Special Focus – ESC Silicon Valley
HIGHLIGHTS
Mars ate my spacecraft!
Adopting C programming conventions
Agile embedded software development
ESC live broadcasting schedule
Apple co-founder Wozniak headlines ESC-Silicon Valley
Conference Director's Note
Nobody wants to design an embedded system that fails. But the cost of failure varies greatly across the embedded landscape. A universal TV remote that misses a few commands might be an acceptable product. As electronic systems become more and more autonomous, however, a bug can lead to tragic misbehavior by a car, a chemical plant, or a jumbo jet. Sometimes the cost of error is simply unacceptable.
The dawn of the age of cyber-crime and cyber-warfare has shown an ugly new light on this question of reliability. Yesterday, perhaps, it was sufficient that an embedded system function correctly when operating unmolested and with valid inputs. Tomorrow may demand that the system function safely under attack by ingenious malware.
Reliability in this new world demands rigor at every stage of the development process, from requirements definition through coding and test. This theme runs through many of the conference tracks at Embedded Systems Conference Silicon Valley next week. We have pointed out some of the highlights in the session profiles below, ranging from case studies of disasters to formalizing best practices to reexamining the whole methodology of code development.
If you can attend ESC, please do so. Even if you can’t be there in person, please join in the embedded community’s discussion on this topic, on embedded.com and other forums. This issue really is mission-critical.
—Ron Wilson
Thursday April 28th is the last day to sign up for classes. Sign up today with this promo code: Susan30 and get a 30% discount.
Conference Papers
Mars ate my spacecraft!
Fun with failure: The spectacular failures of others are spectacular lessons for engineers. Jack Ganssle recounts the riveting lore of engineering failures.
Adopting C programming conventions
This ESC paper discusses some common problems found in a lot of code and suggests strategies for avoiding them.
Agile embedded software development
Developers flee engineering for marketing and management. Why? Big processes are not delivering, and neither is coding chaos. This author says Agile helps address the problems of late projects, high defect levels, and stressed teams.
Multicore Expo Conference Papers
Recently posted Multicore Expo conference papers. Each paper is associated with a class at the upcoming Multicore Expo, May 2–5, 2011
Analyzing multithreaded applications—Identifying performance bottlenecks on multicore systems Using trace to solve the multicore system debug problem Trip over threads to trap multicore bugs Non-intrusive debug and performance optimization for multicore systems Challenges of safety-critical multi-core systems
ESC on streaming video
If you can't make every day of Embedded Systems Conference Silicon Valley (or you can't make it at all), stay on top of the event by watching our live programming online. From Tuesday May 3 to Thursday May 5, EE Times will provide live-streaming broadcast segments from the show floor on our UStream channel . Here’s a link to the latest broadcast schedule.
ESC Silicon Valley May 2–5 2011
Spring is here and ESC Silicon Valley 2011 opens just five weeks from today, on Monday, May 2, 2011, at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California. This year's event promises to be both entertaining and educational, with a keynote by Apple co-founder (and self-proclaimed embedded systems designer) Steve Wozniak as well as technical training from these popular speakers:
–Jack Ganssle on Managing Firmware Projects and Mars Ate My Spacecraft
–W illiam Gatliff jumpstarts Android and Embedded Linux –James Grenning demonstrates Agile and Test Driven Development
–Dan Saks debunks C++ Myths and shows how to Refactor C into C++
–Check out the full program.
This year ESC is also co-located with the Multicore Expo and TI Technology Day .
Thursday April 28 is the last day to register. Readers of this email get 30% off. Use Promo Code: Susan30 to get access to last minute discount.
Register here. Invite your colleagues! Group discounts are available.
ESC Silicon Valley 2011 Class Tracks
Architecture design Best practices Challenges & solutions in embedded designs Connectivity and security Debugging and optimizing Design and test DSP, communications & control design HMI and multimedia HW and platform design Linux/Android/open source Managing and process MCUs in embedded designs Memory in embedded systems Multicore debug Powering embedded designs Programming for storage, I/O & networking Programming languages and techniques Programmable logic in embedded designs Quality design & intellectual property Reliability, security and performance Remote monitoring and wireless networking RTOS and real-time software Safety design Software Processes and Tools Software Design Systems architecture Tools Windows for embedded
Products
TI unleashes multicore-capable TMS320C6671 DSP
TI's newest TMS320C66xx device transitions developers from fixed-and floating-point single core to multicore capability with pin and software compatibility.
One-box emulator targets LTE
Spirent Communications has introduced the VR5 HD Spatial Channel Emulator for testing MIMO-based wireless base stations and mobile devices.
News & Analysis
Apple co-founder Wozniak headlines ESC-Silicon Valley
Steve Wozniak remains busy on the talk circuit with a “fireside chat” after his keynote at the Embedded Systems Conference in May, followed by a keynote at the Design Automation Conference in June.
Rex skeleton to decode the past, embed the future at ESC
Plan to meet up with “Samson,” the 66-million-year-old dinosaur skeleton discovered in South Dakota in 1987, at next-month's Embedded Systems Conference.
KaiSemi to showcase automated FPGA-to-ASIC flow at ESC Silicon Valley
At the forthcoming ESC Silicon Valley, KaiSemi is set to showcase its innovative IP synthesis tool that automatically converts any FPGA netlist directly to ASIC netlist with the push of a button.
Mellanox rolls 40G Ethernet switch
Mellanox leapfrogged Broadcom and Marvell by sampling a switch chip supporting up to 36 40 Gbit/second Ethernet or 56 Gbit/s Infiniband ports.
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