Embedded Systems Design - July 2008 - (Page 46)

break points ist, saving their employers money and emissions curtailed, and, of course, speeding the product to market. good jobs created for the 500,000 of us? IN PRINT We’re an odd and almost invisible Many EEs get a dozen magazines a breed. Mention computer and the avmonth, most free, all containing valuerage person thinks of a PC. Yet of the able information. No one can consissix billion processors made every year, tently, month after month, read all only 250 million go to the desktop that material, so the typical engineer market. The rest are for embedded ﬂips through the publications, persystems. Tell your neighbor you’re a haps noting an article or two of intercomputer designer, and he’ll immediest to read later. The ads get as much ately target you forever for answers attention as editorial content. “Hey, about his problems with spreadsheet check out this cool DSP from TI!” Almacros and sporadic system crashes. though you may not need that today, Embedded? Hey, is that why my car you’re building a wetware database, a goes 100,000 miles between tune-ups? ﬁle in your brain that’s every bit as Ah, my new refrigerator uses half the useful and important as the most exenergy of the older one . . . you mean tensive link site on the ‘net. A year latthere’s a computer in there that maner, when a colleague ages temperature conasks about available trol, cuts my expensive Only by reading the ads can we electrical bill, and so keep up with commercial product offerings DSPs, you may respond, “Gee, I dunno, helps me send the kids that may help or even save a future project. but something makes through college? me think TI does this. Check them out.” ware-centric focus to projects. AlRESOURCE HUNTERS Even as far back as 1890, The though embedded systems are the We embedded systems folks include Electrical Engineer was a weekly publast place where hardware and softquite a disparate range of people, lication engineers read to stay on top ware intertwine to form a uniﬁed with skill sets that range widely. In of the latest technology. Obviously, whole, there’s quite a gulf between the early days of the business, all dethe headlines didn’t scream about the people developing each compovelopers were EEs, who both decool new FPGAs; “breaking news” nent. The circuit design of systems in signed the hardware and wrote all of back then included exciting coverage many cases is becoming more comthe code. Most worked in isolation; of new forms of wire insulation. But plex despite an ever-increasing suite few projects required more than a for 100+ years, there’s been an EE of tools and off-the-shelf chips. In couple of people. The high cost of tradition of keeping up, noting remany cases, hardware engineering memory at the time had a self-limitnow looks a lot like software develop- sources, and ﬁnding useful commering effect on program size: 4 kbytes cial products. ment as the EEs struggle with VHDL of code could easily be written by a This tradition is much less comequations and even SystemC code single engineer in very little time. mon in the software world, particularthat compiles to a hardware descripMoore’s Law drove, and continly for ﬁrmware. After all, this is a very tion language. ues to drive, the price of transistors new business. The one publication But one characteristic that both practically to zero, so the limits to targeted speciﬁcally at the industry— disciplines combine is a continuous program size have largely disapEmbedded Systems Design—is but two search for new tools to accelerate depeared. Systems with over a million decades old. Its subscribers include velopment, new ideas, time-saving lines of code are not uncommon toonly 10% of the engineers working in products, and canned solutions to day. This technological change has the ﬁeld, so clearly a lot of people common problems. Wise developers created a corresponding one in us; aren’t tuned into new developments. are resource hunters. now more and more developers have It’s our responsibility to keep up Engineering is the art of solving little to do with the hardware. Quite a and to pursue new sources of inforproblems, not producing products. few EEs leave college and embark in mation as aggressively as we build Products result from our problemcareers in ﬁrmware. products. This publication and its solving. Engineering doesn’t demand Computer engineers, who have online version are the world’s most we invent everything. The most efﬁless exposure to the intricacies of complete collection of embedded syselectronic design, and pure computer cient engineers are those who seek out and use solutions that already ex- tems resources extant, both in the ads scientists both bring more of a soft- 46 JULY 2008 | embedded systems design | www.embedded.com http://www.embedded.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Embedded Systems Design - July 2008

Embedded Systems Design - July 2008 Contents #Include Parity Bit Programming Pointers Interactive C-code Cleaning Tool Supports Multiprocessor SoC Design Building a Power Supply for Discontinuous Transmission Wireless Networks An Exception Primer Advertising Index Break Points Marketplace

Embedded Systems Design - July 2008

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