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STM32 isn't the only Cortex-M microcontroller series in the world, you know. They're popular because they're pretty decent, low cost, have good dev boards and o
by exmadscientist 5y ago
STM32 isn't the only Cortex-M microcontroller series in the world, you know. They're popular because they're pretty decent, low cost, have good dev boards and offer a wide variety of parts.
However, their software sucks (okay, so do all of the other options...), their peripherals are not as good as some of the other options (in particular I'm thinking of peripheral clock trees when I say this, among other things), and their availability is the _worst_.
Seriously, unless you're big enough that ST management actually knows your name, expect to have sudden availability issues with the STM32. This has been true for the last decade. It will remain true. (Many of these availability problems start at ST's wafer fab, so they're not shared by the other vendors.) I always advise clients who care about such things to consider other vendors.
- baybal2 5y ago> They're popular because they're pretty decent, low cost, have good dev boards and offer a wide variety of parts. Now find a single person who can program bare hardware on a short notice on above Arduino level. The current chip shortage has claimed 6 of our firmware devs, all hired by companies ready to spend just any money for anybody "who can replace that ____ing STM|NXP|Renesas thing" People downstream in the industry greatly overestimated their knowledge of the industry. Lots of tech companies around who had zero prior knowledge of embedded development, now jumping on it, and breaking their teeth. I haven't heard more fabulous questions like "Are there other microcontrollers than Intel, and AMD in the world?" this year than any time before.
- kingsuper20 5y ago>Now find a single person who can program bare hardware on a short notice on above Arduino level. Wait, there's real money in that? Maybe I shouldn't waste my time just doing yard work. Sidenote: I just asked my wife about parts shortages at her workplace. Evidently you guys are right. I should get out more.
- baybal2 5y agoYep, I'd say today is the best opportunity to get a higher paid embedded job than any time before if anybody specifically targets people hiring on urgency. But a thing to remember is that people currently hiring themselves been likely neglecting their RnD before the crisis hit them.
- kingsuper20 5y agoI have to wonder how many of those gigs are getting an ugly legacy codewad dumped in your lap with a short deadline to add features to somebody's automatic swimming pool cleaning product.
- joezydeco 5y agoNo, there isn't real money in this. I've been doing it 30 years now and my earnings curve will never match what a webdev gets. Firmware engineers are the out-of-sight-out-of-mind component in the product development spectrum.
- kingsuper20 5y agoTo be fair, nobody's wages were particularly high 30 years ago. Although the money has been decent, programming complicated devices has spoiled me for one thing..I have just about essentially zero interest in web technologies, products, languages. I've always gotten to work on the sexier version of embedded work and so feel really blessed, it's not all about the lucre.
- the_only_law 5y agoJust curious, what’s included in the “sexier” version of embedded work?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- 5y ago
- neilv 5y ago> The current chip shortage has claimed 6 of our firmware devs, all hired by companies ready to spend just any money for anybody "who can replace that ____ing STM|NXP|Renesas thing" Condolences on the loss of coworkers. But this seems interesting to software people who haven't been doing embedded, but who can wrangle C well enough to adapt (quickly?) to embedded constraints and interfaces.
- ChuckNorris89 5y agoEmbedded development is more than just wrangling C, that would be like saying backend dev is wrangling EC2 instances ;). It's knowing how low level hardware operates and knowing how to dig yourself out of the various gotchas like for example figuring out that a last minute replacement of the crystal oscillator by the HW team with a cheaper one is now screwing up your boot process or that the reason your products are starting to go haywire after 6 months is an interrupt triggering too many writes to the flash, wearing it out prematurely, etc.
- neilv 5y agoI hope an EE with a logic analyzer will help troubleshoot the clock problem, since I don't think the prevailing software methodology will work (i.e., ask on Stackoverflow, then add three dozen more Node.js packages to the firmware footprint). :)
- yetihehe 5y agoYou don't need EE for that, just reasonably competent embedded programmer with a logic analyzer. But that's typically the difference between embedded programmers and "normal" programmers.
- milesvp 5y agoI’m terrified about wearing out a flash on a unit I’m working on. I have a permanent break point in that code. Logically I know when a write is supposed to trigger, but oh man I’m paranoid I’m going to burn my prototype with a fat finger of something.
- ChuckNorris89 5y ago>Now find a single person who can program bare hardware on a short notice on above Arduino level. Are you in the US? Because EU is full of embedded devs.
- baybal2 5y agoThat's happening in China. It's not that uncommon.
- pyb 5y agoWhere in the world is this happening ? Maybe I should get back into this game. Low-level development hadn't been a well rewarded area in recent years.
- baybal2 5y agoThe place where all RnD shops have migrated to — China