Mark Hermeling

So, what does _your_ software architecture look like?

Customers often ask me in my opinion as to what their path to multi-core should be. Invariably I ask them two things. 1) Describe your current hardware architecture, your next hardware architecture and what your hardware architecture will look like in 3 years; 2) Describe your current software architecture and any plans you have to evolve it.

This leads to interesting discussions, most customers can draw their hardware architectures, some can white board their software architectures easily, some have more problems, but I have a strong feeling that their drawing differs significantly from the actual implementation.

2010 Is The Year Of Embedded Virtualization

I believe that 2010 will be the year of embedded virtualization, all the signs point in the right direction. It always takes a while for new technology to grab the imagination of embedded device developers. Embedded developers are traditionally a conservative bunch, however, the benefits of virtualization can not be ignored, even by them.

Integrated Hardware, Software and Lasagna

The fact that almost everybody in North America is either packing for the holidays, or has already left gives me a chance to finally write about an exchange I had with a customer a while ago.

We were discussing how the hardware side of embedded software development had changed over the past years. Where in 'the olden days', things would start by bolting a processor on top of a breadboard of some kind, todays development typically starts with an out-of-the-box hardware solution. That is, the processor is integrated with memory controllers, certain peripherals such as graphics, networking, SRIO are already on the board, others can be added through standards like PCI and others.