Embedded Executive

We talk about AI a lot here at Embedded Computing Design, and that's a huge understatement. What we don't talk about often is the power required to keep the data centers going, specifically the data centers that form the backbone of all this AI activity. When you talk to experts in this space, they'll tell you that the amount of power needed, specifically the power density, is staggering. One of those experts, Tim Phillips, President, CEO, and Founder of Empower Semiconductor, joined me on this week's Embedded Executives podcast. He gave some insight into what we need to do to handle the power (and associated heat) issue.

Nordic Semiconductor is certainly one of the leaders in the embedded space regarding microcontroller technology. Frankly, I feel like the company is one of the best-kept secrets. When I had the opportunity to speak with their (sort of) new CEO, I jumped at it. Hear my discussion with Vegard Wollan, Nordic's President and CEO, where he explains some of the moves he has made in his tenure, and what can be expected going forward, on this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

Some “experts” in the embedded space will swear that systems based on open-source software or hardware can never be secure. At the same time, others will say that such a notion is pure nonsense. To get a better feel for the argument and understand what is accurate and what is not, I spoke to Jan Pleskac, the Co-Founder and CTO of Tropic Square, on this week's Embedded Executives podcast. The company is a fabless semiconductor vendor that specializes in secure elements. Jan and I went through the process behind staying secure and the role that open source plays in it.

In a typical SoC, you handle all your processing functionality within the processor core. Makes sense, right? What if you can handle your processing within the SoC's memory subsystem? If I understand the concept correctly, the time and power to handle those processing functions would be reduced considerably, which is needed in an AI application. So why hasn't someone done this? Someone has, and that would be PIMIC. To learn what this means and how it works, I spoke to Subi Krishnamurthy, the Founder and CEO of PIMIC, on this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

Functional safety is no longer a “nice to have” or “should have” in many applications, having moved to “must have” in spaces like automotive, industrial automation, medical devices, and aviation. Passing the functional safety testing process can be rigorous, especially if you're going through it for the first time. But even the best experts take at least six months to get software certified. To understand exactly what functional safety is, what the testing process is like, and how and when a developer should get started, I spoke to Bill Lamie, the President and CEO of PX5 RTOS, and someone who's been through the rigors of functional safety testing on this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

In programming jargon, the term “real time” is not used in its literal sense, which can be confusing. The literal definition means that when something happens in real time, it happens instantaneously. But in practice, something that occurs very quickly is mistitled as being real-time. Why does the misconception continue to occur, and what problems does it cause? This is the beginning of the discussion I had with Steve Graves, the Founder and CEO of McObject, on this week's Embedded Executives podcast. Steve has to deal with this issue regularly, so his opinions are quite valid.

If system developers had unlimited power for their designs, they'd likely find a way to take advantage of it. And the same goes for performance. However, neither of those features is available in infinite quantities. And in just about every case, one becomes a tradeoff for the other. So, how do you manage that tradeoff, and when you do, what other factors come into play? To better handle this topic, I spoke to Praveen Vaidyanathan, the Vice President and General Manager of Micron Technology's Data Center Business Unit, on this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

Low-power is the ultimate priority in some WiFi networks, especially when you're designing a battery powered device. Cameras used in remote locations are prime targets for this discussion. In some cases, access to that camera is difficult, so the user needed want to charge or replace a battery on a regular basis. To understand what the current state of the art is, both in terms of power levels and the WiFi standard itself, which is moving to version 7, I spoke to Sivaram Trikutam, the Vice President of Wi-Fi Products for Infineon on this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

Chip design has always been a complex process, and there is no end in sight. What has improved are the tools available to an IC designer. The chips are getting more specialized; hence, the tools must drill down further into the process than ever before. This sounds like a lot of black magic, but it becomes less cloudy when someone who understands the process walks you through it. To get more clarity for myself, I invited Scot Morrison, the Vice President of Shift Left Software Product Management at Siemens EDA, to be my guest on this week's Embedded Executives podcast. Scot first lays out the problems, then walks through some of the various solutions.

Just when you thought you'd done everything you could do with Bluetooth, along comes something new and unique. At a recent technical conference, I was witness to a very cool demo that was all based on Bluetooth. Rather than attempt to describe it myself, I asked Simon Ford, the Founder of Blecon, the company providing the demo, to explain what it is, how it works, and why it's so difficult to achieve. Hear it on this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

We often say that designing secure systems means thinking about security early on in the design process. That means really early on, well before any pen is put to paper, so to speak. To understand what that means, I spoke to Denis Noel, the Director of Strategy in the Secure Connected Edge business unit at NXP on this week's Embedded Executives podcast. Denis walked through each of the various steps a developer should be taking.

Don't stop me if you've heard this before, because it needs to be repeated, again, and again. The embedded industry needs to take security more seriously. Hacks are continuing to occur and will continue until there is a “security by design” mentality in place in our space. It's hard to believe we are still having this discussion, but we are. I also expressed my frustration on this week's Embedded Executives podcast with Josh Heller, the Manager of Product Security at Digi International. Josh confirmed my fears, but had some great suggestions to help solve the problem.

Edge AI is one of the popular topics amongst the embedded community. It's the place where decisions are made, data is analyzed, etc. It's also a place where lots of confusion arises because of its complexity, especially from a development perspective. To get to the heart of where the challenges lie in this phase of design, I spoke with Jim Beneke, a Vice President for Tria Americas, an Avnet company, on this week's Embedded Executives podcast. Jim has a pretty deep history in the embedded space and served as a great resource on this topic.

Common knowledge says that if you want to create an ASIC, you'd better have at least $1M in your bank account. The folks at Efabless say that my common knowledge is inaccurate by a long shot. They claim to be able to get folks started for far less than $100k.I needed to understand how this is possible, so I invited Michael Wishart, the CEO and co-founder of Efabless, to explain how it works on this week's Embedded Executives podcast, with Kumar Gala and Maureen Helm, both Distinguished Engineers with Analog Devices.

From a developer's perspective, Edge AI is anything but simple. Any tools, software, etc., that can simplify the process of integrating this technology into a system is very welcome. That's where ClearBlade comes in, with its framework that developers “design to,” using hardware, software, and even terminology that the design community is accustomed to. That process may seem vague and complex, but it needn't be, as stated by Aaron Allsbrook, the Co-Founder and CTO of ClearBlade, in this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

Industrial platforms come with a specific set of design criteria. And the term “industrial” can be quite ambiguous, running the gamut from power tools to manufacturing equipment. Obviously, there are different requirements within this range. When you're choosing an MCU for this space, you had better understand what your specific requirements are. Making the wrong choice will likely have an impact on the efficiency of your end product, which could result in higher power consumption, less heat, and so on. To understand where a designer should start the MCU selection process, I spoke to Steve Tateosian, the Senior Vice President of Consumer, IoT, and Industrial MCUs at Infineon, on this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

At the LoRa Alliance, there's a new sheriff in town. Alper Yegin is the group's new CEO. LoRa, which stands for long range, allows transmissions to occur at very low power, sometimes lasting many years without changing batteries. Yegin believes the LoRa spec is quite solid, but there's always room for it to evolve. He feels that one of his primary tasks is increasing awareness and education around the standard. This can (and will) happen by increasing partnerships with complementary organizations, having more activity at industry events, and holding local meetups. In this week's Embedded Executives podcast, we also discuss how the spec competes in a crowded space and what the future holds.

Open tools are becoming the norm in the embedded software development space. And that's definitely the case for Analog Devices' CodeFusion Studio tool. The IDE lets developers start with an SoC, and design their systems from there. The software development platform is based on Microsoft's Visual Studio Code (VS Code). On this week's Embedded Executives podcast, with Kumar Gala and Maureen Helm, both Distinguished Engineers with Analog Devices' Software & Digital Platforms Group, we defined what “open” means in this space, then jumped into how and where a developer would get started.

It's been a very successful year for the Z-Wave Alliance. If you have any doubts about that statement, check out this week's Embedded Executives podcast, where I spoke to Avi Rosenthal, the Chairman of the Alliance. Avi rattled off a long list of achievements for the organization, including a new spec, an unplug fest, and many new products. These endeavors all transcend nicely into wins for the community. That means developers have more/better options when it comes to wireless devices.

Tyson Tuttle left the helm of Silicon Labs a few years ago, took a little time to recharge the batteries, and now he's back in the thick of things with a new company called Circuit. Given its name, you might think it's a company designing ICs, but that's not true. The company is building what some might call a productivity tool, but Tyson describes it as something way bigger and far more involved than that. He claims it's a way to turn information into insights to simplify life, enhance work, and strengthen communities. Hear all about it on this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

The industry revolves around two types of AI, namely research AI versus production AI. I wasn't sure what these terms meant and their differences, so I asked an expert to join me on this week's Embedded Executives podcast. John Weil is the Vice president and General Manager of Synaptics' IoT Business Unit. After setting me straight, John talks about the last 20% of a design that the customer needs to figure out for themselves, amongst other things.

What is the real definition of a software-defined vehicle (SDV)? It depends, mostly on who you are asking that question of. I asked John Heinlein, the Chief Marketing Officer at Sonatus and he had a great response on this week's Embedded Executives podcast. We discussed the differences between various tiers of vehicles, how they are upgraded, and what we should be looking out for as we move forward. Note that John has his podcast and was gracious enough to have me on as a guest recently. Hear that one here.

Is documentation an issue for your embedded project? Wouldn't it be great if you didn't have to create that documentation yourself, yet have it be as good (or better) than you could do yourself? That's what the tool from Driver does. In full disclosure, I didn't understand how the company's technology worked, so I had a great discussion with Driver's CEO and Co-Founder, Adam Tilton on this this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

The amount of NAND memory that exists today is staggering. There are many different kinds of NAND, and the needed type is based on the intended application. Sometimes you need high-speed memory, sometimes very dense memory, and sometimes you need the memory to go into an environment that's less than favorable. But the memory itself is just one piece of the system puzzle. You also need a controller to go with that memory. You might think like I did, that the controller is fairly simple to design and would be something the memory suppliers can handle without breaking a sweat. As I learned in this week's Embedded Executives podcast with Robert Fan, a Senior Vice President with Silicon Motion, it's harder than you might think. And for that reason, the controllers from vendors like Silicon Motion are highly in demand. 

With all the focus on AI and machine learning these days, we sometimes take other facets of design for granted, some of which are vital, like the wireless component. Synaptics' Veros architecture fits the bill for state-of-the-art wireless communications with high throughput, low power consumption, and top-notch security. If you're designing an AI-based platform using the company's latest AI platform, Veros has built-in hooks to attach the two subsystems seamlessly. To understand what that means and how it works, I spoke with Venkat Kodavati, Synaptics' SVP and GM for the company's Wireless Products Division, in this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

We are being bombarded with data; it's coming at us from so many avenues, particularly as we move into the world of AI and the analytics that it brings. The key to a proper edge-to-cloud strategy is being able to make sense of that plethora of data. That statement sounds obvious and simple, but it's quite the opposite. If you don't have the proper strategy in place, your design could be doomed before it even gets started. To understand where to begin, and what path to take with the data strategy, I spoke to Johannes Biermann, the President and COO of aicas, who gives some guidelines for developers, on this this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

When designing systems with high integrity, say for automotive applications, what is the programming language of choice? I believe that's referred to as a loaded question, because there are so many variables involved, and it's a question that's almost impossible to answer. Unfortunately, many developers make a decision for the wrong reasons. To get to the root of the matter, I invited Quentin Ochem, the Chief Product and Revenue Officer at AdaCore, to be my guest on this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

What is rad-hard memory, and when and where should it be used? And what makes it different from conventional memory? The answers may seem obvious, but that's not the case. That's exactly why I spoke to Helmut Puchner, Vice President and Fellow in the Aerospace and Defense division of Infineon Technologies in this week's Embedded Executives podcast. Obviously, such memories cost more, so you want to be sure you understand when they need to be deployed and when they don't.

The automobile's in-cabin user experience (UX) is undergoing some serious changes. We're nearing the point where the automobile can be viewed as an office or entertainment center that also transports you from point A to point B. With all those changes, it's important to ensure that these non-mission-critical functions communicate with the mission-critical tasks at some point. To make sense of this, I spoke to Chet Babla, a Senior Vice President at indie Semiconductor on his week's Embedded Executives podcast.

The Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) provides a new approach to cybersecurity, and outlines a great model for developers to follow. Like the name implies, you should trust no one, at least initially, and assume that all networks and traffic are potential threats. We know that no network is ever 100% secure, but beginning with this assumption gives you the safest starting point and should reduce the risk of data breaches. ZTA is based on the principle of “least privilege,” which means that users and devices are only granted the permissions they need to perform their specific tasks. To help explain what this means, I spoke to Steve Hanna, a Distinguished Engineer from Infineon Technologies on this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

Testing high-power batteries, like those used in EVs, can be a tricky endeavor. It's more complicated and, frankly, more dangerous than testing smaller, lower-voltage batteries. It makes sense that the testing of these packs could and should be left to recognized test experts, Tektronix in this case.In a discussion with Russ Gaubatz, a senior applications engineer, and subject matter expert for Tektronix, and formerly of Elektro-Automatik (recently acquired by Tektronix), I learned what this means. The company runs these packs through a long series of tests, a very necessary process, as you will learn in this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

We've talked a lot about the software-defined vehicle. This week, we are talking about the electrification of that same automobile on the Embedded Executives podcast. As you might expect, it means removing some of the car's mechanical components and replacing them with electrical components. The benefits of doing that are great, as Sayeed Ahmed, a Director at Infineon Technologies states, but there are still some issues to be solved and some tradeoffs. It has to do with software, semiconductor technologies, and so on.

TSN is a standard that originated for video-streaming applications. But today, it's finding a home in industrial applications, and it's is now becoming irreplaceable. Hear why in this week's Embedded Executives podcast, where I spoke to Tom Burke, who is the Global Director of Industry Standards for Mitsubishi, as well as the Global Strategic Advisor for CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA), a high-speed, high-performance industrial network that supports the IIoT and IT/OT convergence.

We spend a lot of time talking about the software-defined vehicle (SDV), and there are two very good reasons for that. One is that is it occurring, whether you know it or not or whether you want it or not. The second reason is that it is very complex, even if you're just dealing with the HMI, as it all ties back together at some point. To sort through the issues, I invited Marcelo Williams, a Global Senior Director for Infineon Technologies to be my guest on this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

Great hardware is useless without great software, and vice versa. The hardware industry continues to evolve, as always, but the software side operates quite differently than it did in the past, thanks to the groundswell of open-source software. Linux has grown into an operating system that can handle nearly any available application, leading the open-source parade down where it currently stands, basically being its own supply chain. One vendor, Analog Devices, has transformed from a traditional analog supplier into not just a provider of digital products but a vendor who delivers the software mix with development kits and IDEs that bring all the technologies together—analog, digital, and software. Hear more about it from Rob Oshana, the Senior Vice President of the Software and Security Group at Analog Devices, on this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

If you're not familiar with Zephyr, shame on you. It's an open-source, real-time operating system (RTOS) for resource-constrained devices. That's how it differs from Linux, which is more of a mainstream OS. That said, Zephyr is growing quite rapidly in popularity, for many reasons. To understand what those reasons are, and why they make sense, I chatted with Benjamin Cabe, the Lead Developer Advocate for the Zephyr Project, which fall sunder the auspices of the Linux Foundation, on this this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

Avnet's Embedded Solutions group is undergoing a change, with a new name attached to it. Known as Tria, the group will be responsible for a range of branded hardware modules, boards, and systems and all the software that comes with them. That combines the company's vast tech support network and state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities. Why did Avnet feel the need to make this move, and what does it mean to the developer, today and down the road? These are some of the questions I asked Thomas Staudinger, President of Tria and Avnet's Embedded Solutions division, on this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

As you might expect, the code base in the software-defined vehicle is growing in leaps and bounds, with more features being added and the functionality within those features growing (and becoming more complex). Is the downside to that ballooning code base the fact that more holes are being introduced to welcome hackers? That's where my discussion began with Priyanka Viswanathan, the Director of Quality Functional Safety and Cybersecurity at SiFive. Check out this week's Embedded Executives podcast to hear what she had to say on the matter.

Do you know what a software-defined vehicle (SDV) is? You likely have your definition, which may or may not be the “right” definition. Just getting that baseline is where my discussion started with Ray Notarantonio, Infineon's Senior Director of Vehicle User Experience in this week's Embedded Executives podcast. We explored what's possible with an SDV, when you should expect it, and what's holding up the various aspects.

Memory technology continues to move along at a healthy pace. Innovations continue to come, and there does not seem to be a slowdown on that horizon. Whether it's NAND, NOR, or something else, you can expect to see advances in densities, speeds, costs, and so on. To get the lay of the land, I spoke to one of the pioneers of memory technology, Miin Wu, the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Macronix International. The old phrase “Miin has forgotten more about memory technology than I'll ever know” certainly applies here. Here is what he had to say on this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

Bluetooth has been around for a quarter century. That's a very, very long time in technology years. It's evolved into one of the most omnipresent standards ever produced. That said, it continues to grow with new features and enhancements, which result in new use cases. I spoke to Shantanu Bhalerao, the Vice President of Bluetooth Products for Infineon Technologies on this week's Embedded Executives podcast to understand how that works and what's still to come for Bluetooth.

Everything is connected, everything is smart, and AI controls everything. And it all comes back to the “smart Edge.” While these statements seem to be a bit over-arching, there's a lot of truth to them. But building and then designing around that smart Edge can be quite tricky. Add TinyML to the equation, and it should become clearer (well, maybe). To better understand what that means exactly, I spoke to Amir Panush, the CEO of Ceva on this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

The software-defined vehicle (SDV) requires lots of horsepower, and in many cases, extensive use of AI. Is the world ready for this application? More importantly, are the automakers ready? This is the avenue I went down with Frantz Saintellemy, the President and CEO of Leddar Tech. We discussed the ecosystem, the available products, the activities in different regions, and the prevailing perceptions in this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

Many of the memory suppliers choose a niche to be an expert. It may be automotive, consumer, industrial, medical, etc. In the case of Apacer Technology, the company has chosen to do it all. In my discussion with Gibson Chen, the General Manager of Apacer, I challenged whether that's the best approach, trying to serve just about any market. Listen to this week's Embedded Executives podcast and decide for yourself if that's the right strategy.

The latest wearable medical devices are designed to help consumers make better decisions regarding their care. Until recently, the space has been somewhat limited. Size and power were the two biggest constraints. Those constraints aren't going away, but they are definitely being lessened thanks to some of the latest innovations on the semiconductor side. To hear more about these innovations, I spoke to Andrew Baker, the Co-Founder and CEO of Orca Semiconductor, a startup in the emerging connected health arena. Check out this week's Embedded Executives podcast to learn more.

If the software-defined vehicle (SDV) comes off as planned, life for consumers becomes a whole lot easier. “If” is the key word in that sentence, and there's tons of debate as to when that might actually happen. To understand what the SDV is—and it means different things to different people—I spoke to Suraj Gajendra, the Vice President of Automotive Products for Arm. As the IP provider for many of the Tier 1 silicon providers in the automotive space, the company has a big say in what it'll actually look like and when it'll happen. Hear what Suraj had to say on this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

Is Wi-Fi even a thing anymore? What I mean by that is, at least from the users' perspective, Wi-Fi just works, and that's not much to think about. However, behind the scenes, a lot has to happen to make that “ubiquitousness” happen. To get a better understanding of what is happening back there, I spoke to Sivaram Trikutam, the Vice President of Wi-Fi Products for Infineon. We get into the latest standards, including Matter, on this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

Can batteries last for 40 years? And what is the application that would require such a timeline? That's the discussion I had with Sol Jacobs, the Vice President and General Manager of Tadiran Batteries. The topic arose after the company's recent whitepaper crossed my desk. To understand whether this was fact or simply a click-bait headline, I decided to go right to the source. Hear what Sol had to say on the matter in this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

Why would you put sensors and power components into the same business unit if you're a component supplier? That's what I asked Adam White, President, of Infineon's Power and Sensors Division. After hearing his response, it made perfect sense—today's sensors are quickly growing in number and power consumption. So it only makes sense to put those engineers in the same room. Adam explained it better than I could, citing lots of power numbers and energy requirements needed by various applications, and how they vary in different regions. Check out this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

Memory for automotive applications needs to be different from memory that's intended for other applications. Why is that? I could not answer that question, so I turned to Michael Basca, the Vice President of Embedded Products and Systems within Micron's Embedded Business Unit. As you might expect, Michael had no trouble answering the question. Hear what he had to say on this week's Embedded Executives podcast.

Is it possible to develop a car that would never crash? We're talking about a physical crash, not a software crash. According to Chet Babla, Indie Semiconductor's Senior Vice President, it is. Being a non-believer, I had Chet as my guest on this week's Embedded Executives podcast. Chet walked me through exactly what needs to happen to make this phenomenon a reality. Check it out.