It is a curious thing, which I have written about before [here and here for example]: almost every electronic device that has been designed in the last 15-20 years has contained a microprocessor or microcontroller in some form - they are embedded systems. This means that, by definition, a significant part of the design and development process is the creation of software. And yet hardware design and … Read More
Tags: design automation conference, EDA, DAC, Embedded World
I was recently asked to participate in a “panel” article in a UK electronics publication. The topic was the apparent decline importance of hardware design, over software design, in embedded systems. An interesting subject - I needed to be careful what I said, as I work for a company where 90% of my colleagues are hardware design specialists! The final piece can be seen here.
I was sent … Read More
Tags: Multicore, EDA, RTOS, hardware design
Mentor Graphics is an EDA [Electronic Design Automation] company, which means that the core of the business is supplying [software] tools to facilitate the development [design, implementation and deployment] of electronic systems. Traditionally, this meant hardware design. But, over the last 20 years, there has been an enormous escalation in the use of microprocessors and microcontrollers and embedded … Read More
At Mentor Graphics I have to be careful what I say - I am treading on thin ice. The problem is that I am a software engineer. A very large proportion of my colleagues in the company have a hardware design background. Now I would not say that the two disciplines are at war, but there has always been a tension between hardware and software developers. In an embedded design, if something goes wrong, both … Read More
Tags: EDA, EDGE SimTest
As a specialist in embedded software, I think that Mentor Graphics is an interesting place to work. The company has historically been dedicated to serving the needs of hardware developers - whether they are designing cables, boards, FPGAs, ASICs or custom chips. These technologies still dominate the product range today. The Embedded Systems Division is different - we offer products for embedded software … Read More