On Target: Embedded Systems

Embedded Bits and Bytes – In case you missed these announcements from the last several weeks...

AdaCore, a supplier of Ada development tools and support services, announced a merger with SofCheck, Inc., a Lexington, Massachusetts-based automated software quality (ASQ) company. http://www.adacore.com/2012/01/10/adacore-sofcheck-merge/ Atego™, a software tools and professional services supplier, for complex, mission- and safety-critical systems and software engineering announced that it has secured an additional, multi-million dollar equity investment. http://www.atego.com/pressreleases/pressitem/atego-secures-major-multi-million-dollar-equity-investment Cavium, Inc. announced a technology and marketing collaboration with Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) to offer Intel® WiDi-based products designed to enable superior wireless display consumer experience. http://www.cavium.com/newsevents_Cavium_Collaborate_Intel.html Coverity announced record growth in the first quarter of fiscal year 2012, achieving the highest Q1 bookings, revenues and new... Read more →

Ditch the Dictionary, “Spell Check” Your Way Through Source Code Analysis

Anyone still keep a dictionary and thesaurus next to your writing station? If you’re like me, the computer is where you write and automated spell checking in email and word processing programs have long since relegated these once essential writing tools to dust collecting duty on a bookshelf. Klocwork, a leading supplier of embedded automated test & verification tools, is bringing the spell checker usability model to source code analysis (SCA). The company’s newest release of their main product, Klocwork Insight 9.5, provides C/C++ developers with “On-the-fly” analysis. By underlining security and critical defects in code as it is written,... Read more →

Part II: Will Android Erode the Software Development Tool Market?

In case you missed it, click here Part I of our analysis. Over recent years, the commercial software development tool market has faced a number of pressures, which – to one degree or another – have eroded the commercial market’s growth potential. Whether you look at the continued evolution of open source tools or just the growing tendency of both OS vendors and silicon suppliers to bundle (or even give away) toolkits with their flagship products, traditional standalone software development tool (SDT) vendors are facing a growing set of obstacles. Given this already challenging set of circumstances, can the increasing... Read more →

Will Android Erode the Software Development Tool Market? - Part I

ARM recently announced a free toolkit (ARM Development Studio 5 Community Edition) for the Android application developer community. At a high level, you might be thinking, “so what, aren’t there already a number of free Android app tool kits available?” And, to a certain extent, you wouldn’t be wrong…until you start to consider the “so what” part. For one, make no mistake about it – This is not your run-of-the-mill open source toolkit; ARM is in the business of delivering premium tools. In fact, they have an entire division with P&L responsibilities focused on it. This new toolkit supposedly can... Read more →

Can the Use of Multicore Processors Really Double in Two Years?

Or will the same old challenges continue to impede the adoption of this technology? In recent years, as embedded systems – and the software within them – have become increasingly complex, the emergence and adoption of multicore processors in the embedded space has been a trend closely followed by industry participants. Thus far the transition to multicore has been a slow one, with only 16% of engineers responding to VDC’s 2011 Embedded Engineering Survey indicating they were currently working on a project that incorporated a multicore processor. Looking forward two years, however, engineers expect that ratio to more than double.... Read more →

Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) – Boston 2011

VDC attended the 2011 Embedded Systems Conference in Boston on September 27 and 28 and held face-to-face meetings at the conference with over 20 exhibitors. This year’s ESC included greater than 100 exhibitors and was part of what UBM Electronics called Design Days Boston. Design Days Boston featured four events including ESC as part of one show including DesignMED North America, DesignCon East, and designing with LEDs. These four programs span a wide range of technologies and interests and were supported by numerous technical sessions. Conference organizers reported at the show that registration was up 10-15% year over year. During... Read more →

What Do Engineers Prefer for a Host Development Platform?

Every year VDC conducts an extensive worldwide survey of embedded engineers and their development projects to better understand engineering requirements, preferences, and trends. This information is available from VDC in unique cross tabbed reports to offer readers a detailed, in-depth, view of engineers in the development project trenches. Engineers use numerous tool types in their development projects. Tools range from compilers, debuggers, editors and build tools to software and system lifecycle management tools such as automated test and verification, modeling, and virtual prototyping tools. Some of the factors most important in the selection of tools include price/cost, technical capabilities, ease... Read more →

AVAILABLE NOW - VDC RELEASES EMBEDDED ENGINEERING SURVEY DATA FOR 2011

The 2011 engineering survey data reports provide insight into the behavior, opinions, and demographics of embedded engineers, the degree to which embedded system engineering tasks are converging, and key system engineering trends likely to impact embedded systems manufacturers and solution providers over the short and long term. This survey data is based on detailed Web survey responses collected worldwide in the March to July 2011timeframe and offers an understanding about the dynamics of the embedded market as they relate to current and future product development trends. This detailed data provides access to VDC’s extensive knowledge of the embedded engineering community... Read more →

Happy 64th Birthday to the Bug – the First Computer Bug that is!

I was perusing the web earlier today and found this piece of computer trivia. Yes, the first computer “bug” was identified 64 years ago today and logged by Grace Hopper working on the Harvard University Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator. I had the pleasure of meeting Captain (at that time) Hopper, in what seemed like the bowels of the Pentagon, many years ago when I was working for Honeywell’s Federal Systems Division, C3I Programs group. She was a fascinating individual full of knowledge, energy and optimism. My topic of discussion that day was the COBOL programming language. Yes, COBOL. Getting... Read more →

ESC Boston is This Month - Still Time to Register and Meet with VDC

The Embedded Systems Conference will be held this month (September 26th-29th) at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. VDC will be attending the conference once again this year and will be presenting our 7th annual Embeddy Awards for Best in Show live at the conference. The winners will be announced live ahead of Wednesday's morning keynote session. So how can your company win the Embeddy award? To be considered, you must schedule a meeting with VDC to discuss the announcement that you are making at the show. You can arrange a meeting time with VDC by doing one of the... Read more →