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In the same way "embedded" is relative, I appreciate the author's recognition that "edge" is relative. For some, AI at the edge means on-prem server farms. For
by Neywiny 1y ago
In the same way "embedded" is relative, I appreciate the author's recognition that "edge" is relative. For some, AI at the edge means on-prem server farms. For some it means a mini-pc. For others, maybe an SBC. Here it's a microcontroller. Further still is AI within the sensors a microcontroller would talk to. That's probably just another microcontroller but still.
- woliveirajr 1y agoMicrocontrollers all the way down
- astrobe_ 1y agoThere's "micro" and "micro". The microcontroller operating a simple coffee machine, or a simple washing-machine is probably 8 or 16 bits. This is what I would call "bare metal", as they don't run an OS, only off-the-shelf frameworks at best. For "bigger" devices, it's usually a Cortex inside a system-on-chip or system-on-module, 32 bits single core and a few Mb of RAM for low-end (enough to run regular Linux distro instead of uClinux for instance), 64 bits multicore for high-end devices that deal with audio/video. That kind of business is often resource-hungry in every way. I work with that kind of stuff, and to me these "microcontrollers" are just monsters that I hesitate to call "micro" when some of my coworkers work on much smaller chips with only a few K of RAM available.
- Neywiny 1y agoI do wish sometimes they used the bigger micro, though. We have some power supplies that technically have an Ethernet interface. But when using it, even for SCPI over TCP (forget about the virtual front panel that takes a minute to update), it lags so bad the output enable button needs a few tries to toggle. I should practice yanking the positive wire for an emergency
- amelius 1y agoIndeed. Is nVidia Jetson "edge" or not?
- simgt 1y agoOf course it is. Edge mostly stands for network edge, Jetsons aren't meant to be deployed in data centers.