Mastering Embedded Systems

Baurzhan Ismagulov Tech Chat: Virtualization in Embedded Systems with Baurzhan Ismagulov and Alexander Smirnov Today we’re talking about virtualization in Embedded Systems. This is particularly different from host-based virtualization. For that reason I wanted to welcome major experts in this special area: Baurzhan Ismagulov and Alexander Smirnov from Ilbers – Technology for better life. Ilbers provides Mango – a bare-metal Type 1 hypervisor. If you do not understand a word what this means – jump back to the previous episode #33 of the MES-podcast Combining the Uncombinable and fill up your missing knowledge. Mango was nominated for the Embedded Award 2015 at the Embedded World exhibition in Nuremberg. They have created a great piece of software which will provide a lot of benefit into embedded projects. Alexander Smirnov Already at the Embedded World I have had an amazing talk at their booth. But how much more deeper do we get into our todays tech-chat. We’re tackling the main use cases for using virtualization: combination and isolation. We’re discussing the main feature of Mango, as there are: static partitioning, bounded latency, no scheduler and a marvellous small footprint. And we come up with the general pros and cons of virtualization in embedded systems. For the latter have a look at Alexander’s talk at the Embedded Conference Scandinavia last year. For all the ones out there who believe in doing things by themselves. Here’s the deal: Ilbers provides a Mango-demonstrator for the BananaPI. Just study their Getting Started Manual and give it a try. But first, stay with me and enjoy the chat. Essential Answers Provided In This Episode For: What are typical use-cases for Mango? What kind of hardware is supported by Mango? How does Mango intercept the performance of the guest operating system? What’s the interdependency between Mango and the processor’s caches? What are the benefits of using Mango? What are the differences to other virtualization solutions? How can I get as BananaPi-based demonstrator? What are the pros and cons of virtualization in Embedded Systems? And much much more. Selected Links and Resources From This Episode Ilbers – Technology for better life Ilbers – Portfolio Mango – The Embedded Systems Hypervisor Mango – Github Baurzhan Ismagulov at LinkedIn Alexander Smirnov at LinkedIn Embedded Conference Scandinavia Embedded Conference Scandinavia program 2015 The Embedded World Award Embedded World 2016 Thank You For Listening Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com The post Tech Chat: Virtualization in Embedded Systems – MES034 appeared first on Embedded Success.

Virtualization – Combining the Uncombinable – MES033 Today’s episode is an introduction episode. It’s introducing into the topic of the next episode. We’ve tackling the big topic of Virtualization. Virtualizing is in. Everybody, everythings seems to be in some way virtualized. But what does it really mean? At least in the context of IT it definitely means something different as in day-by-day usage. In this episode I’ll give you the big overview and dive a little bit into some details. Details you should know when talking about virtualization on computer-systems. Stay tuned and be inspired. Essential Answers Provided In This Episode For: What does Virtualization mean? When does it all has started? What are the 5 types of virtualization? What does virtualizing of hardware mean? Why should you have virtualized systems? What’s Operating System Virtualization? What are the differences between paravirtualisation and hardware emulation? What’s a type 1 hypervisor? And what a type 2? When get hypervisors beneficial in embedded systems? And much much more. Selected Links and Resources From This Episode History and reasons Technologies in use Understanding Hardware assisting in virtualizing Thank You For Listening Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com The post Virtualization – Combining the Uncombinable – MES033 appeared first on Embedded Success.

Deadline Pressure – Seven artful ways to beat it – MES032 Today I wanted to talk about deadline pressure. Everybody of us might have some experience with these special working conditions. There’s a deadline – and you have to achieve it. In this episode I will the first time take some parts out of one of my favourite books. The first book I ever bought about “Software Engineering”. Written by Tom Gilb in 1988. It’s not named Agile or Lean, but the idea is the same. He named it “Evolutionary Delivery”. And there’s one chapter inside about Deadline Pressure. I want to use this episode to present you some really interestic principles and ideas how to beat deadline pressure. Some of you might be complaining that they are not ethical or not following your personal policies. No problem, then simply take them as aphorisms you can use to bias your thinking. Especially when you undergo deadline pressure you will grab for every straw and perhaps you will be very thankful remember that there was this episode. If it gives you an escape – sometimes the End justifies the Means. Stay tuned and be inspired. Essential Answers Provided In This Episode For: What’s the problem with deadline pressure? Who’s involved into deadline pressure? How’s the project manager’s manager affected? How’s the project manager affected? How’s the project professional affected? How’s the customer or user affected? What are the solutions to beat deadline pressure? And much much more. Selected Links and Resources From This Episode Tom Gilb – Principles of Software Engineering Management Thank You For Listening Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com The post Deadline Pressure – Seven artful ways to beat it – MES032 appeared first on Embedded Success.

Tech Chat: From SingleCore to MultiCore with Jeronimo Castrillon-Mazo Today it’s up to Jeronimo Castrillon-Mazo. We got acquainted at the Embedded World 2016 in Nuremberg. He is co-founder and adviser at Silexica. They have won the Embedded Award 2015 in the  Tools-category for SLX MultiCore Toolsuite. That drives me to visit their booth. Having an amazing talk I asked Jeronimo to appear in this podcast. Let’s have some tech-chat, widen the topic and enlarge the audience for this interesting topic. Jeronimo has studied Electrical Engineering in Colombia, achieved his Master-degree at ALaRI-institute in Lugano, Switzerland. He has made his Ph.D. 2013 at the well known RWTH Aachen. In 2014 Jeronimo joined the department of computer science of the TU Dresden as professor for compiler construction. He has a proven track record of multi- and many-core programming. Moreover he is known as specialist within the realm of automatic code generation. Nowadays we have tons of single-core based legacy code. In parallel multicore hardware platforms have overtaken. Usually software for multicore needs to be designed manually. What might happen if the amount of cores still increases in future? How shall we handle existing code bases? Migrate all of them manually? Or might there be automatica ways to move towards multicore structures? And how can we improve software design for multicore deployment? For all of that the SLX MultiCore Toolsuite’s solutions will support. We’re discussing the benefits a tool has instead of redesigning code manually for multicore systems. We dive into the models and operations necessary to paralellize existing code. We identify user-stories and we mention tricky pitfalls. Jeronimo unveils details of automatic code-analysis and problems solved to provide a tool like SLX MultiCore. Stay with me and enjoy the chat. Essential Answers Provided In This Episode For: What stands the SLX Multicore Toolsuite stands for? When does the attempt to parallelize do not make much sense? What kind of applications and languages are supported by SLX? Who are the 3 different kind of users? What different models are in use to support our migration from single- to multi-core? How do we handle and prevent race-conditions? How does Silexica prevent resource bottlenecks created by parallelism? What are the general benefits of using a tool like SLX? And much much more. Selected Links and Resources From This Episode SLX MultiCore Toolsuite Silexica at LinkedIn Silexica at Twitter Silexica at Facebook Jeronimo at LinkedIn The Embedded World Award Embedded World 2016 Thank You For Listening Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com The post Tech Chat: From SingleCore to MultiCore with Jeronimo Castrillon-Mazo – MES031 appeared first on Embedded Success.

The year starts with the Embedded World – MES030 The business year starts with the Embedded World! According to a  former colleague of mine it does. He has aligned his whole business activities around this exhibition. And it seems there are a lot others who are doing the same. From their perspective the Embedded World should not be underestimated. I was visiting Nuremberg at Tuesday, the first day of the Embedded World. My main intention was to feel the course, the track, like a compass needle. Where’s the market tending to go? What are new ideas, new products? What are the manufacturers doing? Are there any trends at all? And I also wanted to reach out for interesting podcast topics. I have prepared myself by scrutinizing through the Embedded World catalogue. Also the Embedded World Award nominees and winners of 2015 and 2016 are on my bucket list. I’ve visited them all. Some of them are of real interest. And I will try to achieve an interview with them. This episode is for all of you who haven’t had the chance to visit the Embedded World. I wanted to introduce you for a virtual walk. Join with me some interesting booths and see the big players. I will give you my impressions from the Embedded World 2016. Stay tuned and be inspired. Essential Answers Provided In This Episode For: Who of the big players were available? What were the trends in Software and Hardware? What has thrilled me? Where there any smart solutions? What role does IoT play this year? How do the manufacturers cover IoT? And much much more. Selected Links and Resources From This Episode Mr. Bug-Hunter – Bero Brekalo The Embedded-World Award 2016 The Embedded-World Award Mango – Bare Metal HyperVisor for Embedded Systems Thank You For Listening Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com The post The year starts with the Embedded World – MES030 appeared first on Embedded Success.

Find root causes with the Enhanced Cause-Effect approach In the first two sessions about root-cause-analysis I have introduced the 5-Whys and the Ishikawa techniques. Both have their pros and cons. For a long time I was looking for a better way to provide root cause analysis. More sophisticated than the 5-Whys, but not that compilicated and elaborate as the Ishikawa. And hereby I came across with an enhanced version of the regular Cause-Effect approach. It’s again a graphical approach which combines simplicity and logic. It’s especially useful for situations in which multiple goals are affected. The way to evaluate root-causes using the enhanced cause-effect is my preferred way. And that’s due to two reasons. First, it’s rather progressive and can be driven alone or in groups. You achieve quick results without spending too much effort into nasty categorizations or simplifications. Second, in it’s final stage provided as a diagram, it can be quickly and fully understood. You do not need verbose explanations how to read it or why some things have been dropped. Stay tuned and be inspired. Essential Answers Provided In This Episode For: What are the major drawbacks of 5-Whys and the Ishikawa? When to use the Cause-Effect approach? How to do the Enhanced Cause-Effect RCA? What are the goals of the affected situation or item? How to determine the causes which impact the goals? Why is it essential accumulate all causes and not only the preferred ones? Where to use the AND clause for combined causes? Why do even nitpicking details need to be mentioned? And much much more. Selected Links and Resources From This Episode Boeing 777 Wing Break Test; Sorry, I haven’t found the video of the Airbus 380, but the 777 gives the same show. ThinkReliability The Titanic RCA by ThinkReliability Embedded World 2016 in Nuremberg Thank You For Listening Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com The post Find root causes with the Enhanced Cause-Effect approach – MES029 appeared first on Embedded Success.

Boost your Logging Embedded Systems without logging is a pain. But with logging it’s very often a desaster, too. I wanted to present you my thoughts how to improve logging. It’s not for the super experts knowing everything and every detail of your system by heart. But it’s for all the regular engineers out there who are facing a failing system. A system providing either nothing or an awful lot of superfluous information. What if you would introduce an indicator describing the system’s healthiness. Something what would highlight an immediate status of the system: healthy or unhealthy. Stable or unstable. Reliable or doomed. The system-healthiness indicator needs much effort before you can use it. But it will be a walk in the park afterwards. No longer fears of uncommon errors. No longer daylong investigation to find the failing parts in your system. Stay tuned and be inspired. Essential Answers Provided In This Episode For: Why is it logging that difficult in Embedded Systems? What is the intention of logging? How’s logging regularly done? Why is it dangerous to let SW-developers simply print out their algorithm’s result? How to make logging easier to find problems faster? What does system healthiness mean? Example: How to determine a healthy startup? How to implement System Healthiness for logging? What are the benefits of the healthiness approach? How to use Fourier Transformation in logging analysis? What are the prerequisites of using a healthiness indication? And much much more. Thank You For Listening Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com The post Boost your Logging – MES028 appeared first on Embedded Success.

Engineers’ Talk: Riding Jenkins with Oleg Nenashev Today I’m happy to introduce another presenter of the Embedded Testing conference in Munich. I got acquainted with Oleg Nenashev already in the first minutes of the conference. We’re sitting aside of each other. He was working for his Jenkins presentation. Oleg is a 27 year old engineer from St. Petersburg in Russia. Although he has started as a hardware-engineer he’s mainly engaged on the software side. With his presentation Integrating Jenkins with verification flows of Embedded Systems he has introduced himself as a continuous integration specialist. He’s currently working for CloudBees in Neufchâtel in Switzerland. Oleg has become responsible for testing hardware in an automatized way already in 2008. He get in touch with it from the very beginning. Later he provided several plugins before he gots elected as core-developer. Meanwhile we have more than 1000 plugins. And it has undergone a redefinition from a pure Continuous-Integration tool towards a more general, more framework like automation server. The time we recorded this interview Oleg stayed in St. Petersburg. He has just finished his PhD-thesis and was in a quite relaxed mood. In our discussion we’re highlighting the way of development. We stress the chances and challenges. Why someone should use it. And the struggles you might run into. We also talk about the newest changes in its self-understanding. And Oleg provides an outview what we can expect from the next major release. The next version will cover mainly architectural needs, especially from User-Interface-perspective, which have been recognized and accumulated during the last years Stay with me and enjoy the interview. Essential Answers Provided In This Episode For: What is Jenkins and what is it designed for? What is the base for its prosperity during the last years? Where are the major misunderstandings in using CI? How could critical challenges be managed? Why will Jenkins be renewed this year? When will companies fail in using CI? What are 3 important things one should take care for when using CI? And much much more. Selected Links and Resources From This Episode Oleg on Twitter Oleg on LinkedIn Oleg’s github repository CloudBees website CloudBees Jenkins Platform Oleg’s presentation at Jenkins User Conference in London 2015 The Jenkins website Who is Mr. Jenkins? Presentation at St. Petersburg Jenkins Meetup 2015 Jenkins developer Google group Jenkins Area Meetup – how to get involved into Jenkins meetup Thank You For Listening Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com The post Engineers’ Talk: Riding Jenkins with Oleg Nenashev – MES027 appeared first on Embedded Success.

Wanted! Podcast Name Hi fellows, I wanted to welcome you in 2016. Hopefully you have survived all the holiday stress, the good food, the sometimes stressful family gatherings. And perhaps you have also taken your New Year’s resolutions into mind and into heart. I have done my homework – not fully, but most part of it. 25 episodes done; half of a year. Time for making a review. What has gone fine? What has gone wrong? Where is the direction? What was the feedback? Am I still on course? These questions came into my mind during the last two weeks. Today’s episode is about all that. And about the next steps of this podcast. About its future and the direction. About details and then big picture. Stay with me and see what’s in for you. Essential Answers Provided In This Episode For: What do the statistics say about the MES-podcast? 25 episodes published. 9 episodes with technically related content, like Embedded Systems or similar. 13 episode with leadership or managing content, like Virtual Teams, Task-Forcing, etc. 3 episode not classifyable containing more general topics. Which problem do I face with this situation? First, I see the problem that I’m doing two different things under the hood of one. Technial and non-technical stuff is combined into one podcast, however the distinct episodes are either the one or the other. This results in a lack of direction, clarity and focus. However I believe that both attitudes are tightly connected. Especially if you’re working within a technical environment. Second, I see a problem in addressing the podcast to potential interview guest. The mixture is hardly understood. People like the separation and the clear distinction. Interview guest wanted to know details about the audience. This is a major part of attracting them. How will I proceed? I will launch an additional podcast. A podcast designed to: support decision makers by tools and details to evaluate and clarify situations; support leaders in their daily practice and upcoming challenges like Virtual Teams; support managers in finding balance and the right push for stuck projects. In parallel I will continue the Mastering Embedded Systems podcast. What will be the name of the new podcast? Huuh, that’s a weak point yet. I have not found a really handy name. I currently get stuck with: The Guidepost Podcast – find clarity and direction in business and management The Guidepost – the podcast for decision makers If you have a name or phrase in mind, do not hesitate, pass it to me. How often will the podcasts be published? The Mastering Embedded Systems podcast will be released on demand. It will be mainly driven by interviews and other interesting items like conferences. The schedule is not fixed. The New podcast (the one without a name yet), will be released every second week. It will be based on solo episodes and interviews. I am interested in interview guests for both podcasts. If you find yourself able to tell the audience news, information and other topics, do not hesitate and drop me a note. And much much more.   Selected Links and Resources From This Episode The Art of Charm – Military Education People and Project Management Podcast by Andy Kaufman Project Management Podcast Thank You For Listening Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com The post Wanted! Podcast Name – MES026 appeared first on Embedded Success.

Integrate hardware and software with Jürgen Salm It’s an ever lasting story in Embedded Systems: Integrate hardware and software. You need to combine a new piece of hardware together with new software. That’s the time you need engineers like my today’s guest – Jürgen Salm. Jürgen has a proven track of experience as SW-developer. He’s running his own zoo of Unix- and Linux-machines at his home-place. At work however he’s engaged as SW-tester and mainly HW- and SW-integrator. Jürgen is working for one of the big mobile equipment manufacturers in Germany. Jürgen is a constant source of ideas about improvement and he has tons of experience you can participate from. As a former SW-developer Jürgen instantly provides the feedback the author of software will understand. More over he does regularly not only provide feedback about the failure, but also directly points to the failing component. Very often I have experienced by myself that he’s already pointing to the wrong algorithm directly. We’re highlighting the daily problems when integrating immature hardware with even more immature software. The challenges when working together with multi-sited SW-development teams. And of course the mother of all questions: How to improve collaboration between developers and integrators. Stay with me and enjoy the interview. Essential Answers Provided In This Episode For: What are the differences between a SW-tester and a SW-integrator? Where does the classic SW-developer distinguish from a SW-tester and SW-integrator? What are the main key-points when testing and integrating an Embedded System? When will a serial console become a security risk? And why you should take it! Why Jürgen wants every SW-developer to evaluate his product in the final system? What are typical critical situations in testing and integrating Embedded Systems? Where do you see major problem in collaboration of SW-developers and SW-testers/SW-integrators? What are the 3 most important skills a good and successful SW-tester/-integrator should have? And much much more. Selected Links and Resources From This Episode Jürgen’s website Thank You For Listening Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com The post Engineers’ Talk: HW- and SW-Integrator Jürgen Salm – MES025 appeared first on Embedded Success.