybe it is Linuxes. That sounds a bit messy, which seems rather appropriate really… If we think about the desktop world and buying application software, you might have a Windows PC or a Mac or perhaps you run Linux. It is typical for the spec for an application to discuss hardware and OS compatibility. There will normally be ridiculously … Read More

Linux, Nucleus, RTOS

As I am on vacation, I thought that I would invite colleagues to provide a guest blog and Faheem Sheikh came up with the goods … Multicore embedded designs are becoming increasingly common – a topic that I have addressed before. This presents some new challenges to software developers. Faheem was talking to an existing user of our Nucleus RTOS, who is considering a multicore design and, … Read More

multi-core, device drivers, Nucleus SMP, SMP, Nucleus