Pebble Bay to De- Mystify Device Driver Development At Embedded Masterclass
UK embedded engineering experts, Pebble Bay, have announced that they will be presenting a half-day technical workshop at this year's Embedded Masterclass event. Entitled "An Introduction to Hardware Interfacing and Device Driver Development" the workshop is intended to help engineers understand how software interfaces with typical embedded system hardware and to understand the purpose, structure and typical components of a device driver. (Workshop link)
Ian Willats, Managing Director of Pebble Bay
The Embedded Masterclass will take place 6th and 11th May 2010 in Cambridge and Reading. Over the past 9 years, the Embedded Masterclass has established itself as an important UK event for hi-tech engineers looking to explore the most recent tools and technologies for the development of microprocessor based systems.
UK based Pebble Bay is a business that helps companies build and improve all kinds of products based on microprocessors. Since the company launch nearly five years ago, Pebble Bay has become a respected leader in the development of board support packages and hardware software interfacing, working with companies around the world.
"One of the biggest challenges for any hi-tech engineer is the task of enabling software to interface with new hardware," stated Ian Willats, Managing Director of Pebble Bay. "The phenomenal speed and complexity of a modern microprocessor and the demands that we now put on such systems means that this task is not only very difficult but very often safety critical. The aim of the session is to de-mystify what can be considered a black art for those who have little or no experience of hardware interfacing. It includes demonstrations on an embedded target system."
Over 30 industry vendors have sponsored this year's event. Companies include Lauterbach, LDRA, IAR Systems, Phaedrus Systems, SDC Systems, Wind River, Green Hills Software, LDRA, MontaVista, QNX and Enea. In addition to the workshops, the event offers a schedule of short technical presentations and a vendor exhibition. At this year's event, presenters have been asked to abandon Power Point in favour of a whiteboard, flip chart and hand-outs. The organisers are hoping that this will make the presentations more dynamic and ensure the presenters are well prepared.
"This workshop is a great fit for this event," said Richard Blackburn, the event organiser. "Our objective is always to put on an event that engineers will find productive and will be useful in their everyday working environment. In many ways, hardware interfacing and driver development is the 'Holy Grail' of embedded development. The performance and the reliability of the entire system rely on how well the software is integrated to the hardware. Also, it takes a special person to do this work. It has to be an engineer that not only understands hardware issues, but can also craft good software code. We are very pleased to have a world leader such as Pebble Bay prepared to come along and share some of their secrets."
Pebble Bay offer independent software services to companies in a broad range of industries, from motor sport to defence, and from telecoms to medical. With a highly skilled and experienced team of software engineers, Pebble Bay help manufacturers develop new products by providing low level code solutions that enable their clients to quickly and reliably create new market beating products.
"Providing board support packages and device driver code is our main business," said Ian Willats. "This enables our clients to focus on their core technology and push on with the software that makes their products special. We can work with a number of operating systems and we have a great deal of experience with most hardware formats, enabling us to quickly deliver reliable and effective solutions."
In addition to six half-day technical workshops, Embedded Masterclass includes a schedule of eight 40-minute technical presentations on assorted topics, and a vendor exhibition. Attendance at the exhibition, including the series of 40-minute technical presentations, is free to embedded engineers and technology managers. The half-day workshops are £95.00+VAT. Engineers are advised to register early, as space at the event is limited. Registration is on-line
Wind River Lifts the Lid off Symmetrical Multi-Processing at the UK Embedded Masterclass
Engineers looking to work with multicore devices or exploit symmetrical multi-processing for embedded systems will be pleased to hear that both of these topics are central to this year's agenda at The Embedded Masterclass 2010, 6th and 11th May. Click here for more information
Paul Tingey of Wind River will present a half-day workshop that introduces engineers to the process of migrating an application running in single-core mode to run in SMP (symmetric multi-processing) mode, taking advantage of the multiple cores to gain an increase in performance.
"Just like in the desktop and laptop arena, adoption of multi-core processors in Embedded Systems is becoming increasingly widespread," said Paul Tingey, the presenter of the SMP workshop. "The advantages are well understood: a promise of higher performance, at a lower cost and within a smaller space budget.
However, this promise comes at the cost of higher complexity and, potentially, a longer and more complex development cycle. This is equally true when migrating an existing single-core application to a multi-core device. Such a migration effort is complex and engineers are required to understand how their code (which was almost certainly written for a UP system) will react when running on a multi-core system.
During this workshop engineers will have an opportunity to use Wind River's Workbench development environment to learn more about how multi-core systems differ from single-core systems and how to unlock the power of multiple cores and speed up their application through the use of a Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) operating system."
In addition to this workshop, German tools company Lauterbach promise live demonstrations of debug and trace capability on both an eight-core Mips system running in SMP mode and also trace and code analysis on a PIC32 processor. Also on their stand will be demonstrations with an Intel Atom system and an ARM multi-core chip from TI.
"We will have a lot of expertise in this field at this year's event," said Richard Blackburn, the organiser. "Multi-core and multiprocessor designs are becoming increasingly common in embedded systems, both to save space and to deliver more power. We are expecting this to be a very popular workshop, it is already attracting registrations."
Over 30 industry vendors have sponsored this year's event. Companies include Lauterbach, LDRA, IAR Systems, Phaedrus Systems, SDC Systems, Wind River, Green Hills Software, LDRA, MontaVista, QNX, Blue Chip Technology, IPL and Enea.
In addition to six half-day technical workshops, Embedded Masterclass includes a schedule of eight 40-minute technical presentations on assorted topics, and a vendor exhibition. Attendance at the exhibition, including the series of 40-minute technical presentations, is free to embedded engineers and technology managers. The half-day workshops are £95.00+VAT. Engineers are advised to register early, as space at the event is limited. Registration is on-line
UK Embedded Masterclass Gets Better Industry Support than Ever Before
The organisers of the UK Embedded Masterclass have announced that more vendors than ever before have given their backing and support to this year's event. The Embedded Masterclass is a one-day event for hi-tech developers. The event includes workshops, presentations and a vendor exhibition. This year, the Embedded Masterclass will take place in Cambridge 6th May and Reading 11th May. www.embedded-masterclass.com
"It is already shaping up to be a great event," said Richard Blackburn, the organiser. "We have increased the schedule of workshops, the presentations this year should be altogether better than any before and we have more vendors of embedded systems tools and technologies than we have had in the past. In fact, registrations are already flowing from engineers keen to book on workshops and attend the event."
German debugging tool company Lauterbach is this year’s main sponsor, along with Swedish tools company IAR Systems and UK based embedded systems distributor Phaedrus Systems. Other companies that will be presenting and exhibiting include US based Wind River, Green Hills Software, Express Logic and MontaVista, Swedish company Enea and leading UK companies such as TTE Systems, SDC Systems and Pebble Bay.
"We are very pleased to be the main sponsors of this year's event," said Barry Lock, Managing Director of Lauterbach UK. "We have been involved with the Embedded Masterclass over many years now and we have always valued the engineering focus and the informal nature of the event. It has always been an ideal environment for engineers to learn about new technologies and discuss the challenges that they are facing. It is also well organised and well structured, it makes for a very productive day for all concerned."
A major change to this year's event will be a move away from Power Point. Engineers delivering the technical presentations will be asked to us a whiteboard, a flip chart and handouts. Based on feedback from previous years, the organisers see this change as way to improve the overall experience for delegates.
"Power Point is great but it does have certain limitations," said Richard Blackburn. "We think that abandoning Power Point will give the presenters more freedom to talk with passion about their topic and will lend itself to a more interactive and fluid performance. It will also mean that engineers will no longer have to sit through an endless parade of bullet points. Our objective is always to create a day that embedded engineers will really value. This has been a brave but necessary step forward for us."
This year's half-day workshops include 'An Introduction to Embedded Linux', 'Porting Code to an SMP platform for 2x Speed', 'A Guide to Writing Device Drivers' and 'Applying Time Triggered Software'.
Attendance at the Embedded Masterclass, including the series of 40-minute technical presentations, is free to embedded engineers and technology managers. The half-day workshops are £95.00+VAT. Engineers are advised to register early, as space at the event is limited. Registration is on-line at www.embedded-masterclass.com
Lauterbach To Demonstrate Multi-core Debugging at Embedded Masterclass
Debugging technology company Lauterbach will be running live demonstrations of debug and trace capability on both an eight core Mips system running in SMP mode and also trace and code analysis on a PIC32 processor at this year's UK Embedded Masterclass event.
The Embedded Masterclass takes place near Cambridge 6th May and in Reading 11th May. This event is free to engineers and technical managers. www.embedded-masterclass.com
"For engineers looking to develop fast systems, Multi-Core and SMP systems are an attractive option," said Barry Lock, UK Manager for Lauterbach. "We have been working with some of the world's leading developers in this field and we will be demonstrating our latest multi-core debug technology at the Embedded Masterclass event. Also on the stand we will be demonstrating an Intel Atom system and an ARM multicore chip from TI. We will be happy to discuss and advise on debug concepts for any embedded processors.”
Lauterbach, a German company, is this year’s main sponsor of Embedded Masterclass, along with Swedish software tools company IAR Systems and UK based embedded systems distributor Phaedrus Systems. Other companies that will be presenting and exhibiting include US based Wind River, Green Hills Software, Express Logic and MontaVista, Swedish company Enea and leading UK companies such as TTE Systems, SDC Systems and Pebble Bay.
"We are very pleased to be the main sponsors of this year's event," said Barry Lock. "We have been involved with the Embedded Masterclass over many years now and we have always valued the engineering focus and the informal nature of the event. It has always been an ideal environment for engineers to learn about new technologies and discuss the challenges that they are facing. It is also well organised and well structured, it makes for a very productive day for all concerned."
A major change to this year's event is the banning of Power Point. This year, the engineers delivering the technical presentations will be limited to a whiteboard, a flip chart and handouts. Based on feedback from previous years, the organisers see this change as a way to improve the overall experience for delegates.
"Power Point is great but it does have certain limitations," said Masterclass organizer Richard Blackburn. "We think that abandoning Power Point will give the presenters more freedom to talk with passion about their topic and will lend itself to a more interactive and fluid performance. It will also mean that engineers will no longer have to sit through an endless parade of bullet points. Our objective is always to create a day that embedded engineers will really value. This has been a brave but necessary step forward for us."
Attendance at the Embedded Masterclass, including the series of 40-minute technical presentations, is free to embedded engineers and technology managers. The half-day workshops are £95.00+VAT. Engineers are advised to register early, as space at the event is limited. Registration is on-line at: www.embedded-masterclass.com, or drop an email to Richard@energi-tech.co.uk
Green Hills Software Joins ARM Solution Center for Android
Green Hills Software have announced corporate engineering support for the ARM Solution Center for Android, a collaborative resource for designers and developers of ARM technology-based products running on Android, the open source platform from the Open Handset Alliance™.
Green Hills Software provides INTEGRITY® Secure Virtualization (ISV) coupled with a complete ecosystem of software solutions that enable developers of Android-based devices to achieve higher levels of security, reduced power consumption, faster time-to-market, and more flexible usage and licensing models. Green Hills Software will demonstrate these benefits while working with the platform, OEM, and third party software vendors within the Android Innovation Center.
"We are pleased to join ARM Ltd. and its partners to provide solutions optimized for Android-based devices," said Gordon Jones, vice president of Green Hills Software’s Embedded Virtualization Business Unit. "Built on the world’s first and only Common Criteria EAL6+ operating system technology, INTEGRITY Secure Virtualization enables a range of powerful connected device use models, including multiple concurrent service provider instances and the deployment of security-critical applications sandboxed from the multimedia user environment."
"Android was written for the ARM architecture, the leading processor architecture for Internet everywhere applications from mobile to the connected home," said Kevin Smith, vice president of Segment Marketing, ARM. "ARM is fortunate to be able to cultivate a Partner ecosystem that ensures device manufacturers have the best development solutions at their disposal." www.ghs.com
Green Hills Software Supports Freescale P2020 Multicore Processor
Green Hills Software have announced a comprehensive software development and run-time management solution for embedded products based on the multicore Freescale QorIQ™ P2020 and P2010 communications processors. Components of the Green Hills Software development toolkit include the INTEGRITY® RTOS and INTEGRITY Secure Virtualization (ISV), optimizing C/C++ compilers for Power Architecture® technology, MULTI® integrated development environment (IDE), and high-speed hardware probes.
"Embedded systems designers seeking to maximize the performance-per-watt benefits of multicore technology will be drawn to the combination of the P2020 platform and software solutions from Green Hills," commented Ravi Swaminathan, director of software ecosystem alliances at Freescale. "Green Hills Software’s industry leading real-time operating systems and software development tools enable application developers to realize the maximum potential of our platform based on Power Architecture technology."
"The P2020 and P2010 achieve high performance with networking versatility in a low power envelope, enabling designers to dramatically increase the level of functionality in their embedded products," stated Robert Redfield, director of partner business development, Green Hills Software. "We are pleased to be working closely with Freescale to bring the world’s most reliable and robust operating system, virtualization, and software development solutions to this exciting platform."
Green Hills Software provides complete solutions for developing and deploying embedded real-time applications for Freescale QorIQ communications processors. Green Hills products provide for the development of totally reliable, absolutely secure, and maximum performance devices, in the least time and with the lowest development and manufacturing costs.www.ghs.com
Lauterbach High Speed Trace Technology is now available for the Freescale QorIQ P4xxx Processor family
This technology provides the same functionality as the well established Nexus3 trace but typically saves between 6 and 20 pins on the processor package.
This trace technology will be demonstrated for the first time in the UK at the Embedded Masterclass, demonstrating that the tools are capable of a speed of 6.25Gbits/sec on each of 3 channels. See link for more data.
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WANTED: Developers Looking for Worst-Case Execution Time of their C++ avionics software
SDC Systems have announces that it is launching a beta program for RapiTime’s support of C++. Developers of avionic software written in C++ will be able to use RapiTime’s on-target profiling capabilities to: measure execution times, track code coverage, and find worst-case execution times (WCET) for their applications. The full product release featuring C++ support will take place at the start of Q4, however early access to these capabilities is available through the beta program.
RapiTime has successfully supported a number of high profile avionic programmes using the C and Ada languages, and is now augmenting language support to include C++. “We recognize that C++ is becoming increasingly important in the avionics community” said Rapita Systems CEO, Guillem Bernat. “For that reason we are seeing strong demand for C++ support for RapiTime: a need that we are pleased to be able to meet”.
Bernat continued “We’ve decided to provide a limited number of projects with the opportunity to get early access to this new technology, via a beta program. Of course, this provides the beta users the opportunity to perform an in-depth evaluation of RapiTime without licence fees during the beta period.”
For further information about the RapiTime C++ beta program contact stuart.parker@sdcsystems.com - www.sdcsystems.com
Immersion Rated Portable Data Tokens and Designer’s Kits on Show at MedTec
Nexus GB set to show its range of memory products for medical device manufacturers
Nexus GB, the exclusive UK distributor of Datakey Electronics’ range of portable memory products, will be exhibiting at the MedTec exhibition and conference at the NEC on April 27 and 28. Nexus will be on stand 2250 in hall 20, where it will show its entire range of tokens and receptacles. In the medical device design industry, these products find applications ranging from anti counterfeit measures and product authentication to calibration and limit use.
Central to its stand will be its range of IP67 immersion rated and EMI reduction receptacles. The new product works with the company’s proven memory tokens, providing OEMs with a one stop shop for harsh-environment data needs. The range has several uses in medical applications where it is ideal for devices that will be autoclaved, sterilised or washed down when in use.
The new series, designated the SR4310, is also available in IP-65 (splash-proof) and IP-67-EMI (immersion-rated with Electromagnetic Frequency reduction) versions. “I think the key for medical OEMs is that this product is a long term memory solution,” explained Victoria Barrett, Nexus’ director of PR and marketing. “Unlike most models of USB memory or camera cards it won’t be obsolete by the time an OEM has brought a design to market. This can be the crux of the issue for medical applications which are often very long lead-time designs.”
Also on show will be Nexus’ family of serial development kits that provide all the necessary tools to build a simulated portable data system and test its features and benefits. The basic development kit covers the majority of Nexus’ range, whilst a specialist kit covers its managed memory tokens, which act as USB style portable data carrier devices without the drawbacks of a consumer style memory product.www.nexusgb.co.uk
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Hitex Design UK and Pebble Bay Collaboration Offers Important Resource for Hardware Software Integration
Hitex Design UK and Pebble Bay have agreed a strategic partnership that will enable the two companies to offer a uniquely capable service for software and hardware integration and embedded development. With Hitex Design UK a leader in hardware design and Pebble Bay a world leader in board support and device driver software, this collaboration is expected to be an attractive service to hi-tech development companies around the world; helping companies to accelerate development and develop better products.
"One of the major challenges of hi-tech development is the problem of enabling the software to interface with the hardware," said Ian Willats, Managing Director of Pebble Bay. "How well this is done impacts every aspect of the systems performance and reliability. Our collaboration with Hitex Design UK will enable us to offer manufacturers and developers a formidable resource that will help them develop new and innovative products and help them resolve issues with current designs."
Hitex Design UK has been involved in numerous designs over many years, covering hardware, embedded software and full system integration from concept to volume production. Pebble Bay offer independent software development services to a broad range of industries, from motor sport to defence, and from telecoms to medical. With a highly skilled and experienced team of software engineers, Pebble Bay help manufacturers develop new products by providing low level code solutions that enable their clients to quickly and reliably create new market beating products.
"This collaboration helps both of our companies expand our offering and expertise," said Michael Beach, Managing Director at Hitex Design UK. "Both companies have many decades of experience and proven success in their field, we are also geographically close and what we do is complementary - so it's a very good fit for us and we are excited to have reached this agreement."
Pebble Bay have also announced that they will be presenting a half-day technical workshop at this year's UK Embedded Masterclass event. Entitled "An Introduction to Hardware Interfacing and Device Driver Development" the workshop is intended to help engineers understand how software interfaces with typical embedded system hardware and to understand the purpose, structure and typical components of a device driver. www.pebblebay.com
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OEMs set to Save Space with Externally Mounted Rugged Portable Memory
~ No need to give up panel space or interior volume with Bar series memory keys and tokens ~
Nexus GB has released the Datakey Electronics Bar Series of rugged, portable memory products, consisting of memory tokens and mating receptacles. The Bar series receptacle features an on surface mounting system, which allows Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to add a portable data carrier to their product without giving up large amounts of panel space or interior volume. The series also features an IP-67 immersion rating and is designed to meet the requirements of the most demanding military and industrial applications.
The unique on-surface mounting style minimises the amount of interior space required, as only the receptacle's pins extend inside the OEM device. Also, the Bar Receptacle has a small footprint of only 5.3 cm 2. The receptacle is secured using two screws and an adhesive gasket, which also contributes to the Bar's IP-67 rating and provides a tamper-evident installation.
While originally designed to meet the requirements of tactical military applications like Crypto Ignition Keys (CIKs), the Bar can also be used in other harsh environment applications, such as: machine access control, calibration & parameter uploads, feature enable/disable, and data transfer.
Designed for use in the most challenging environments, the Bar series meets United States Department of Defence MIL-STD-810F specifications, including: shock, vibration, immersion, salt-fog, blowing dust, blowing sand, freezing rain and more. This is extremely useful for OEMs selling into the military as well as into commercial applications that have chosen to implement this influential standard.
The Bar has an operating temperature range of -40°C to +85°C (-40°C to +100°C storage) and has ESD (Electro Static Discharge) protection to greater than 15kV. Also, both the Bar token and receptacle are designed to minimise electromagnetic emissions, which is important in many military applications.
The Bar provides an intuitive slide-in/slide-out operation and features an open design for easy in-field cleaning, an important feature for tactical devices. The Bar token and receptacle have physical features to ensure that the token can only be inserted in the proper orientation, allowing for “by-feel” operation in the dark. The receptacle features a retention pin that provides tactile feedback when the token is fully inserted, and also helps keep the Token firmly in place during operation - standing up to the most demanding shock and vibration requirements.www.nexusgb.co.uk
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Mocana Wins Contract to Secure UAV Drones with Spark
Spark Integration Technologies have announced a technology partnership with Mocana to secure Spark’s Distrix™ information exchange product suite.
The agreement allows Spark to integrate Distrix with Mocana’s NanoDTLS™ device integrity API to prevent eavesdropping, tampering and message forgery of satellite communications managed by Distrix. Distrix enables customers to swiftly integrate Mocana’s encryption and authentication technology without requiring any rework to existing systems. This joint solution is already being used by Cahon Systems based in El Cajon, CA to retrofit large unmanned aerial vehicles and other assets in-the-field to secure voice and data communications between UAVs and ground stations in real-time operational scenarios.
Spark’s Distrix System Builder™ simplifies the design, coding, and implementation of distributed information exchange by providing graphical tools to describe the information and processes within systems and generate the code to link them together in the required configuration. By isolating the application logic from the environmental implementation, System Builder enables developers to change operational details such as the deployment platform and Quality of Service parameters without impacting application and interface logic.
NanoDTLS is Mocana’s super fast, super small DTLS solution specifically designed to speed product development while providing best-in-class device security services for resource-constrained environments. The Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) protocol provides communications privacy for datagram protocols. NanoDTLS is based on the stream-oriented TLS protocol, and allows datagram-based applications to prevent eavesdropping, tampering, or message forgery. The datagram semantics of the underlying transport are preserved by NanoDTLS, and applications built with it don’t suffer from the delays associated with stream protocols. NanoDTLS is open-standards based, extensible, extremely small footprint, platform-agnostic and includes an optional government-certified FIPS 140-2 level one-validated crypto core, and supports the NSA’s Suite B cryptography suite. Interested developers can request a free source code evaluation of NanoDTLS at http://www.mocana.com/nanodtls.html
“Our project specifications required an embedded solution that provided robust cryptographic coprocessor support on an ARM9 processor. We found that NanoDTLS exceeded the performance and platform requirements while being extremely easy to use,” said Chad Trytten, CEO of Spark. “The fact that we were dealing with Mocana – the recognized experts in device integrity – helped convince our customer that NanoDTLS was the best approach. In working with them, we were also tremendously impressed by Mocana’s quick and comprehensive support.”
Parasoft Corporation today announced the new release of Parasoft C++test, an integrated solution for automating a broad range of best practices proven to increase software development team productivity and software quality for C and C++. In this new release, Parasoft significantly expands the scope of C++test with the introduction of integrated runtime memory analysis that is suitable for both enterprise and embedded development.
“Software verification techniques such as static code analysis, runtime memory analysis, unit testing, and data flow analysis can each prevent and detect specific types of defects,” stated Wayne Ariola of Parasoft Corporation. “Now, with the latest release of C++test, development teams can apply all of these complementary techniques in concert. This integrated approach dramatically reduces the risk of going to market with the defects and security vulnerabilities that commonly evade traditional fragmented testing efforts.” www.parasoft.com
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Embedded Masterclass To Address 'Software Quality' in Embedded Systems
One of the key presentations at this year's ‘Embedded Masterclass’ hi-tech developers’ event will explore the tools and methodology that are required to develop reliable and effective software for embedded systems.
Chris Hills, founder and CTO of Phaedrus Systems, will discuss that from determining the initial requirements of a new development project to managing variants through the product life-cycle, a structured methodology will save development time, improve time to market and improve product quality, all of which will translate to the bottom line.
"There is a general feeling that a rigorous methodology and a tool chain that goes beyond just a compiler and some test tools is only necessary if you are building safety-critical and high-integrity systems. This is not true, and the quality of some of the software in some consumer products often demonstrates this," said Chris. “This presentation will look at overall methodology, and discuss the tools that can improve it even further, using examples and anecdotes drawn from real applications."
Chris Hills has extensive experience in designing, implementing and supporting safety-critical and high-reliability embedded systems, both in the lab and in the field. He is an active participant in standards bodies, including ISO C, C++ and IEC 61508-3 and writes regularly for US and UK based publications.
"Chris's presentation is a very good fit for this event," said Richard Blackburn, the event organiser. "We are working hard to put on an event that engineers will find useful and productive. Such a knowledgeable speaker, with real hands on experience is the kind of presenter that we know engineers prefer to listen to."
A major change at this year's event will be a move away from Power Point presentations. Instead, the presenters are asked to use a white board, flip chart and hand-outs.
"We wanted to shake things up a bit," said Richard. "An engineer’s time is valuable, so we want to raise the standard of the presentations. We think engineers need a break from endless bullet points and animated slides. We feel sure this approach will prove to be more spontaneous, more interactive and more informative."
Over the past 9 years, the Embedded Masterclass has established itself as an important UK event for engineers looking to explore the most recent tools and technologies for the development of embedded systems. The Embedded Masterclass is recognised for the quality of its presentations and workshops, which are technical in content and presented by engineers, for engineers.
"The object of the Embedded Masterclass has always been to provide a 'non-sales' forum," said Richard. "A forum where embedded systems engineers can come along and meet a broad range of industry experts from key vendors and learn about what is happening at the leading edge of embedded microprocessor, DSP and FPGA technology."
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Lauterbach and IAR Collaborate to Run Advanced Debugging Workshop at UK Embedded Masterclass
Two of the world's leading software debug tool companies have agreed to collaborate on a half-day workshop at this year's hi-tech developers' event, The Embedded Masterclass. The workshop will explore the latest developments in debug technology and explain a number of debugging techniques and the technology behind the tools.
The Embedded Masterclass will take place near Cambridge on 6th May and in Reading 11th May. The event is free to engineers and technology managers, but there is a small charge to attend a workshop.
"Our objective is to provide an overview of the debug and trace technologies applicable to many of the most popular microprocessor families," said Barry Lock, UK Manager of Lauterbach.
"Each workstation will be equipped with a laptop, set of debug tools and will be using a CortexM development board. This core was chosen as being representative of a mid range capability microcontroller becoming very popular in many industries. This workshop will be geared towards any developer writing software for an embedded system at any level. Between ourselves and IAR, there will be a lot of expertise and experience in the room."
The trainers will be Richard Copeman from Lauterbach and Edward Gibbins from IAR. Richard Copeman has 9 years experience with Lauterbach in applications support and producing and running training courses for many thousands of engineers. Before Lauterbach he had 15 years experience supporting customers with RTOS development for both QNX and OSE. Engineers attending the course will require experience of writing software for embedded micro-processors and knowledge of embedded software C, C++ or Ada. More details of the workshop can be found at www.embedded-masterclass.com/software-debugging.htm
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Embedded Masterclass Explores Multicore Options and Challenges
At this year's UK Embedded Masterclass event, engineer Paul Tingey from Wind River will give a presentation that will outline some of the technical challenges associated with the design of multicore based embedded systems as well as the challenges involved in migrating existing systems from current single core processing to multicore processing.
The Embedded Masterclass takes place near Cambridge on the 6th May and in Reading on the 10th May. www.embedded-masterclass.com
"Among the many advances in technology that have recently changed embedded technology, perhaps the most seismic for software developers is the move away from single-core and towards multicore processing," said Paul Tingey, System Architect with Wind River. "It's a move which has provided challenges and opportunities in equal measure."
This presentation will outline the differences between various software architectures for mutlicore systems (such as Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) and Asymmetric Multi-Processing) and discuss the conditions under which these differing architectures are best used. Paul Tingey has been with Wind River for more than nine years and now works within the Alliances team to strengthen the bonds between Wind River's products and those of their strategic silicon and hardware partners. Paul's professional interests include standards-based technologies (such as Carrier Grade Linux and AdvancedTCA) as well as real-time technologies such as VxWorks.
"We are very pleased to have Paul presenting on such an important topic," said Richard Blackburn, Event Organiser. "Our aspiration is to provide electronic and embedded systems engineers with a truly worthwhile and productive day; a chance to learn about new technologies and explore new approaches. Symmetric Multi-Processing is a hot topic at the moment and I feel sure there are many engineers who would be curious to hear what Paul has to say on this issue, especially as Paul has a great deal of real-world experience in this field."
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Ian Willats, Managing Director of Pebble Bay 
