Over 20 years of embedded software development a third way emerges

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Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.

Colin Walls

[email protected]

Over 20 Years of Embedded Software Development –

A Third Way Emerges

Mentor Graphics Confidential Information

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“Software is eating the world”

Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape


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Software is eating the world

Contribution of software to product success is increasing

How will you cope? Is there a path forward that will prevent hungry

software from eating up the entire product budget?

$$$


Embedded Software is Ubiquitous

Embedded software is everywhere

Medical

Home White Goods

TelcomConsumer

Automotive

(Even if most people don’t know what Embedded means …)

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Trends: Microprocessor Technology

8 bits 16 bits

16 bitmcu

32 bits RISC

32 bitmcuSoft Cores

8 bit mcu

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Trends: Design Composition

HardwareHardware

Hardware

Software

Software

Software

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Trends: Software Content

In-house In-houseIn-house

RTOSRTOS +comms

RTOS +comms +other IP

In-house

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Trends: Software Team Size

/2

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Embedded Software

Dominant value generator for technology enterprises

Low cost of entry Great time for start-ups Danger of “hardware myopia”


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“Most of the new, innovative companies are focusing on the software. I think there will be lots of innovation in the areas of software, but not in hardware.”

Steve JobsFebruary 1985


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Embedded Software

Software innovation is strategic 9 month cycle is typical You get fixed number of “spins” Software is not “free” except for headcount Fixing one bug is cheap, but 1000 can kill a project


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Pre-requisites to Software Success

The right runtime software The right tools Pre-silicon prototyping

– Buys more cycles


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Embedded Software Development

Runtime – 3 options: Commercial In-house Open source

Tools – 2 options: Commercial Open source


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Commercial Runtime Software

Pros Established, reliable Long-term commitment Documented OS-aware debug support Middleware Hardware drivers

Cons On-going license costs No internal knowledge Vendor lock-in Excess functionality


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Commercial Runtime Software

Pros Established, reliable Long-term commitment Documented OS-aware debug support Middleware Hardware drivers

Cons On-going license costs No internal knowledge Vendor lock-in Excess functionality


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In-house Runtime Software

Pros Control No on-going license costs Exact match to needs

Cons Development costs Long-term support No debug support Multiple implementations No middleware New architecture support Core competencies


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In-house Runtime Software

Pros Control No on-going license costs Exact match to needs

Cons Development costs Long-term support No debug support Multiple implementations No middleware New architecture support Core competencies


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Open Source Runtime Software

Pros Readily available Wide user base Support from users “Free”

Cons Nobody responsible Integration takes time and

effort Version issues Fit for purpose


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Open Source Runtime Software



effort Version issues Fit for purpose


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Commercial Tools

Pros High functionality Fully integrated Technical support Wide range available

Cons Cost Vendor lock-in Not comparable to

desktop tools


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Commercial Tools

Pros High functionality Fully integrated Technical support Wide range available

Cons Cost Vendor lock-in Not comparable to

desktop tools


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Open Source Tools



effort Version issues


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Open Source Tools



effort Version issues


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Deployment of open source tools

Open source tools “out of the box” ... Which tools?

– C/C++ Compilers

– Assembler

– Linker

– Runtime Libraries

– Debugger

– Debug Stub(s)

– Integrated Development Environment


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Do you have the right tools to build the toolchain? What versions of the various toolchain components

will you use?– What patches should be applied?

How should you configure the various toolchain components?

– The configure scripts have thousands of options


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What CPUs will be used on your target systems?– Will both big-endian and little-endian code be required?

– e.g. “bare metal” ARM runtime libraries are optimized for little-endian ARM V5

– this will not work with ARM V4– ARM V6 architecture would not be used efficiently


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Toolchain validation– Compiling programs and running those programs in the

target environment

– Compiling programs and inspecting the generated object file or executable image, without running the generated code

– Compiling fragments of a program with multiple compilers and linking the fragments together

– Compiling invalid program fragments and checking for appropriate error messages

– Testsuites ...


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Runtime – 3 options: Commercial In-house Open source

Tools – 2 options: Commercial Open source


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Runtime – 3 options: Commercial In-house

Open source

Tools – 2 options: Commercial

Open source

There is another way ...


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Recognize that open source does not mean “free” Do not underestimate the configuration and

deployment challenges [= costs] Consider using a specialist vendor

– Tools [and OS] packaged and ready to use

– Costs well defined and contained

– Additional support [with open source community there for you as well]

– Additional value-added components

This if The Third Way

Android is a trademark of Google Inc. Use of this trademark is subject to Google Permissions.

Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.

Colin [email protected]

http://blogs.mentor.com/colinwalls

Thank you