Embedded Executive Podcast

AI should be performed at the Edge whenever possible, according to Yasser Khan,  CEO and Co-Founder of MicroAI. But there seems to be just as many reasons to do it in the Cloud. This is where the back-and-forth began in this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

There are many applications that require real-time interactions. Automotive certainly fits into that category. But the term “real time” is bothersome to me, as it’s not something that’s achievable. We can get “near real time,” but that’s about as good as it gets. But is that good enough? That’s the question I asked Heather Gorr,  Senior Product Marketing Manager for the MATLAB product at Mathworks, in this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

EVs can be confusing from a “what voltage does it run at” perspective. We have the 12-V lead-acid batteries that have been around for decades. But there are many new sizes, types, chemistries, and voltages. According to Patrick Kowalyk, a North American Automotive Principal Field Applications Engineer for Vicor, the way in which we deliver power within the automobile needs to change. To hear exactly how, tune in to this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

When designing your embedded system, the storage subsystem is not always at the top of the priority list. Depending on your system, that may be okay. But if you’re designing for automotive applications, that’s one way to get yourself in hot water. In this week’s Embedded Executives podcast, I talked to Robert Bielby, Micron’s Senior Director of Automotive System Architecture, to understand why the memory subsystem needs to move up the list, potentially way up.

We say it all the time: you are going to get hacked! The most important factor at this point is to minimize the damage when the inevitable occurs. If cybersecurity is not one of your top design priorities, you need to adjust your list. That said, this week’s Embedded Executives podcast guest is Alan Grau, the Vice President of Business Development for PQShield. Alan explains the pretty simple terms of what happens when an attack occurs and why it may be happening. Note that Alan is also a speaker at this year’s IoT Device Security Conference, talking place on Nov. 9 (and available any time after that). Lots of good talks, all looking at different aspects of IoT Device security, including the automotive, and industrial and consumer applications.

The IIC, formerly known as the Industrial Internet Consortium, has a new name. They’re still the IIC, but now the acronym stands for Industry IoT Consortium. You may be surprised why they made the change; I know that I was.  IIC’s Chief Technology Officer, Stephan Mellor, has the answer in this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

Low-end AI might be an oxymoron, because it’s hard to associate anything to do with AI as being low-end. But with AI evolving so rapidly, there really can be a case made for lower-end AI with machine vision. To understand what that means, what products fit that category, and most importantly, how it effects today’s embedded developers, check out this week’s Embedded Executives podcast with Donato Montanari, the Vice President and General Manager of Machine Vision at Zebra Technologies.

ISI, or Interconnect Systems International, was acquired by Molex in the recent past. The company is in the manufacturing space, particularly in terms of packaging, at both the chip and board levels. That puts the company in an interesting position when it comes to the chip shortage, as the company’s engineers have the ability to help customers redesign the boards to accommodate for different parts to replace those that simply are not available. To that end, I spoke with Tom Casey, a Vice president at ISI to hear how that’s working out. Check out this week’s Embedded Executives podcast to hear Tom’s thoughts.

If you could operate WiFi at the power levels typically associated with Bluetooth, do you really need Bluetooth anymore? I would think not, because WiFi offers so much more functionality, particularly the longer range. However, as this is usually the case, the answer is, “not so fast.” I asked that question (and many more) of Rob McCormick, a Director at InnoPhase, a company that specializes in low-power WiFi. He set me straight—for now. Check out this week’s Embedded Executives podcast to hear why.

Testing for physical interfaces, especially in the automotive space, can be quite challenging. It’s a harsh environment for starters, but there are other issues to contend with as well. I went through those issues, and how to deal with them with Mike Schnecker, a Business Development Manager for Rohde & Schwarz in this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.