Embedded Insiders

Send us a textOn this episode the Insiders track the return of analog computing.  Mythic is a company looking to revolutionize AI computing through an  innovative matrix processor that processes analog signals in on-chip  memory before outputting them to the digital domain. Where does this tech fit today?Later, Rich interviews Abhishek Gupta, Director of Product  Management at KeepTruckin and Senya Pertsel, Senior Director of  Automotive Marketing at Ambarella, about an in-cabin, AI-powered  dash cam that keeps an eye on road conditions and driver behavior.  The depth of partnership on these systems runs a lot deeper than  you’d think. Finally, Embedded Computing Design assistant editor Chad Cox  considers life in a post-quantum world, and examines how an emerging technology – quantum tunneling – can be used to protect against  attacks on IoT devices.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textOn this episode of the Embedded Insiders, Brandon and Rich discuss the push/pull of industry hardware standards, as support for PCI Express Gen 4 on the latest generation of Intel chipsets has created an inflection point for board- and system-level specifications that serve both legacy and emerging applications.Next, the Insiders are joined by Mark Doran, President of the UEFI Forum, to discuss release 2.9 of the firmware/OS interface specification. Now that electronic systems of all types support different and advanced memory configurations, will the role of abstraction layers like UEFI become less abstract?Then, a trio of engineers from the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, or DESY, research center in Hamburg, Germany, wonder how they can balance the demand for performance at some of the most advanced particle accelerators in the world with the need for standards-based computing platforms that protect these sophisticated, publicly-funded systems from the cost and availability risks of single-s

Send us a textOn this episode of Embedded Insiders, Brandon and Rich discuss the global chip shortage and the difference between price gouging, tough luck, and a need for innovation. Then Rich sits down with Russell Klein, Program Director for Siemens EDA, who will be keynoting at Embedded Computing Design’s virtual AI Day on September 9th. We all know we need AI at the edge, but can that edge be battery powered? Later, Tiera Oliver dives deeper into the chip shortage to discover just what makes semiconductor manufacturing so complex and time consuming. After learning the answer to that question – Atomic-Level Deposition – she touches base with researchers at Argonne National Laboratories who are leveraging open-source AI to accelerate the process.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textIn this week’s Embedded Insiders, Brandon and Rich try to decide if data sheets specs are reliable, or if industry benchmarks are the only reasonably- accurate measure of component performance without actually testing them yourself. Later, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang discusses how the company’s pending acquisition of Arm is progressing, and what benefits the combined company will bring to each other and the market as a whole if the deal passes regulatory checks. Jensen also weighs in on the semiconductor shortage and how his company plans to keep pricing in check amidst supply and demand volatility. Finally, Tiera Oliver investigates the world of voice processing at the edge, where companies are adding more AI but not necessarily more processing. Engineers from Knowles Intelligent Audio and Cadence Design Systems weigh in on how classical DSP is being used to make your smart virtual assistant as clever as possible at battery-scale power consumption. And, to bring things full circle, Tiera introduces

Send us a textIn this episode of the Embedded Insiders, Brandon and Rich wonder if residential solar power is really worth it. The question stems from Littelfuses’ release of 400PV Fuse series of photovoltaic solar fuses, which can be embedded directly into roof shingles or tiles. But with so much government meddling in the solar industry, and big energy looking to protect its existing interests, is it prudent, or even worth it, to bother with the technology? Later, the last leg of our ADLINK Technology edge AI series sees Zane Tsai, Director of the company’s Platform Product Center, join Rich to discuss why the massive amounts of data being collected by intelligent systems requires an entire ecosystem. Looking forward, this edge AI ecosystem will also include 5G.Finally, despite all of the downs in 2020, Xilinx was actually up. Victor Peng, the company’s CEO, attributes some of this success to big wins in AI sockets. But beyond innovations in their Adaptive Compute Acceleration Platform (ACAP) portfolio, he

Send us a textIn this episode of the Embedded Insiders, Brandon and Rich discuss Silicon Laboratories recent divestiture of its infrastructure and automotive business units to SkyWorks Solutions. The sale includes the company’s power, isolation, broadcast, timing, and other products and IP. Silicon Labs CEO Tyson Tuttle said several years ago that the company is “all-in” on IoT, and this move appears to be him keeping his word. But was it the best move?Afterwards, Rich is rejoined by Zane Tsai, Director of the Platform Product Center at ADLINK, and Amit Goel, Director of Product Management for Embedded AI Platforms at NVIDIA. After discussing enabling technologies in previous episodes, the three get down to how this functionality can be applied to autonomous mobile robots. The market opportunity for AMRs is vast, but so are the challenges. The three dive into a collaboration between ADLINK, NVIDIA, and BMW to increase productivity, improve efficiency, and reduce cost in the German automakers manufacturing fac

Send us a textArmv9 is here, and although it took nearly 10 years to arrive, it comes right at a major inflection point in the semiconductor industry where all of the major chipmakers have started dabbling in processor architectures outside of their heritage. The implications of this are currently being felt in more advanced use cases like the data center and high-performance computing, but the roadmap decisions of today – such as the massive emphasis on AI and ML workload processing in Armv9 that will surely continue under NVIDIA leadership – will  have significant ramifications for the embedded systems of tomorrow. And, oh yeah, what does NVIDIA’s potential stewardship of Arm mean for NVIDIA competitors who also happen to be Arm licensees, like Intel and Xilinix? Brandon and Rich discuss.Later, Intel’s Sailesh Kottapalli, Senior Architecture Fellow, and Mandy Mock, VP and GM of Product Engineering Systems, join the Insiders to help set the record straight on Moore’s law. To be fair, the number of transistor

Send us a textIn this week’s Embedded Insiders, the Insiders comment on a recent fire that shut down the Renesas Naka semiconductor fab where the company manufactures automotive chips. Later, Rich is joined again by Zane Tsai, Director of the Platform Product Center at ADLINK Technology, to discuss how logistics companies are being affected by the race to deploy AI at the edge, and insights for developers looking to increase the efficiency and productivity of logistics automation systems.The two are also joined by NVIDIA’s Amit Goel, Director of Product management for embedded AI platforms, who examines the complexities of integrating reliable performance into AI-based applications like independent automation. NVIDIA is currently building a hardware platform that will bring greater compute intelligence to autonomous systems at the edge. However, a solid software framework that can streamline the development, deployment, and management of the AI applications that will run on these devices is still critical. Th

Send us a textDuring a recorded presentation from  embedded world 2021, Rich and Brandon are joined by Technology Editor Curt Schwaderer, who doubles as Vice President of Engineering at intelligence and security provider Yaana Technologies. The three discuss how the tech industry in particular and connected organizations in general have transitioned from protecting devices from attacks to accepting they will be hacked and mitigating losses to modern threat intelligence and modeling strategies. They then look at this evolution through the lens of employees, who are handling and working with sensitive information and IP, working from home.DON'T  FORGET  TO REGISTER  FOR A FREE EMBEDDED WORLD-IN-A-BOX! LESS THAN 100 REMAIN! GET YOURS TODAY: https://www.embeddedcomputing.com/pages/ew-in-a-box-regLater, Vincent Scott, Founder of Defense Cybersecurity Group, Chief Security Officer at STI-TEC, and former Navy cryptologist joins the Insiders to review the Department of Defense's Cybersecurity Maturity Model

Send us a textWith time to market pressures constantly increasing, technology organizations are moving away from traditional waterfall development workflows and towards Agile/DevOps software development practices. Originally introduced in enterprise, IT, and data center contexts, these methodologies have made their way into embedded engineering organizations, but at the potential expense of software quality. Can embedded tech companies, especially safety- and security-critical ones, afford to sacrifice quality for speed? Brandon and Rich debate.Later, the Insiders are joined by Yannick Moy of AdaCore to discuss how the MISRA C coding standard, which was originally developed in 1998, is holding up given the complete overhaul of automotive (and other) technology stacks since the standard’s inception. Is C, a notoriously compliance-challenged language, still the best bet for safety-critical systems that are now operating alongside a host of other connected applications?Finally, Perry Cohen looks into the true co

Send us a textEmbedded world is just about here, but this year’s event is different – like so many other conferences and trade shows, it’s completely virtual.Embedded Computing Design is the show’s official 2021 North American content partner, so Brandon and Rich have spent extra time thinking about how this new era of interaction has, is, and will affect the electronics industry moving forward.Is it just events that are changing, or is it the entire industry?After, the Insiders are joined by Zane Tsai, Director of the Platform Product Center at ADLINK Technology. Zane and Rich discuss the growing demand for AI at the edge, and how it is impacting mission critical applications. They go on to discuss the impact edge AI can have on fiscal capital and human life in general.Later, Tiera Oliver gets to the root of how COVID-19 is impacting electronics in academia labs. What are professors and their students to do without access to labs and equipment? Sid Deliwala of UPENN thinks we should just start throwing labs

Send us a textIn this edition of the Embedded Insiders, Brandon and Rich discuss factors and use cases that have kept the 8-bit MCU alive much longer than anyone expected. After, Brandon is joined by Steve Kennelly, 8-bit Business Unit Manager, at Microchip Technologies, to continue the discussion. Surprisingly, the company is still developing NEW low cost, low power 8-bit MCUs. But, why? And how long will that market continue to hold? Finally, in this week’s Tech Market Madness, Perry investigates how the COVID-19 pandemic affected supply chains in the electronic component market, sourcing industry data from Supplyframe that suggests technology procurement is headed for a self-service, e-commerce, Amazon-like model.Tune in to learn what’s been happening in theses markets, and what you can expect in the future.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textWe’ve finally made it to the year 2021 and the Embedded Insiders have five predictions for what we may expect in the embedded space this year. Rich kicks things off with a bold prediction: 2021 will NOT be the year of 5G. Do you agree? Later, James Kimery, Vice President of Product Management at Spirent Communications, joins Brandon to discuss how research wireless research he was part of back in 2010 is finally coming to fruition with the dawn of 5G, and how industry initiatives like the Open Radio Access Network (ORAN) Alliance are working to prove Rich wrong. Here, James details the progress and adoption of ORAN, some tips and tricks for 5G network infrastructure and device developers, and thoughts on the role of testing in this brave new world of wireless.Finally, Perry is joined by Dr. James Edmondson for Tech Market Madness segment that addresses the future of the 5G market. Dr. Edmondson shares insight from the IDTechEx report, "5G Technology, Market and Forecasts 2020-2030" on

Send us a textTwilio, the publicly traded cloud communications platform, has acquired electric imp, a long-time embedded software and services company. What gives?Well, what gives is that the lines between IT, the data center, embedded and the edge, continue to blur into one big continuum of compute and connectivity. After a brief discussion about education stemming from a recent interview Brandon did with TKO Marketing Consultants,  Brandon and Rich to ponder the question, "are we reaching the end of embedded as we know it?" Later, Evan Cummack, GM of the IoT Business at Twilio, and Hugo Fiennes, former Founder and CEO of electric imp and currently a Senior IoT Product Architect at Twilio, join the Insiders to help track the trend and introduce a new IT/OT  services offering called Twilio Microvisor.After, Perry is joined by Bruno Tomas, the director of programs and project management at the Wireless Bradband Alliance; and Remi Lorrain, the vice chair of the LoRa Alliance Network in this week’s Tec

Send us a textIn this edition of the Embedded Insiders, Brandon and Rich discuss the semantics of AI and intelligent technology and what qualifies as a smart system these days.Have marketing engines turned these into over used terms? Are they even being used correctly? Later, the Insiders take a deeper dive into the practicalities of Edge AI with Bill Pearson, the Vice President of the Internet of Things group at Intel. Together, they investigate market challenges to realize the ROI on initial AI deployments and the hardware/software gaps preventing developers from launching commercial grade solutions faster.Finally, Alex Harrowell, a Senior Analyst at Enterprise AI speak with Perry in this week’s Tech Market Madness to discuss a new report from Omdia Research titled, “Artificial Intelligence for Edge Devices Report.”For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textIn part 2 of the Embedded Insiders’ analysis of recent industry acquisitions, Stacey Higginbotham, a tech industry expert and editor of the eponymous Stacey on IoT blog, joins Brandon and Rich to further the discussion about the ARM/NVIDIA deal. Wait. What did NVIDIA buy? Or better yet, what didn’t they buy? Why didn’t they acquire the entire Arm portfolio? And where is the rest of it now?After, Jim McGregor of Tirias Research returns to analyze AMD’s acquisition of programmable logic supplier Xilinx. He provides some analogs to Intel’s purchase of Altera. Later, Rich puts him on the spot: In two years, will the Xilinx/AMD deal be a good one?Listen to find out.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textIt’s all about money! In this edition of the Embedded Insiders, Brandon and Rich break down some major acquisitions, like Arm’s purchase of NVIDIA, as well as AMD potentially buying Xilinx, prompted in part by all the “free money” that’s available in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.Later, Jim McGregor, Principal Analyst at Tirias Research, joins the Insiders with his thoughts. He explains his belief that these moves are the result of companies trying to grow their total addressable market (TAM) by capturing share in adjacent markets, but cautions that acquiring these assets could have negative long-term effects on the industry. In part one of a two-part interview, these questions are asked in the context of the NVIDIA/Arm deal.Finally, Calista Redmond, the CEO of RISC-V, shares her vision of the computing industry after the world’s largest IP vendor has been, at least for now, taken off the market. What does this mean for the industry in general, and RISC-V in particular.For more information,

Send us a textIn the early 2000s GM stopped their electric car project. They weren’t cool. In comes Tesla who made the electric car a popular concept. But is the “cool factor” the biggest factor in electric car sales these days? Are electric cars actually better for the environment, and do the majority of buyers really care? Brandon and Rich debate the subject and more in this edition of the embedded insiders.Later, the Insiders are joined by Frede Blaabjerg, an esteemed professor of power electronics and drives at Aalborg University in Denmark. The three discuss the current state of the power industry and what the future looks like. Power will play a big role in the electric vehicle industry, but just how big?For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textSiFive, a pioneer of commercializing the RISC-V instruction set and resulting IP, has announced a number of custom design wins. And a lot of them leverage Arm technology. In fact, SiFive's recent 20G1 release revealed that the company has developed SiFive Insight, debug and trace IP that features native compatibility with? You guessed it. Arm’s CoreSight IP that serves the same purpose.So, is the RISC-V standard bearer ditching its heritage to become a design mercenary? Or is this a longer-term play to help get RISC-V technology into SoCs in any way possible so it can grow from there? Or are we over thinking it? Drew Barbier, Director of Product Marketing at SiFive, joins Brandon and Rich in this edition of the Embedded Insiders to explain.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textIn this week’s edition of the Embedded Insiders, Brandon and Rich discuss all of the new programming languages that have entered the embedded universe. This is in large part due to the convergence that IoT has created between IT and embedded developers. Are we getting to the point where we won’t use C language anymore? Or is it here to stay for good? Later, Nial Cooling, the CEO of Feabhas Limited, continues the conversation about embedded programming languages by weighing the advantages of languages like C against newer iterations of C++ and upstart alternatives like Rust. Where do all of these fit in the software engineering toolbox, and what are the implications of this low-level embedded programming on overall system cost?Later, Technology Editor Perry Cohen interviews Chris Rommel, Executive Vice President of VDC Research, in a new segment, Tech Market Madness: Analyst Insights for Engineers.Chris reveals just how many engineers are currently using C, C++, Python, Java, and other languages