Embedded Insiders

Send us Fan Mail

The NAND flash memory market has evolved (or devolved depending on who you ask) into a battle of the BoMs, where the lowest price usually wins. But is that really the only consideration anymore when selecting a flash memory device, particularly for harsh environment applications? These are questions the Embedded Insiders ask this week, and have answered by Steve Larrivee of industrial-grade NAND flash solution provider Cactus Technologies. During the discussion, the Insiders learn why the flash memory market is one where older technology is more expensive and more reliable – and not for the reasons you'd think.

For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us Fan Mail

In the summertime when the weather is hot, the Embedded Insiders are indoors with development kits on their minds. Rich Nass and Brandon Lewis have been doing some hardware hacking of their own lately on a Raspberry Pi-based Z-Wave reference platform from Sigma Designs; a Bluetooth garage door monitoring application based on Nordic Semiconductor's Thingy board; and an IoT streaming application using Microchip Technology Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) modules and MikroElektronika gyroscope clicks. Hear how they faired in this week's edition.

For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us Fan Mail

Embedded Computing Design's second Industrial IoT University conference occurred this week, with industry experts from Cisco, zigbee alliance, Digi International, LoRa Alliance, Trusted Computing Group, Renesas, Mentor Graphics, Wind River, Software Design Solutions, and Blue Ridge Advanced Design and Automation addressing networking and security challenges for an audience of more than 100 IoT engineers. Sessions on emerging machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity technologies in particular piqued the interest of attendees, as Brent Nelson of Digi International outlined the LTE migration path for connected industrial devices while Vivek Mohan of Semtech explored possibilities enabled by the LoRaWAN protocol. In this week's Embedded Insider's podcast, Brandon Lewis, Embedded Computing Design Technology Editor, reviews some of the highlights from Industrial IoT University, as well as the neighboring Sensors Expo tradeshow.

For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us Fan Mail

Earlier this year the Embedded Insiders posed the question, “Where have all the RTOS vendors gone?” During that discussion the Insiders offered that silicon companies have gobbled up independent real-time operating system vendors in an effort to provide their customers with fully integrated, “total” solutions. The (at least perceived) downside of this for developers is, of course, that support for hardware targets diminishes as an RTOS becomes more entrenched within a single silicon vendor’s organization. In this week’s Embedded Insiders we welcome one of the last men standing in the independent RTOS space, Bill Lamie, who is Founder and CEO of Express Logic. Lamie explains why it’s so difficult for RTOS companies to succeed within the auspices of a silicon manufacturer on one hand while facing Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand.” In light of this, semiconductor companies are now forced to take on more of the integration work that these RTOS companies may no longer be able to support. - Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS) - Middleware and Development Tools - Mergers & Acquisitions

For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us Fan Mail

As IT and OT players stake out their claims in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) landscape, Amazon and partner Ayla Networks are deploying a technology called AWS Greengrass that brings a subset of cloud security, management, and provisioning technology to the gateway level. The goal, of course, is to provide more intelligence closer to the edge of IIoT networks, but the announcement raises two significant questions: 1) Why would Amazon, a company with revenues derived mostly from cloud-based transactions, want to potentially cut off a portion of their business? 2) Do operational technologists have something to fear as IT behemoths push further down the IoT technology stack? In this week's Embedded Insider's podcast, Rich Nass, EVP of Embedded Computing Design and Brandon Lewis, Technology Editor for Embedded Computing Design, pose these questions to Bill Podrasky, VP of Business Development at Ayla Networks.

For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us Fan Mail

Wrapping up embedded world 2017 from their hotel bar, the Embedded Insiders, Rich Nass and Brandon Lewis of Embedded Computing Design, discuss some of the highlights they saw on Day 3 of the show. While safety and security remained a big theme, Nass also had the opportunity to discuss advances in GE’s Predix platform with representatives from the company, which continues to position itself as a powerful tool for developers of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) systems and applications.

For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us Fan Mail

Embedded Computing Design editors Rich Nass and Brandon Lewis review some of the highlights from days one and two of embedded world 2017, including how software and solutions continue to eat the world, and the embedded and Internet of Things (IoT) industry's continued delivery of development kits.

For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us Fan Mail

Once again, power takes center stage, at least in this week’s Embedded Insiders podcast. ECD Power Editor Alix Paultre is at the PCIM show in Germany, Europe’s premier event for the power-semiconductor industry. In our discussion, Alix details what was hot at the show, and why. Interestingly, we discussed how and why some technologies seem to be more in vogue in the U.S. verses Europe and vice-versa.

For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us Fan Mail

Many types of animals live on land, many more in the sea, and more still spend their time airborne. What’s that got to do with the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)? Earlier this year the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) released the IIC Connectivity Framework, a new network model for the IIoT that defines four Core Connectivity Standards: OPC UA, oneM2M, Web Services, and DDS. In this episode, the Embedded Insiders are joined by Dr. Stan Schneider, CEO of Real Time Innovations (RTI), who explains that although connectivity technologies are often known to operate in specific industries, it’s important for designers to evaluate their individual architectures against the system at hand… Sort of like seals and whales in the ocean, or bats in the air. Apparently Brandon is somewhat like a bat, too. Topics covered: - Industrial IoT - Syntactic Interoperability - Semantic Interoperability - Networking - NIWeek

For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us Fan Mail

Researchers at Princeton recently found memory consistency errors in the RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA), an extensible, open-source ISA spawned out of academia that is being adopted by industry in the development of everything from Internet of Things (IoT) microcontrollers (MCUs) to data center processors. While certain media outlets have sensationalized these findings, the Embedded Insiders ask Rick O’Connor, Executive Director of the RISC-V Foundation for the real scoop. As you’ll hear, there are far fewer errors than originally reported, and those that exist apply to more complex instantiations of the ISA for multicore devices that have yet to be realized in silicon. Meanwhile, the power of the open source community has been applied to address the issue.

For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com