The Embedded Systems Conference is back in full swing at the Boston Hynes Convention Center. Every year it amazes me to see such development in the embedded space and the amount of power and control the technology enables for engineers.

The first course that I attended, "Building an Embedded Linux System from Scratch" by Bill Gatliff, was part of the "Design Your Own Embedded System" track--and the room was packed! The really interesting thing about this course, and some of the other ones in this track that happened yesterday or will be happening during the week, is that many attendees received Texas Instruments' Beagle Boards and can actually apply what they see in the course soon afterwards to ensure that they understand instead of waiting until next week when they get back home and may have forgotten some of the content given the amount that they are learning. These courses have a hands on aspect to them, and the equipment is available for users to test out the material they have received. Very interesting concept and one that I hope will take off.

Bill's course went through the different stages for putting together a Linux system, including a list of fundamental considerations to ensure that everyone was on the same page. He provided all of the instructions for the Linux system and walked through the steps for implementation from start to finish. Very detailed and in depth. I'm looking forward to tomorrow when the source code will be up and available on the Beagle Board website (www.beagleboard.org) to test all of this out myself!

Note: I'll be posting videos from the show as soon as I have an opportunity to download them and do a bit of editing on them look for them soon!

Greg Quirk is a product manager for TechInsights and EE Times (you've probably seen him on some of Semiconductor Insights' tear down videos). Greg is covering the Embedded Systems Conference Boston this week mostly from behind the camera. When he occasionally comes out from behind the lens, he writes this blog. E-mail him at gquirk@techinsights.com.