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Agreed. If you're building something like an embedded nas server, you have to have a deep understanding of literally every piece of technology he talked about.

by zaius 14y ago

Agreed. If you're building something like an embedded nas server, you have to have a deep understanding of literally every piece of technology he talked about. I think arduino has done wonders for getting people started, but it would be great if there was a similar ecosystem for people who are further along than blinking LEDs and building something of significance.

joezydeco 14y ago
I don't think we'll ever see something like the Arduino IDE for more advanced systems. Some chipmakers have IDEs like Cypress and their PSoC Designer/Creator, but that still focuses on the chip alone and not the outside world. The thing about embedded is that you're crafting a very specific hardware and firmware design for the task at hand. The project may begin with a generic setup like Arduino or Beagle or Rpi, but at the end it's a totally unique animal. There's no way any graphic or assisted design environment is going to be able to handle it all.
- zaius 14y ago
  What about FPGAs? I feel like they could solve so much of this problem if the tools were better. Though I haven't used them since college, so I have no idea what the current status is.
  - joezydeco 14y ago
    FPGA are not what I would recommend for a "what-do-we-do-after-Arduino" type of device. Hell, FPGAs are Jedi-Master class devices as far as I see it. This is the kind of firepower you call in when you have something that no off-the-shelf micro can do, like emulate an obsolete processor, or put 128 of them on one chip, or hash Bitcoins, image processing, etc etc etc.
    - zaius 14y ago
      Ah, no I didn't mean FPGAs as the next step for implementation, I meant more as a development tool. For example, it would be cool if there was some sort of software that would let you design multiple-chip setups that would usually require breadboarding, but then run the whole circuit on the FPGA. That design could be transformed straight into a PCB that's ready for fab with the discrete components.
      - joezydeco 14y ago
        Ah, I see. But, of course, the practical-engineer part of my brain reads that and says "well, if it's working on the FPGA, ship the FPGA!" =) I actually see a lot of potential in devices like the aforementioned Cypress PSoC. If you're not familiar, the PSoC family involves chips that have a core microcontroller with ram and Flash but also have a number of analog blocks inside as well. ADCs, capsense, op-amps, logic gates, muxes, comparators, timers, etc. You can use the Cypress IDE to wire the components up and connect them to I/O pins. The IDE can generate your configuration, or you can optionally reconfigure the chip while running via internal registers. So it's kind of like an FPGA-type solution as you suggested. When you start developing with these chips, you're really creating hardware from software. It's interesting stuff.

by zaius 14y ago

joezydeco 14y ago

I don't think we'll ever see something like the Arduino IDE for more advanced systems. Some chipmakers have IDEs like Cypress and their PSoC Designer/Creator, but that still focuses on the chip alone and not the outside world. The thing about embedded is that you're crafting a very specific hardware and firmware design for the task at hand. The project may begin with a generic setup like Arduino or Beagle or Rpi, but at the end it's a totally unique animal. There's no way any graphic or assisted design environment is going to be able to handle it all.

zaius 14y ago
What about FPGAs? I feel like they could solve so much of this problem if the tools were better. Though I haven't used them since college, so I have no idea what the current status is.
- joezydeco 14y ago
  FPGA are not what I would recommend for a "what-do-we-do-after-Arduino" type of device. Hell, FPGAs are Jedi-Master class devices as far as I see it. This is the kind of firepower you call in when you have something that no off-the-shelf micro can do, like emulate an obsolete processor, or put 128 of them on one chip, or hash Bitcoins, image processing, etc etc etc.
  - zaius 14y ago
    Ah, no I didn't mean FPGAs as the next step for implementation, I meant more as a development tool. For example, it would be cool if there was some sort of software that would let you design multiple-chip setups that would usually require breadboarding, but then run the whole circuit on the FPGA. That design could be transformed straight into a PCB that's ready for fab with the discrete components.
    - joezydeco 14y ago
      Ah, I see. But, of course, the practical-engineer part of my brain reads that and says "well, if it's working on the FPGA, ship the FPGA!" =) I actually see a lot of potential in devices like the aforementioned Cypress PSoC. If you're not familiar, the PSoC family involves chips that have a core microcontroller with ram and Flash but also have a number of analog blocks inside as well. ADCs, capsense, op-amps, logic gates, muxes, comparators, timers, etc. You can use the Cypress IDE to wire the components up and connect them to I/O pins. The IDE can generate your configuration, or you can optionally reconfigure the chip while running via internal registers. So it's kind of like an FPGA-type solution as you suggested. When you start developing with these chips, you're really creating hardware from software. It's interesting stuff.