Embedded Executive Podcast

One vendor, SEGGER Microcontroller Systems, can come up with a way to simplify the design of embedded applications, a term they’ve coined as EmApps. You can have Segger write the apps for you, or you can get an SDK from them and do it yourself. 
I dove way deeper into this issue with Rolf Segger, the Founder of SEGGER, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast. We get into where TinyML should be deployed and why, and where it shouldn’t.

Embedded devices get updates and patches on a regular basis. Those updates consist of bug fixes, security vulnerability updates, and lots of other stuff. But at some point, you’re going to run out of memory space for these patches, especially if your system has been in the field for years or even decades. 
So what do you do? 
That's not an easy question to answer, but there is an answer, and that’s what I got from Steve Hanna, a Distinguished Engineer from Infineon, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

NR+, aka DECT-2020 NR, is a non-cellular 5G wireless technology standard that operates without cell towers or operator subscriptions. It offers private, highly scalable mesh connectivity in the license-exempt 1.9-GHz frequency band for such applications as industrial IoT and industrial automation. 
That said, other long-range standards offer similar connectivity. So the obvious question for me is, “Why do we need NR+?” 
To answer that question, I spoke to Nick Dutton, a Strategic Advisor to Last Mile Semiconductor. Nick answered my question, and lots more along the way, in this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) has a significant task in its hands. As a global body encompassing hundreds of companies, its goal is to create and promote open, universal standards in the wireless space, including (in a big way) the IoT. 
The goal sounds great, but having most of the major suppliers contributing and providing products for all corners of the globe can cause the process to become unwieldy. 
To understand how this group works, and how it is moving forward—which it is clearly doing—I spoke to Tobin Richardson, the CSA’s President and CEO, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

We’re seeing new life coming to the Thread standard. If you remember, Thread is part of the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless protocol and operates at very low power. But it doesn’t offer the bandwidth of Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi continues to get better, so I question whether there’s really a need for Thread. 
Apparently, my question was misguided, as Ann Olivo, the Vice-President of Marketing for the Thread Group, explained to me on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast. (Note that Ann is also the Corporate Campaigns Manager for Silicon Labs). 
At the recent Unify event, put on by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), the Thread Group unveiled an app that simplifies the process for developers. Hear more about all of that in our conversation.