Recently we were involved in improving boot-up times of a Linux based platform. We noticed that the boot-up time was much longer than expected based on the processor speed. The only way to figure out what was happening was to profile the start-up … [Continue reading]
Driving LEDs by GPIO: finally resolved!
January 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Introduction Probably one of the most fascinating things you had to do in your early embedded career was controlling some LEDs by means of GPIO (General Purpose I/O). This - of course - is so easy i.e. until your project manager passes by: “I … [Continue reading]
3 ways to boost your performance as a developer
January 15, 2013 by 1 Comment
If you wish to boost your performance as a developer by a non-trivial factor then here are three ways to help you achieve this: loosely couple automate testing automate delivery I saw people -myself included- that started applying these … [Continue reading]
MCU pin configuration, GPIOs and a word on software architecture
January 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Basic peripheral setup: pin configuration All MCUs have pins. They might come in different package types such as QFP (Quad Flat Package - Figure left) or BGA (Ball Grid Array - Figure right). But for us, embedded software engineers, pins or balls, … [Continue reading]
Operating systems for embedded systems
January 3, 2013 by 3 Comments
Loop (no OS) Description The application is one control task which is typically implemented as a delayed loop or as an event-driven loop. Locking (e.g. by disabling interrupts) is usually required to protect the data that is shared between … [Continue reading]
The energy harvester is ready for iteration 1
December 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Iteration 0 overview A few months passed since the start of our energy harvester project and, given our limited project time, we're making a steady progress. Implementing a new product in a new domain introduces technological uncertainties, and … [Continue reading]
Energy harverster logic hardware design
December 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Introduction As embedded software engineers, we might not have an in-depth understanding of all electronic charge movements through semiconductor circuits, but at least we're able to reason about hardware design at a concept level. In a previous … [Continue reading]
Simple Platform Abstraction
December 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment
What When prototyping, it is uncertain and sometimes even unlikely that the experimentation platform will be the basis of the final industrialized product. Therefor, it is good software developer workmanship to protect the logic development from … [Continue reading]
Development facilitators
December 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment
This might be a good time to talk about developer (or technical development procedure) facilitators. Although these are not even regarded as intermediate requirements - and certainly are not considered to be as important as user requirements - some … [Continue reading]
Early Prototyping: ‘blink those leds’
November 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment
A bottom-up or a top-down approach? In order to be able to try something out, to proof something is technically viable, it is absolutely necessary to do early prototyping and provide 'POTs'. A Proof Of Technology is just substantiating that there is … [Continue reading]
Recent Comments