News from the Embedded Systems Conference

Technophiles who happen to be wandering around northern California (actually, it's really central California, but Californians seem to consider anything north of, say, Bakersfield to be "northern California.") with time on their hands could do a lot worse than to drop in at the Embedded Systems Conference going on this week at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center -- surprisingly actually located in San Jose. It's a compendium of all the computer and computer-related technology at the forefront of what makes our society go.

Not many decades ago, the only computers available were giant clunky things of little value to anyone but scientists, insurance companies, and corporate accountants. The overwhelming majority of Americans had never seen a computer outside of the occasional Hollywood movie.

Not no more! Most of us now either spend much of our working days tapping at a desktop or laptop computer, or know somebody who does. Nearly everyone has access to and is comfortable using such machines. That, most people think, is what makes our society computer-bound.

The vast majority of computers we encounter today, however, don't look like computers at all. They're what are called "embedded systems." To find the nearest embedded system, all you have to do is pull your cellphone, Ipod, PDA, or whatever you like to call your mobile communications device, out of your pocket. It's nothing but a glorified wireless networking computer.

Want more? Go heat up a cup of coffee in a microwave oven. The few non-computer-controlled microwaves still in existence are pretty much dinosaurs. The same goes for your clothes washer. If your television isn't just a big computer terminal set up to display streaming video, its days are numbered. By this summer, it'll need a computer called a "set-top-box" to receive digital TV signals and convert them to the analog signals such ancient non-computerized TVs need.

As I've often said, just about every piece of equipment more complicated than a lead pencil is now computer controlled. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much.

All those computerized gadgets, from the thermostat on your wall to the radio in your car are embedded systems.Such microprocessor-based control systems are called "microcontrollers."

Indeed, virtually all of the cars on the road today are run by multiple interconnected embedded computers, each running one of the vehicles subsystems. New vehicles, for example, are all required to have tire-pressure monitoring systems consisting of a module in each tire with a sensor feeding pressure data to a tiny microcontroller, which then passes the information via a tiny radio to a receiver in the wheel well, which then feeds it to a microcontroller that runs your electronic dashboard. If the tire pressure starts to sag, all those separate microcontrollers send up an alarm that culminates in a light blinking on your dashboard to warn you about it.

By now you should be convinced that embedded computers are all around you, like little gnomes hiding in the woodwork watching and reacting to your every move. Put that way, it seems kinda creepy. In fact, though, embedded systems are more like little invisible servants waiting at your beck and call. They only show up when you want or need something that they can provide. If you don't think about it, you'll never even notice them.

The Embedded Systems Conference now going on in San Jose is the annual West Coast gathering for all the software and hardware engineers that make embedded systems possible. There are two such gatherings, of which ESC West is the largest. The smaller gathering (ESC East) happens in the Fall in Boston, Mass. At these gatherings, embedded-system developers share information about the latest bits and pieces available to go into their creations, and the latest ideas about how to put them together.

For example, Lantronix, Inc., which specializes in secure, remote device networking and data center management technologies, is announcing support for Linux on their wired embedded device server product, MatchPort AR. The company says its Linux software development kit (SDK) significantly simplifies and accelerates the process of developing Linux-based embedded platforms. Developers can integrate their applications using predefined configuration profiles and software assembly tools. Sample applications are provided within the SDK, allowing developers to jump-start their application development.

The company says its SDK helps users take advantage of the well-established Linux development community, allowing engineers to create new applications with greater flexibility and improving time to market. "The Linux development community is one of the fastest growing today," says Daryl Miller, vice president of engineering of Lantronix. "Working with our partner Nissin Systems, we were able to take this first leap in penetrating the Linux space, and will continue to establish Linux as the base platform for our product development moving forward."

Another company, Virtium Technology Inc., which is a provider of memory and solid state storage solutions for mission-critical applications, introduced a new family of DDR3 dual-function semiconductor memory modules combining a DRAM module and SATA compact Flash or SSD modules into a single space-saving form-factor. The company says its new module family is an innovative way to fit more memory and storage into space-constrained embedded systems. The modules are said to implement new DDR3 technology to offer higher data bandwidths up to 12.8 Gigabytes per second and at lower power consumption to reduce heat dissipation and improve reliability by minimizing or eliminating single bit ECC errors.

The company is making the memory modules available in commercial grade and industrial grade, and can provide ruggedized units for adverse environments. Virtium engineers are available to show ESC attendees techniques for saving space in embedded applications for industrial automation, motion control, mobile systems, military and defense systems, medical equipment, and other systems.

These are just two examples from the hundreds of technological developments that attendees are learning about at the Embedded Systems Conference. Most of the major providers of embedded components are represented, as well as a large cross section of Silicon Valley engineers combining these elements into the next generation of computer-controlled devices that will provide the infrastructure we will rely on for services from highway transportation to entertainment from now into the foreseeable future.