Embedded

Matt Godbolt (@mattgodbolt) joined us to talk about assembly code, becoming a verb, 6502s, exploring compilers, and application binary interfaces. Compiler Explorer can be found at godbolt.org. The code is on github (compiler-explorer/compiler-explorer).  Matt also has jsbeeb, a BBC Micro (6502) simulator. You can try it out at bbc.godbolt.org. Its code and more information is on github (mattgodbolt/bbc-micro-emulation). Matt recently gave a video presentation about jsbeeb for ABUG.  Some other videos that may be of interest: CppCon 2016: Jason Turner “Rich Code for Tiny Computers: A Simple Commodore 64 Game in C++17” Matt’s YouTube videos on using Compiler Explorer Just enough Assembly for Compiler Explorer - Anders Schau Knatten CppCon 2017: CB Bailey “Enough x86 Assembly to Be Dangerous” CppCon 2017: Carl Cook “When a Microsecond Is an Eternity: High Performance Trading Systems in C++” The best compiler book seems to be The Dragon Book. Hyrum’s Law on writing interfaces. Application Binary Interface (ABI)

Bailey Steinfadt (@baileysteinfadt) spoke with us about the makerspaces, communities, following many paths, and misbehaving robots. Bailey works at Dojo Five and Stone Path Engineering.  Area 515 is a non-profit maker space in the Des Moines, Iowa area. They supported their local emergency services with over 6000 face shields. If you are looking for something to do with your 3d printer, look at One Shot Bias Tape Maker and the how to use it video. Bailey recommended the Makers On Tap podcast and grill mats for soldering. Elecia recommended the You Can Do It!: The Merit Badge Handbook for Grown-Up Girls as a book she’s only picked up once in a bookstore years ago but has thought about as an excuse to pick up new skills.

Doug Harriman of Simplexity (@SimplexityPD) spoke with us about motors, controllers, and designing mechatronic systems. Simplexity (or if you want to contact them) Doug recommends Control Systems Engineering by Norman S. Nise. Elecia recommends Notes on Diffy Qs by Jiří Lebl from American Institute of Mathematics list of free and approved math textbooks. They both like the 3 Brown 1 Blue YouTube channel. If you liked the part about how to choose a motor, you might want to watch Doug’s Webinar on DC Motors & Motion Control Systems (you’ll have to give your info to see it).

Dr. Katy Huff (@katyhuff) spoke with us about nuclear engineering, effective software development, and the apropos command. Katy wrote an O’Reilly book describing Python software development to scientists: Effective Computation in Physics: Field Guide to Research with Python. She has been involved with Software Carpentry. Katy is a professor at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering. She uses Bell and Glasstone’s Nuclear Reactor Theory in her Nuclear Reactor Theory class.  Katy’s personal site Stellerator Godiva Device Janelle Shane creates the AI Weirdness blog. (She was also a guest in #275: Don’t Do What the Computer Tells You.)

Chris Svec (@christophersvec) chatted with us about going from engineer to manager and working from home.  Chris had many book recommendations (these are affiliate links): Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green (fiction) Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change by Camille Fournier Resilient Management by Lara Hogan The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering by Frederick P. Brooks Jr. Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager by Michael Lopp How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie   Chris is hiring for his team. Check out the iRobot Jobs page or look at the specific jobs he’s hiring for (in Boston, MA): Associate Software Engineer and Principal Software Engineer. Chris gave a talk to Purdue students about working from home, there is a video and a summary blog post. An interesting tweet about the difference between working from home and what people are doing now. The Canadian Federal government gave the following advice: Finally, Svec’s family wants a cat. They probably won’t get a Sphinx despite it matching all the criteria. Maybe an Abyssinian. Or maybe a dog.

Matt Godbolt (@mattgodbolt) spoke with us about settling arguments with Compiler Explorer. March Micro Madness is here! Compiler Explorer comes in different flavors: https://rust.godbolt.org/ https://d.godbolt.org/ https://go.godbolt.org/ https://gcc.godbolt.org/ You can see the beta version by putting a beta on the end:  https://gcc.godbolt.org/beta/ This a fully open source project. You can read the code and/or run your own version: https://github.com/mattgodbolt/compiler-explorer https://github.com/mattgodbolt/compiler-explorer-image Matt works at DRW working on low latency software. Note that DRW is hiring for software engineers. You can read about the evolution of Compiler Explorer on their blog. Matt’s personal blog is xania.org. You might like parts about 6502 Timings. He also has several conference talks on YouTube including x86 Internals for Fun & Profit and Emulating a 6502 in Javascript. Matt was previously at Argonaut Games. Jason Turner of C++ Weekly and his C++17 Commodore 64 Could a Neuroscientist Understand a Microprocessor? paper (with a nod to Don’t Panic GeoCast’s Fun Paper Friday)  

Kate Stewart (@_kate_stewart) of the Linux Foundation spoke with us about the Zephyr operating system (@ZephyrIoT). Some Zephyr docs: Getting Started Guide Supported boards Two projects using Zephyr: Open Artificial Pancreas System (openaps.org) Zephyr on a Hearing Aid talk at Embedded Linux Conference 2019

Christopher (@stoneymonster) and Elecia (@logicalelegance) discuss listener questions about USB, thesis projects, prototype iterations, motivation, and processor cores.  Chris has been using audiomovers.com to mix audio remotely in real time.

Daniel Situnayake (@dansitu) spoke with us about machine learning on microcontrollers. Dan is the author of TinyML: Machine Learning with TensorFlow Lite on Arduino and Ultra-Low-Power Microcontrollers. You can read the first several chapters at tinymlbook.com.  TinyML is a part of TensorFlow Lite. See the microcontroller getting started guide. Dan works for Edge Impulse (@EdgeImpulse) which is making tools for easier machine learning integration at the edge. Their tools are free and they also have a getting started guide. Dan recently posted on the Edge Impulse blog about training a TinyML model to capture lion roars. For TinyML meetups and a forum, check out tinyml.org Lacuna Space: low cost sensors transmitting to space

Erin Talvitie of Harvey Mudd College spoke with us about machine learning, hallucinating data, and making good decisions based on imperfect predictions. Paper we discussed: Self-Correcting Models for Model-Based Reinforcement Learning Erin’s grant: Using Imperfect Predictions to Make Good Decisions For a reinforcement learning book, Erin suggests Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction by Richard S. Sutton and Andrew G. Barto or the lecture series by David Silver. For a machine learning book, Elecia likes Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras, and TensorFlow: Concepts, Tools, and Techniques to Build Intelligent Systems by Aurélien Géron