Demystifying UML
by Stephen J. Mellor
The Unified Modeling Language has the potential to change embedded systems design but most working engineers don't know what it is or how it works. This recognized expert wrote the book on UML and explains how it applies to today's developers.

Tackle team-based FPGA design
by Troy Scott
Now that FPGA chips are large and all-encompassing it makes sense that they're no longer solo development efforts. This expert from Lattice Semiconductor describes how teams of developers can work on one FPGA cooperatively.

A polymorphic approach to intertask message handling
by Kevin Duffy
Message passing is common enough, but writing structured code to handle messages gets tough when the number of tasks grows. Here's an alternative approach using polymorphism that scales much more neatly.

Simulating and debugging multicore behavior
by Peter S. Magnusson
Debugging a single processor is hard enough. What can you do when there are multiple processors inside one chip? One answer is to simulate the system before the actual hardware is ready.

Programming Pointers
Qualifiers in multilevel pointers
by Dan Saks
The conversion rules involving multilevel pointers with qualifiers are simpler in C than in C++, but the C++ rules are more useful.

Break Points
Future-proofing your career
by Jack G. Ganssle
In times of stress great new opportunities appear. We’re approaching an inflection point that will benefit engineers attuned to the new realities of the business world.

#include
ESCape from your cubicle
by Jim Turley
After several years in downtown San Francisco the Embedded Systems Conference returns to San Jose.