Embedded Insiders

Send us a textCloud connectivity is pretty straightforward. You contact AMS or Microsoft, or another provider. You download their tools, and you’re done. Well, maybe it’s not so simple, and that’s where the middleware provider comes in to play. Or do they, as the role of middleware can be a confusing one. To better understand where all the pieces fit, I spoke to Hugo Fiennes, CEO of Electric Imp, who happens to be a middleware provider. That’s the basis of this week’s Five Minutes with…discussion.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textRumors of a shortage of electronics engineers have been circulating for years, but with Fortune 500 technology firms now gobbling up as much engineering talent as possible for IT and enterprise software development, the rumors are as pointed as ever. Dave Hughes, Founder and CEO of software and system engineering firm HCC Embedded, joins the Embedded Insiders to discuss his first-hand experience dealing with the electronics engineering workforce. According to Hughes, the issues go deeper than what young developers are choosing to pursue.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textWhen we discuss AI, the discussion typically revolves around processing or algorithms. But I was reminded recently that power plays a big part in AI. How is that, you ask? Well, check out this week’s Five Minutes with…discussion with Ian Mazsa, a Director of Product Management and Business Development at Vicor to understand why you need to be concerned about power if you’re designing for AI.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textThe reason you should care about MISRA C is a simple one. It stops you from doing things that the C language allows you to do that you really don’t want to do. Well, maybe not so simple. But that’s the way that Andrew Banks explained it to me in this week’s Five Minutes with…discussion. Andrew is the Chairman of the MISRA C Working Group and also a Technical Specialist with LDRA. There are some anomalies within C that even savvy developers may not be aware of. Conforming to the spec will make all your troubles go away…at least your development troubles.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textSmart homes are built with lots of sensors. The more sensors you’ve got, the smarter your home (sort of). But you still have to make a fair amount of choices, including which radio you employ and how it is deployed. One of the better ways to do it is in a SiP, at least according to Cees Links, general manager of Qorvo’s Wireless Connectivity Business Unit, who was my guest on this week’s Five Minutes with…discussion. He’ll explain why the SiP is a good way to go, along with lots of other things that have to do with the smart home, including why you don’t need a mesh network.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textWork on artificial intelligence (AI) is taking place in all corners of the globe. In fact, a recent event was held in China to further the advancement of AI as it relates to heterogeneous computing. Who better to discuss this topic than John Glossner, President of the Heterogeneous System Architecture (HAS) Foundation in this week’s Five Minutes with…discussion. If you want to know what’s going on over there or who is leading the race, I suggest you tune in.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textMachine learning (ML) is something that really needs to occur at the Edge of the IoT. That sounds great, except that it’s quite difficult to achieve. In this week’s Five Minutes with…discussion with Ed Kuzemchak, CTO and Director of IoT for Software Design Solutions, we discussed what’s required to make ML at the Edge a reality.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textNeural nets and simulators. This is not a combination that I would have put together, but after it was explained to me, putting them together makes a lot of sense. If you don’t get the connection, check out this week’s Five Minutes with…discussion with Peter McGuinness, CEO of Highwai, an expert in simulation for autonomous vehicles.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textNew computer architectures come along all the time. Some stand the test of time while others get EOLed (end of lifed) pretty quickly. Why is that? Is it for technical reasons, marketing reasons, or something else? This is the topic that the Embedded Insiders tackled this week. And to give it a perspective, we asked Jonathon Miller, CEO of Diamond Systems, to join us. Diamond Systems offers products that take advantage of new architectures and old, so we figured Jonathan would have some answers to our questions (and he did).For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textUSB-PD is a newer specification that deals with the power that can be derived from a USB port. It’s quite an important spec and one that has lots of potential. Unfortunately, it’s one of the specs that’s not well understood. To get a better understanding for myself (in turn, for you), I invited Doug Bailey, a vice president at Power Integrations to be my guest for this week’s Five Minutes with…podcast.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textThe Industrial IoT industry is full of promise. But wait, haven’t we said that before? At some point, it has to bear fruit, and we seem to be pushing out the “hockey stick” yet again to next year. What is the reason for that? That’s what I asked Bruce Chatterley, Senet’s President and CEO in this week’s Five Minutes with…podcast. His response made as much sense as anything I’ve heard before.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a text5G is the wireless standard that’s poised to revolutionize how we interact with data. And it’s only a year away from being a reality. Or is it? Isn’t that what we were told last year, and the year before that? In this week’s Five Minutes with…discussion, I spoke to James Kimery, the Director of Wireless Research at National Instruments to understand when exactly we’d be seeing 5G.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textApple took center stage this week as it announced a series of new iPhones and a new Apple Watch. Is that exciting technology? It probably is to some, but not to the Embedded Insiders. So that begs the question, who are the real innovators in the embedded space? That’s the question the Embedded Insiders tackled this week. Give it a listen and see if you agree.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textMachine learning is a hot topic these days, and the biggest potential impact is in the industrial space. At the same time, the initial outlay for the technology could turn some vendors away. So the question is, at what cost does it make sense? That’s one of many questions I fired at Nikunj Mehta, who is the Founder and CEO of Falkonry in this week’s Five Minutes with…discussion.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textThere’s a reasonably good chance that you’re not old enough to remember the days of analog computers, as that would likely put you in your sixties. Most of us grew up on digital computers, which are way smarter, smaller, and consume less power than the original analog systems. Ironically, analog computing may be making a comeback. And it’s ironic because one of the people leading the charge is Gene Frantz, who is well known as a visionary in the DSP space. Gene is currently the CTO of Octavo Systems. Hear what he has to say about this next chapter of computing.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textAre you up to speed on digital twins? If you’re not, you probably should be, especially if you plan to play in the IoT space. I have to admit that I needed to be educated on this topic. I received that education thanks to Peter Thorne, a director for industry analyst firm Cambashi in this week’s Five Minutes with…discussion.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textAll smart phones have cameras now. But what they do with those imagers is quite different. Are they using them for facial recognition, for medical applications, or for things that many of us had not even dreamed of? These are just a few of the questions to threw at Sumat Mehra, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Xperi’s Mobile Division in this week’s Five Minutes with…discussion. https://www.xperi.com/For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textMachine learning at the node is starting to become a reality, thanks to the availability of adequate processing capability. Moving this technology from the cloud to the Edge, a term that’s sometimes used synonymously with the node, provides a big leap in being able to process elements in near-real-time. This idea was the basis of the discussion I had with Brian Faith, President and CEO of Quicklogic in this week’s Five Minutes with…discussion. https://www.quicklogic.com/For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textWhen it comes to autonomous vehicles, there are followers and there are leaders. QNX, a subsidiary of Blackberry, believes it falls into the latter class. To understand why, but more importantly to get the lay of the autonomous vehicle landscape, I spoke to QNX’s Senior Vice President John Wall in this week’s Five Minutes with…discussion. http://blackberry.qnx.com/en/solutions/industries/automotive/indexFor more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textWe keep hearing about over-the-air updates for the automotive space. Is this real or is it a pipe dream? I’m of the opinion that I can make a valid argument for each. However, Rick Kreifeldt, Executive Director of the eSync Alliance had a pretty firm stance. Hear his take in this week’s Five Minutes with…discussion. https://www.esyncalliance.org/For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com