Embedded Insiders

Send us a textUnitedSiC is a fabless company that designs silicon carbide (SiC) ICs. SiC technology is just starting to take off and according to this week’s Five Minutes with… guest, Chris Dries, the President and CEO of UnitedSiC, there’s very good reason for that. Hear his reasons why. And don’t go comparing to gallium nitride (GaN). http://unitedsic.com/For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textIt was recently reported that routers were being hacked, and “Officials said they had high confidence that the Russian government was behind the campaign.” https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/16/politics/russian-hackers-network-devices-alert/index.html Hmm, is that what it’s come down to now? And what does this mean to life as we know it? Before everyone gets all up in arms over the issue, the most simple solution is for people to use better/stronger passwords on their routers. But as the hackers get more sophisticated, obviously the security must also get more sophisticated. As we looked at what the real solutions are to the problem, the Embedded Insiders spoke to Steve Hanna, a Senior Principal at Infineon, and also Chair of the Embedded Systems Committee at the Trusted Computing Group (TCG). As an expert on the topic, Steve laid out what people really need to do to make themselves secure. Note that the TCG has a webcast shortly on exactly this topic, called How to Secure Network Equipment Against Att

Send us a textSoftware insecurities are badly addressed by current “best practices.” Those are the words of this week’s Five Minutes with… guest Yannick Moy, a Senior Software Engineer at AdaCore. I couldn’t let that statement pass without some explanation, so that where the discussion began. And it got very interesting after that. https://www.adacore.com/For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textSilicon Labs is just announced the acquisition of the Z-Wave assets from Sigma Designs. Did they really need another protocol, already having Bluetooth, ZigBee, and WiFi? I wondered if that sends a mixed message to engineers trying to sort through the various media. In this week’s Five Minutes with…discussion with Tyson Tuttle, Silicon Labs’ CEO, we walked through what it means for the design community and what it means for his company. https://www.silabs.com/For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textGallium nitride, better known as GaN, is a power technology that seems forever locked in a battle with Silicon carbide, aka SiC. Is that battle a real one, or is it more a fabrication? Who better to answer that question than Larry Spaziani, a vice president at GaN Systems, who was this week’s guest in our Five Minutes with…discussion. https://gansystems.com/For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textThere’s a good chance that your IoT Edge device needs to run on a battery. There’s also the possibility that it’s located someplace where you really don’t want to change that battery for a long time. That’s where Qoitech comes in. The company offers tools that help developers prolong the life of their devices. In many cases, the “mistakes” made by designers can be overcome using a tool like what’s offered by Qoitech. You can determine where you stand after listening to this week’s Five Minutes with…discussion with Vanja Samuelsson, Qoitech’s Founder. https://www.qoitech.com/For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textEmbedded Insiders – Episode #42 – Into the Wind by Embedded Computing DesignFor more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textTwo organizations that are involved in specifications that align with the IoT have merged—IPSO and the Open Mobile Alliance. What does that mean and what effect will it have on developers going forward? Those are the first of lots of questions I asked on the General Manger of the new organization, Seth Newberry, in this week’s Five Minutes with…discussion. https://www.omaspecworks.org/For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textAcquisitions in our space are nothing new. But in many cases, they deserve a little explanation. Simply, “Why did you make this acquisition, and how does the new company fit in with the old company?” That’s what I found myself asking in this week’s Five Minutes with…discussion with Stefan Skarin, the CEO of IAR Systems. The news from IAR is that they acquired a 100% stake in Secure Thingz, a provider of advanced security solutions for embedded and IoT systems. https://www.iar.com/For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textPICMG has been around for quite some time, nearly 25 years. If you’re not familiar, PICMG, or the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group, is a non-profit organization who charter is to promote various industrial architectures and maintain the specifications for these standards. Is such a group required, and is PICMG relevant? Those are the questions I asked of Jessica Isquith, PICMG’s President, to this week’s Five Minutes with…discussion. https://www.picmg.orgFor more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textArtificial intelligence, aka AI, means different things to different people, mostly dependent on the application/market they find themselves. In the embedded and industrial industries, it has the potential to be a very important tool, and many vendors are working toward such a goal. One of those vendors is MediaTek, and they are developing devices that can enhance AI or machine learning at the Edge. In this week’s Five Minutes with…discussion with Finbarr Moynihan, General Manager of MediaTek, I discussed the differences between AI and machine learning and what it means for Edge computing. https://www.mediatek.com/For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textRich Nass, one half of the Embedded Insiders, returned from the Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC) last week. There, he was surprised to learn that semiconductor companies are no longer evaluating digital power or Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) power MOSFETs. They are actually already on their second and third generation of products. Tune in for more.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textSome sectors of our industry change faster than others. But the connector industry? I think you might be surprised to learn what's happened in that space, as I was. These revelations come from Doug Snader, the International Business Director for SV Microwave in this week's Five Minutes with…discussion. https://www.svmicrowave.com/For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textOTA, or over-the-air updates, are becoming popular in the automotive space. They serve as a simple way for auto makers to update their vehicles without requiring the car owner to bring the car in to the shop. Taking that technology to the next step is to employ a bidirectional OTA medium. That technology is closer than you might think, according to Mark Singer, a Director at Excelfore, who was the interviewee in this week's Five Minutes with…discussion. https://excelfore.com/For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textThe Insiders, one way or another, have made it back from Embedded World 2018. This year's show was the busiest either have attended, and but lacked any consistent theme. Tune in to find out what they experienced at the event, as well as their take on more recent merger and acquisition (M&A) activity.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textMany MCU vendors tout their low-power devices. Ambiq Micro takes it to another level, using what the company calls subthreshold technology. Wearables is a great place to embed such technology, but that's only the beginning. In this week's Five Minutes with…discussion, Scott Hanson, the Founder and current CTO of Ambiq explains how the technology works and what kind of future we can expect. http://ambiqmicro.com/For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textMachine learning is one of the hottest topics in our industry. If implemented correctly, it can be used in a host of applications, particularly those related to the Industrial IoT. And there are few vendors who aren't trying to get a piece of this puzzle. One of those vendors is Lattice Semiconductor. In this week's Five Minutes with…discussion, I spoke to Glen Hawk, Lattice's Chief Operating Officer. He set the stage nicely, explaining the potential of machine learning and what it means to Lattice. http://www.latticesemi.com/For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textBelieve it or not, Embedded World is just around the corner. The Insiders' show schedules are already full of meetings with tech vendors who will demonstrate their latest wares, but what are those? Tune in as the Insiders speculate as to what technologies and trends will headline Embedded World 2018.For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textComing off the heels of CES, it was clear that home automation is a hot topic. One vendor making waves in that space (pun intended) is EnOcean. The company is behind the technology that provides for self-powered IoT devices, including sensors, switches, etc. It's a very cool technology, one that was worthy of delving into, which is exactly what I did with my Five Minutes with…discussion with Troy Davis, a Director at EnOcean. https://www.enocean.com/en/For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com

Send us a textSecurity is at the forefront of all IoT design. Or is it? I'm hearing too often that security is employed when it makes fiscal sense to do so, and not on just about every design, which is how it should be. This was the heart of the conversation I had with Rod Schultz, who is the Chief Product Officer for Rubicon Labs in this week's Five Minutes with…discussion. https://www.rubiconlabs.io/For more information, visit embeddedcomputing.com