StrangeCPU #1. A new CPU
Summary: In this multi-part series I will share with you a design, implementation notes and code for a slightly different kind of a CPU featuring a novel token machine that resolves an 8-bit token to pretty much any address in a 32-bit or even...
Elliptic Curve Cryptography - Key Exchange and Signatures
Elliptic curve mathematics over finite fields helps solve the problem of exchanging secret keys for encrypted messages as well as proving a specific person signed a particular document. This article goes over simple algorithms for key exchange and digital signature using elliptic curve mathematics. These methods are the essence of elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) used in applications such as SSH, TLS and HTTPS.
In TCL FPGA Wizards Trust
In TCL FPGA wizards trust. The best way to learn TCL is exposure therapy which we will be doing here using two examples: One for creation of a project with synthesis and implementation steps and another for simulation.
Basler pylon on Raspberry Pi with Yocto
Camera vendors are increasing offering Yocto layers to simplify the integration of drivers and the creation of cross-compilation environments. This article demonstrates how Yocto can be used to integrate Basler pylon into a Raspberry Pi Linux...
A design non-methodology
Although writing an RTOS or kernel may be an interesting project, it is unlikely to be a wise course of action.
Getting Started With Zephyr: Writing Data to EEPROM
In this blog post, I show how to implement a Zephyr application to interact with EEPROM. I show how the Zephyr device driver model allows application writers to be free of the underlying implementation details. Unfortunately, the application didn't work as expected, and I'm still troubleshooting the cause.
Important Programming Concepts (Even on Embedded Systems) Part I: Idempotence
There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of subtle concepts that contribute to high quality software design. Many of them are well-known, and can be found in books or the Internet. I’m going to highlight a few of the ones I think...
VHDL tutorial - A practical example - part 2 - VHDL coding
[quicklinks]In part 1 of this series we focused on the hardware design, including some of the VHDL definitions of the I/O characteristics of the CPLD part. In part 2, we will describe the VHDL logic of the CPLD for this design. With...
Ten Little Algorithms, Part 7: Continued Fraction Approximation
In this article we explore the use of continued fractions to approximate any particular real number, with practical applications.
Embedded Systems Co-design for Object Recognition: A Synergistic Approach
Embedded systems co-design for object recognition is essential for real-time image analysis and environmental sensing across various sectors. This methodology harmonizes hardware and software to optimize efficiency and performance. It relies on hardware accelerators, customized neural network architectures, memory hierarchy optimization, and power management to achieve benefits like enhanced performance, lower latency, energy efficiency, real-time responsiveness, and resource optimization. While challenges exist, co-designed systems find applications in consumer electronics, smart cameras, industrial automation, healthcare, and autonomous vehicles, revolutionizing these industries. As technology advances, co-design will continue to shape the future of intelligent embedded systems, making the world safer and more efficient.
Absolute Beginner's Guide To Getting Started With Raspberry Pi
The Raspberry Pi is a great little computer for learning programming in general, as well as embedded systems. It runs a version of the Linux OS (Operating System) called Raspberry Pi OS (formerly called Raspbian, so you'll see that name a lot,...
Make Hardware Great Again
By now you're aware of the collective angst in the US about 5G. Why is the US not a leader in 5G ? Could that also happen -- indeed, is it happening -- in AI ? If we lead in other areas, why not 5G ? What makes it so hard ? This...
Tolerance Analysis
Today we’re going to talk about tolerance analysis. This is a topic that I have danced around in several previous articles, but never really touched upon in its own right. The closest I’ve come is Margin Call, where I discussed...
Scorchers, Part 2: Unknown Bugs and Popcorn
This is a short article about diminishing returns in the context of software releases. Those of you who have been working professionally on software or firmware have probably faced this dilemma before. The scrum masters of the world will...
So You Want To Be An Embedded Systems Developer
Then listen now to what I say. Just get an electric guitar and take some time and learn how to play. Oh, wait, that's a song by the Byrds. But the strategy is the same. Get some information and tools and learn how to use them. No need to...
Shibboleths: The Perils of Voiceless Sibilant Fricatives, Idiot Lights, and Other Binary-Outcome Tests
Embedded Programming Video Course Shows How OOP Works Under the Hood
If you'd like to understand how Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) really works under the hood, here is a free video course for you: OOP part-1: Encapsulation: This first lesson on Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) introduces the concept of...
Mutex vs. Semaphores – Part 2: The Mutex & Mutual Exclusion Problems
Part 1 of this series we looked at the history of the binary and counting semaphore, and then went on to discuss some of the associated problem areas. In this posting I aim to show how a different RTOS construct, the mutex, may overcome some, if...
Introduction to PIC Timers
The fourth in a series of five posts looks at 8-bit PIC hardware timers. After a review of basic timer functionality, the Timer0 module operation and configuration is reviewed and a basic application implemented using Timer0 to blink external LEDs at a frequency of 0.5Hz.
Linear Feedback Shift Registers for the Uninitiated, Part XIII: System Identification
Linear Feedback Shift Registers for the Uninitiated, Part V: Difficult Discrete Logarithms and Pollard's Kangaroo Method
Linear Feedback Shift Registers for the Uninitiated, Part III: Multiplicative Inverse, and Blankinship's Algorithm
Getting Started With CUDA C on an Nvidia Jetson: GPU Architecture
In the previous blog post (Getting Started With CUDA C on Jetson Nvidia: Hello CUDA World!) I showed how to develop applications targeted at a GPU on a Nvidia Jetson Nano. As we observed in that blog post, performing a calculation on a 1-D array on a GPU had no performance benefit compared to a traditional CPU implementation, even on an array with many elements. In this blog post, we will learn about the GPU architecture to better explain the behavior and to understand the applications where a GPU shines (hint: it has to do with graphics).
Understanding Microchip 8-bit PIC Configuration
The second post of a five part series picks up getting started developing with Microchip 8-bit PIC Microcontroller by examining the how and why of processor configuration. Topics discussed include selecting the oscillator to use during processor startup and refining the configuration once the application starts. A walk through of the code generated by the Microchip IDE provides a concrete example of the specific Configuration Word and SFR values needed to configure the project specific clock configuration.
