Mentor Blogs

I am a difficult customer. When I am buying something, I want see exactly what I am getting for my money. The words of the salesperson and the blurb on packages just does not convince me - I have been caught out too many times. Recently my daughter was after a charger for her iPod, as she was traveling without a computer and “needed” her iPod. What she wanted was a mains plug which has a USB socket … Read More

Shareware, Evaluation, Nucleus Kernel, Nucleus, RTOS, USB

Working for Mentor Graphics is interesting, but can have some challenges. One of the facets of the company that makes us unique is embedded software. There are a couple of other companies that Mentor would regard as key competitors, but they are both totally focussed on electronic hardware design - “electronic design automation” [EDA]. A very large part of Mentor has that orientation, but we are unique … Read More

Multi-OS, RTOS, Multicore, Nucleus Kernel, Nucleus, Linux

I love USB. I have worked with PCs since The Beginning, and I remember how it used to be. I would buy new peripheral device, spend lots of time and effort ripping apart my PC to install the card and then start worrying about software, drivers etc. It took for ever. By the time I had finished, any excitement I had about this new cool device had long since evaporated. USB changed all that. Nowadays, … Read More

Nucleus Kernel, USB, Nucleus USB, Nucleus

I wonder how many times I have been at a party or a social function and had this conversation: What kind of work do you do? I work for a software company. Which one? Mentor Graphics. What do they do? … It is at this point that I know that I am going to have to explain what embedded software is all about. Sometimes I wonder if I should say that I have a job that everyone understands and, preferably, … Read More

RTOS, Nucleus Kernel, Nucleus

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

I will be straight with you. I am not a networking specialist. I look at the long list of protocols that we support with Nucleus OS and I recognize a large proportion of them. I probably know what they are used for and may even know what the arcane abbreviations and acronyms stand for. But I have little clue about their inner workings. That is fine. Nobody can be an expert in everything and I have colleagues … Read More

Nucleus Kernel, TCP/IP, Networking, Nucleus, RTOS

It used to be simple. There were desktop operating systems - like Windows and UNIX - and real time operating systems, like Nucleus OS. There was never a question of one being better or more appropriate than the other. They were different animals and no comparison made sense. Then someone had the idea that maybe Linux could be used for an embedded application and it all changed. The idea did not make … Read More

Low Power, Nucleus Kernel, Linux, Nucleus, 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