Embedded Computing: June 2004 Archives
Fuzzy logic doesn't require strange hardware or new programming languages, just a different approach to set membership. Plenty of physical systems, from elevators to boilers, can benefit from fuzzy-logic programming. This article by Byron Miller @ embedded.com explores progamming a commercial DSP chip to create a basic fuzzy-logic controller.
The role of smartcards in society is growing, Eamonn Kearns for is 4th year project in tbe Bsc in Software developement, wrote an application for GP's and pharmacies to faciliatate the issuing of prescriptions.
Some of my colleagues in Tipperary Institute were involves in projects several years ago to develop smart card apps. The lack of standards at the time, casted a negative light on smart card development.
With the emerging open standards for developing apps using Java, the hurdles of developing apps are starting to look less daunting.
As the market grows companies are trying to accquire expertise and skills. Cardbase is an irish firm that has been acquired by UK smartcard systems firm ID Data for EUR3.42 million (STG2.28 million).
Upperchurch - Extreme programming is a hot topic at Tipperary Institute, until now I allways assoiated XP with Java Apps for the Enterprise or desktop.
Dan Pierce at embedded.com shares some techniques that have served him well translating XP to the world of embedded systems programming.
He reviews XP under the following main activities
1. Planning
2. Design.
3. Coding
4. Testing
One of the main findings is that it's a tenet of XP to expect to tailor the process for the peculiarities of each environment. Such tweaking is relatively straightforward, so developers can use XP on embedded systems and still achieve XP's overall goals.
I came across this website the other day while reading an article from wired (1998).
The site claims to be the the definitive collection of Siliconia on the Web. Siliconia are appropriations of names beginning with "Silicon" by areas outside Silicon Valley. A Siliconium can be promoted by local boosters or it can be assigned to an area in a press account. An ideal Siliconium will capture something unique about the regional character and when first encountered will bring a fleeting smile.
Ireland was mentioned under Silicon bog, but I did not know that there was a Silicon Wadi
Jack Gannsle discusses on embeeded.com whether Randall Hyde's statement "Great Programmers are assembly language experts"
My colleagues at Tipperary Institute who teach Computer Architecture and Computer Systems Hardware would agree with some of his findings.
From programming the Intel IXP1200 Network Processor which uses a hybrid of C and Assembler I found myself nodding with agreement several times, while reading this article.
Assembler programmers have an obsession with performance and constraints that are often unheard off by Java and Visual Basic devlopers.
Since the introduction of J2ME, programmer writing apps for mobile phones have suddenly become aware of these constraints. As a number of our students found out while developing their third and fourth year projects
Jack goes one step further than Mr. Hyde. He maintains that you should not structure your high level source code like assembly language, and never think in assembly when cranking C/C++ code. But for time-critical sections do examine the generated code. Look for simple optimizations, be wary of calls to runtime routines. Always instrument ISRs and other performance-bound functions to measure their performance.
My colleague Bernie GoldBach will be somewhat miffed to see that Sony is expected to announce that it plans to stop selling its Clié handheld anywhere except Japan.
Bernie has being making good use of the Sony Clie PEG UX-50 whether it is capturing digital content, reading ebooks or surfing using the wireless nic.
At the Broadband conference today in Tipperary Institute, Eircom were launching their sat access product. This is being offered by Media Sat. Media sat have been in business since 1998 and are now an eircom official satellite partner (since 27th May 2004) . They too offer a number of options with different pricing Models
