Embedded Computing Design

Subscribe

Receive our complimentary magazine via U.S. Mail or E-mail.

Embedded Computing Design

News

    White Papers

    White paper: PowerProtector: Superior Data Protection for NAND Flash

    —

    The unstable power conditions of outdoor applications such as transportation, telecommunications/networking and embedded systems run the risk of data loss and drive corruption during a sudden power failure. Power failures result in downtime as embedded systems need to be reformatted and operating systems reinstalled. Furthermore, the overall productivity decreases as the cost of ownership increases for industrial grade memory solutions, which are specifically designed for high performance mission critical applications.

    White Paper: Top 3 Design Decisions When Programming an Embedded System

    —

    Engineers working on large, complex project with short deadlines will face many design tradeoffs and decisions. Deciding where to focus time during the design phase is a big challenge. This paper identifies three important design decisions you should make when programming an embedded system, and provides guidance given your application requirements. Taking time to consider each of these three items will put you on the right track to designing a reliable, scalable, and maintainable embedded application.

    White Paper: High Performance ZVS Buck Regulator Removes Barriers To Increased Power Throughput In Wide Input Range Point-Of-Load Applications

    —

    The need for higher power density in today's electronic systems combined with higher overall efficiency has driven many changes in the Non-isolated Point-of-Load Regulator (niPOL). In an effort to improve overall system efficiency, designers are opting to avoid multiple conversion stages to get to the regulated point-of-load voltage they need. This means that the niPOL is operated at higher input voltages with higher conversion ratios than ever before. Despite this fact, the niPOL is expected to maintain the highest efficiency and still continue to shrink the total size of the power solution. There is also the added expectation that with all other performance increases that power demand from the niPOL also further increases.

    White Paper: Creating an Embedded Product with Support for UEFI Secure Boot

    —

    To ship a system with the secure boot feature enabled, fundamental changes need to be made to the way the system is designed, manufactured, deployed, and maintained. Many companies have used signing services for operating system drivers, but supporting the secure boot infrastructure on a product line is a much more difficult proposition. This paper discusses aspects of this problem and reviews resources that can help solve it.

    White Paper: Comprehensive Android Security Strategy

    —

    Cyber warfare has swiftly migrated from hacking into enterprise networks and the Internet to targeting, and being triggered from, mobile devices. With the explosion in the number of connected devices, security attacks can now be launched from anywhere, targeting any place. Wind River(r) has combined our solutions for commercial Android with experience in secure certified embedded systems to develop an advanced security strategy for Android platforms that also ensures compatibility with the commercial Android development model. Our comprehensive approach includes attack detection and prevention, device integrity, isolation techniques, and infrastructure security to protect data and devices from multiple threat vectors.

    White Paper: Migrating Low-Power And Cost-Sensitive x86-Based Designs To Next Gen Technology

    —

    The AMD Geode(tm) LX family of processors, announced in 2005, has been delivering x86 processing and versatility to applications for industrial control, medical, transportation, infotainment, point-of-sale, and thin client applications for more than six years and are planned to be available through 2015. AMD Geode LX processors provide a combination of low-power x86 processing and graphics capabilities needed for designing innovative and creative products. With an average power of 2.45Wi, the AMD Geode LX800 offers designers a complete set of features that deliver full desktop functionality to embedded and portable devices.

    eLearning Course: Security Boot Camp

    —

    Denial of service attacks. Data leaks. System crashes. Malicious code execution. These are all examples of the impact of exploited vulnerabilities in your code. As a diligent and security-conscious software developer, you need to arm yourself with the knowledge to defend your code against these issues.

    White Paper: Innovators Start Here. Multi-core Networking for the New Data Plane

    —

    Intel architecture (IA) processors along with Intel Data Plane Development Kit (Intel DPDK) and Intel QuickAssist Technology enable the creation of high-performance data plane applications that previously required niche purpose-built processors or custom application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). This paper discusses Wind River's solutions works with Linux to accelerate a variety of data plane networking applications, including routing, network security, wireless infrastructure, and others that need high-performance networking on a Linux platform.

    White Paper: Using Linux in Medical Devices: What Developers and Manufacturers Need to Know

    —

    Linux is a popular choice for a wide range of medical devices. Yet due to the critical nature of these devices, manufacturers must take additional precautions. This paper explores the issues that software developers and medical device manufacturers need to take into account in choosing Linux for medical devices. It outlines some regulatory compliance and support requirements for software in medical devices and what to look for in a commercial Linux vendor. It highlights how Wind River addresses these issues by providing a comprehensive solution, including the necessary documentation, services, and support to help build high-performance devices.

    White Paper: Keeping Rail Projects On Track and On Time: Solutions for Mastering Complex Technology Challenges

    —

    This paper explores the challenges manufacturers face and how technology choices made early in the system-design process can mitigate them. It explains how approaches proven in the aerospace industry where physical space is limited and safety is paramount – can reduce risks and costs, accelerate development time, simplify maintenance, and create a safer, more enjoyable experience for the passenger.

    White Paper: Enhancing intelligence in the ‘Internet of things’

    —

    With billions of devices becoming connected in the "Internet of things" and sharing data through the cloud, managing complexity is a challenge. The amount of data moving around the Internet is expected to double in just three years. Are you prepared for this date surge? In this paper, we examine the key industry trends driving consolidation of processing workloads to make all the functionality on a device secure, manageable, and scalable.

    White Paper: What Is A True Industrial Grade NAND Product?

    —

    An introduction to NAND Flash Technology. An Industrial Grade (IG) product features extreme ruggedness, high reliability and wide operating temperatures. With the recent introduction of several MLC NAND products, system designers must become fully aware of the trade-offs of using MLC products compared to an industrial grade SLC product.

    White Paper: Attack the stack: Identifying unauthorized code execution caused by buffer overflows

    —

    Nearly half of all critical security leaks in embedded software are due to heap overflows. Stack-based buffer overflows account for a smaller percentage, but are exploited with the same technique to inject and execute unauthorized code or change execution flow. Instead of policing such attacks to manage security risk, a better approach is to use the strength of quality software development and code testing with static analysis to find and fix the underlying defects that lead to security vulnerability.

    White Paper: Integrating High-Level Synthesis Designs into SoCs with Less Effort and Risk

    —

    High-Level Synthesis (HLS) tools have become increasingly popular for creating ASIC and FPGA hardware with less effort and risk. The productivity gains can be very high, especially when starting from higher abstraction levels like that of Synphony Model Compiler, which uses the Simulink(r) environment and a high-level IP model library for design capture. However, when it comes to integrating an HLS design into a surrounding system or system-on-chip (SoC), the manual effort of interface integration, re-verification and the subsequent risks of errors, debugging and project delay can significantly diminish the HLS productivity gains.

    White Paper: Capture, Decode and Debug of Low Speed Serial Buses

    —

    Low speed serial bus validation requires more than simple voltage verses time measurements. LeCroy oscilloscopes have the ability to use a wide range of triggering, analysis and decode capabilities to bring increased confidence to the validation process. This article will cover methods to capture, view, decode and debug a variety of low speed serial data protocols including RS232, generic UARTs, I2C, CAN, Flexray, LIN, ARINC 429, MIL-STD-1553, MIPI DPHY, DigRF 3G, DigRF v4 and Audio applications (I2S, LJ, RJ and TDM).

    White Paper: Examine the Hidden Costs of Commercial PC Platforms in Embedded Applications

    —

    In this challenging global economy, system integrators are facing growing pressure to lower costs, accelerate Time-to-Market (TTM), and maximize profits while reducing risk. This white paper explores the hidden costs of commercially available PC platforms when used in embedded applications and why today's embedded platforms are a superior choice for your next high-end embedded application. Included are the common myths and misconceptions of today's embedded platforms. We need to clearly differentiate today's embedded solutions from those of 5 or 10 years ago and recognize the dramatic evolution that is currently taking place in embedded technology.

    White Paper: Methods and Tools for Bring-Up and Debug of an FPGA-Based ASIC Prototype

    —

    Software simulation of RTL is no longer capable of providing all of the verification required for today's complex ASIC designs. Modern ASICs are a complex mixture of hardware and software, so it is necessary to verify the design within the context of the complete system, running the full range of software at speeds that approach real-time. Successfully validating an ASIC design on an FPGA-based prototype before committing to silicon is now a key project milestone for most design teams. This paper examines some of the best practices for both successful bring-up and logic debug of ASICs using FPGA-based prototypes.

    White Paper: Reducing Switching Power with Intelligent Clock Gating

    —

    Xilinx delivers the first automated, fine-grain clock-gating solution that can reduce dynamic power by up to 30% in Virtex(r)-6, Spartan(r)-6, Kintex(tm)-7, and Virtex-7 FPGA designs. Xilinx intelligent clock-gating optimizations are automatically performed on the entire design, introduce no new tools or steps to the flow, and generate no changes to the existing logic or to the clocks that alter the behavior of the design. And, in most cases, the timing is also preserved.

    White Paper: Lowering Power at 28 nm with Xilinx 7 Series FPGAs

    —

    This white paper describes several aspects of power related to the Xilinx(r) 28 nm 7 series FPGAs, including the TSMC 28 nm high-k metal gate (HKMG), high performance, low power (28 nm HPL or 28 HPL) process choice. The power benefits afforded by the 28 HPL process and its usefulness across Xilinx's full product offerings is described as well as the architectural innovations and features for power reduction across the dimensions of static power, dynamic power, and I/O power.

    White Paper: Xilinx Redefines Power, Performance, and Design Productivity with Three Innovative 28 nm FPGA Families: Virtex-7, Kintex-7, and Artix-7 Devices

    —

    Industry dynamics are driving seemingly insatiable demand for higher bandwidth and higher system-level performance while facing more stringent mandatory requirements to reduce power consumption. At the same time, competitive pressures are forcing customers to increase productivity without sacrificing innovation and differentiation. To meet these demands, Xilinx(r) 7 series FPGAs leverage the unprecedented power, performance, and capacity enabled by TSMC's 28 nm high-k metal gate (HKMG), high performance, low power (HPL) process technology and the unparalleled scalability afforded by the FPGA industry's first unified silicon architecture to provide a comprehensive platform base for next-generation systems.

    White Paper: EtherCAT on Sitara AM335xARM Cortex-A8 Microprocessors

    —

    Texas Instruments is world's first semiconductor company to license EtherCAT technology and integrate it into the Sitara AM335x ARM generation of ARM Cortex-A8-based microprocessors (MPUs). This whitepaper explores implementation of this technology on the AM335x processor through its programmable real-time unit (PRU)-based programmable technology to create a unified front-end for industrial communications and bring EtherCAT and other industrial standards to its growing platform of ARM-based microprocessors.

    eLearning Course: Secure Coding for C/C++

    —

    Developers, learn how to create secure code. This course will teach you the essential secure coding principals for C/C++, along with the technical details of buffer overflows, and much more.

    White Paper: Integrated Circuits for Implantable Medical Devices

    —

    When considering integrated circuits for an implantable device, one must examine the entire system from the top level. Overall system-level requirements, such as functionality, performance, size, weight and power should be considered. This white paper describes the electronic features of implantable circuits and the integration of these features into silicon.

    White Paper: McAfee Embedded Control: Built-in protection for bulletproof peace of mind

    —

    Today, embedded devices are all around us–in kiosks, point-of-sale (POS) terminals, ATMs, medical equipment, and more. For far too long, however, protecting the integrity of these devices and the sensitive information they contain has been an afterthought. McAfee(r) Embedded Control enhances embedded device integrity, maximizing uptime, reducing support costs, and helping to ensure compliance throughout the lifecycle of your devices.

    White Paper: How to Boost Solar Power Inverter Reliability

    —

    Photovoltaic (PV) power systems, including solar power inverters, are expected to operate reliably and at full rated output for a minimum of 25 years, so they need highly efficient inverters that run cooler, last longer and generate cash savings for the PV system manufacturer and user. Download this white paper from Silicon Labs to find out how advanced digital isolation technologies boost solar power inverter reliability.

    White Paper: Accelerating Innovation in Automotive Engineering

    —

    The escalating volume and complexity of software in the systems and components of today's vehicles is a staggering challenge and it will only continue to grow. Software is not only an opportunity for innovation and differentiation - it is a source of risk that can broadly and deeply affect the success of the entire organization because in many ways the software defines the experience of the customer who uses the vehicle.