Top Ten Embedded Design Articles of 2008

Here are the ten most popular design articles on Embedded.comduring the past year, based on which stories were most visited and mostviewed on the site.

Your choice of design articles reflects an even balance betweentraditional programming and software development issues and hardwarespecific software topics.

#1: The art of FPGA construction
Working with FPGAs isn't intimidating when you know the basictechniques and options.

#2: Guidelines for using C++ asan alternative to C in embedded designs
In this two part tutorial, Colin Walls addresses the well-knownbarriers to use of C++ by C programmers, and provides some guidelinesincluding cleaning up C and an in-between alternative he calls “C+.”First up: Why is C++ not more widely used?

#3: Down to basics: Running Linuxon a 32-/64-bit RISC architecture
In this series Dominic Sweetman, author of “See MIPS run Linux” getsdown to the basics on how to implement Linux on the MIPS 32k/64karchitecture. In Part 1: GNU/Linux from eight miles high.

#4: Building “instant-up”real-time operating systems
Here are three ways to build an instant “up and running” RTOS for useon any target system requiring only some compilation & minimalhardware resources.

#5: Back to the future -Manchester encoding
When commercial options fail, try using Manchester encoding and othertime-tested protocols in low-cost, low bit-rate serial communications.

#6: Designing DSP-based motorcontrol using fuzzy logic
The increased use of variable-speed drive motors to reduce energyconsumption will require a shift from PID controllers to systems basedon fuzzy logic algorithms to simplify design, reduce development time,and elminate complex math formulas.

#7: An architecture for designingreusable embedded systems software
Want to make your application software more reusable? Don't change thehardware, operating system, or your tools. Instead change thearchitectural framework within which you do your design.

#8: Why C++ is a viablealternative to C in embedded systems design
While C enjoys a good reputation as a strong and powerful language forembedded development, C++ does not have quite such a broad appeal. Withtoday's capable and sophisticated C++ environments this is often anincorrect belief. 

#9: Using object-oriented MATLABfor DSP
This hands-on how-to demonstrates how to use object-orientedprogramming features of Matlab 2008a to model C++ digital signalprocessing solutions.

#10: Debugging multiprocessor code
Debugging code running on multiprocessor computing systems–and, inparticular, parallel code on multicore devices–is an old problem thathas achieved new prominence because of the profound transformation ofhardware from single-processor to multiprocessor and multicoresolutions. 

What were your favorite articlesand columns? Give us your feedback below. It will help us in our choiceof articles and features we publish during the next year.