My Top 8+ Tweets From The 2010 Embedded Systems Conference

I just spent the last four days in San Jose at the 2010 Embedded Systems Conference.  If you are in the embedded industry this is a one-stop event to find information, products, and assistance to help with your next project.  I attended sessions, walked the show floor, talked to vendors about new products, met with partners, and discussed emerging trends with Editors.  I was so busy I actually didn’t have time to tweet about all the great things I saw.  Instead, I’ve compiled a list of the top 8+ tweets I intended to send but I just couldn't condense my thoughts down to 140 characters.

1. Wow – I actually saw lines to get into some of the sessions.  The economy must be getting better because the Embedded Systems Conference had a good turnout from both exhibitors and attendees.  I met with one of the show organizers who told me paid attendance was up 30%.   New and existing projects are on the move and people are looking for embedded technologies to help get their products to market.  Social media was heavily used by the event promoters to get the word out.
2. Multi-core is a hot topic.  There were several specific multi-core events that drew big crowds.  Wind River was involved in three multi-core specific events on day one.  All three events generated a lot of interest.
   
   • First, Wind River hosted an executive luncheon and multi-core panel featuring the six leading semiconductor companies: Cavium, Freescale, Intel, LSI, NetLogic, and Texas Instruments.
     These guys went head-to-head discussing why their approach is best.  One clear message from all the panelists was that optimized software and tools play a major role in realizing the full potential of multi-core processors.  Too bad we ran out of time because the audience was fired up with questions.
   • The luncheon was followed by a keynote from Wind River’s CTO, Tomas Evensen.  Tomas’ presentation - Surviving the Software Avalanche: Simplifying Multi-core – Everyone from the luncheon must have followed Tomas over to the Hilton because this session attracted a lot of people wanting to learn more about emerging embedded software and tools.
   • During the afternoon Wind River’s multi-core expert, Mark Hermeling, conducted a four hour working session on Multi-core Demystified.  This interactive session was packed.  The audience was very curious about the different elements to multi-core development.  Many questions were asked and answered.  What’s amazing is that the majority of the audience stayed the entire four hours.
3. Integrated solutions are in demand.  Piecing things together is NOT what the industry wants to do anymore.  The introduction of multi-core has made development of embedded systems much more complex.  On the first day of the show Wind River announced a new integrated multi-core runtime platform, the Network Acceleration Platform . The platform offers all the software components needed to develop a network element that delivers ultra-fast packet forwarding capabilities.    I had a number of people comment that this was exactly what the industry needs.
4. System simulation is generating a lot of interest.  A few weeks ago Wind River added the Virtutech Simics product to its portfolio.  Multiple hardware vendors stopped by the booth to get a hands on demo.  At times the audience was three groups deep.  As embedded systems get more complex, more and more designs will be done in a simulated or virtual environment.  Imagine the flexibility and added freedom to design the next generation applications without being tethered to physical hardware.
   
5. Ecosystem alliances are on the move – a number or companies announced new ecosystem alliances.  Freescale jumped out of the gate by announcing a new strategic alliance that expands software solutions on their processors.  They were followed by NetLogic’s announcement of Ensemble, an alliance to drive multi-core innovations around their processors.  These alliances tie directly to the above point that integrated solutions are what customers are asking for.
6. Xilinx is on a roll.  They started by winning top honors in the annual EDN Innovation Awards. Then they then unveiled a new ARM-based processing architecture that offers high-performance processing horsepower at lower cost and power targeting multiple market segments.  I talked to some of the Xilinx folks about there new project and left thinking – wow - these guys are on to something! 
7. Me Too Android!  Android is attracting a lot of interest.  Wind River hosted a webinar last week that attracted over a 1000 people. No wonder some embedded software vendors are just now jumping in with “me too” solutions.  Although not heavily pushed at this year’s ESC, there were a few companies attempting to put a stake in the ground with Android integration services.
8. Express Logic Monkeys are still the best giveaways.  It’s amazing.  Every year Express Logic gives away stuffed monkeys to anyone and everyone who sits through their presentations.  It blows me away that so many people, year after year, make getting one a priority. On the other hand, maybe Express Logic is on to something.  They announced over 750 million ThreadX deployments.  They are obviously doing something right.  

These 8+ non-tweets are just a few takeaways from the conference.  Did you make it to this year’s event?  Did you at least follow it online? What were your highlights?