issue 92 - Embedded systems newsletter

Embedded systems #92

A new week, a new issue, and a new huge investment in the RISC-V ecosystem with SiFive raising $175 million . It definitely looks like we are witnessing the raising of an alternative to Arm.

This week sponsor is the 2022 Embedded Online Conference . They offer a $100 discount on top of the current early birds pricing. Check out the Sponsor section for details.

Thank you to Lukas Henkel for the header’s picture .

Happy reading!

Articles

Adding Unit Tests To Your Firmware Using Ceedling + GitHub Actions CI in Bluetooth Development
After the addition of a cli to help the development of a product, the team behind this article describes how to use ceedling and unity to test it.

Quirks of C
Probably the most complete list of curiosities of our beloved language.

Rust on Apache NuttX OS
To give a bit of context Apache NuttX is a RTOS focusing on standard compliance while sticking to a small footprint. The philosophy of NuttX makes it an “easy” OS to run Linux application on because of the POSIX compliance. This article describes how to add a Rust layer on top of NuttX.

The most thoroughly commented linker script (probably)
If you have to read/understand/deal with a linker script this is a good introduction to the multiple details composing them.

$100 discount for the 2022 Embedded Online Conference
This year’s Embedded Online Conference will take place at the end of April and will feature some of the most recognized names in the Embedded community. Use promo code EMBEDSYS and save $100 on the registration fee. BONUS: Registering for EOC 2022 will give you instant on-demand access to all sessions from the 2020 & 2021 editions of the conference.

News / Business

AUTOSAR announces new Working Group for Programming Language Rust in Automotive Software context
If you were still in doubt about Rust this will probably make you change your mind. The automotive industry is starting to analyze if the language can be used in AUTOSAR.

Jobs

Ampere Computing, Embedded Firmware Engineer - PCIe, Full-time, Santa Clara, CA (Partially remote)
Ampere is designing the future of hyperscale cloud and edge computing with the world’s first cloud native processor.

Tools

FlashDB
An ultra-lightweight key-value/time series database (RAM usage close to 0) with built-in wear balance and power-off protection.

Espruino JavaScript for Microcontrollers
Javascript is everywhere and even on devices as small as 128kB Flash and 8kB RAM. There are multiple boards supported and one of the main advantage of using Javascript is the event based nature of the interpreter which knows when no action is needed. Consequently, it can put itself in sleep mode without explicit code by the developer.

Education / Community

Patterns for Time-Triggered Embedded Systems
It’s a free, clear, and accessible even for the beginners book that will definitely make your developments more secure. I invite you to read it even though the cover feels outdated.

Misc

Writing a device driver for Unix V6
Probably not a skills that your really want to add to your skill-set but from the culture point of view it’s very interesting to read. A good article for our Misc section.

Pipe Logic
Let’s follow the author and build with him a circuit emulator in our terminal!