FROM
THE EDITOR
"…and what do you do for a living?" Those of us in high-tech professions always pause for just a moment to prepare. Who is this person asking the question? Do they have a technical background? Do they really want to know the answer? Will their eyes glaze over with disinterest right from the beginning, hang on until we hit an unfamiliar term like "semiconductor" and then fade away, or stick with us right to the end and follow up with "So, do you feel like Moore's Law will peter out after the 45nm process node?"
Our newest feature article examines how we describe our careers to the world. For most of us, the answer depends on the audience and on our own motivations.
Our second new feature this week comes from Peter Magnusson of Virtutech, and looks at simulation as an accelerator for embedded debug of complex systems. For many embedded designs, we take it for granted that we'll be debugging our software using some prototype version of the actual hardware. In some cases, however, such a platform is unavailable. In other situations, we can actually get much better observability and controllability if we can operate our software in a simulated hardware environment.
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Kevin
Morris – Editor
Embedded Technology Journal
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What Do You Tell Them?
Explaining a Complex Career
My twenty-three-year-old eyes couldn't muster the maturity to disguise my frustration. He sensed their weakness. It was what he was watching for. Even as I struggled in vain to regain my composure, he moved in for the kill. "What did you say again that your company does?" My father posed the question, fully aware of the answer, waiting with the patience of the hunter who has already cornered his prey for my inevitable self-destruction.
I rolled into my own defeat with the resignation of a mortally wounded rabbit. "Gate arrays," I replied, already knowing the next step of the dance. Then I made a futile attempt to divert him. "They're chips used to…"
[more]
Biting Bugs Back
System Level Simulation Speeds Software Debugging
by Peter S. Magnusson, Virtutech, Inc.
In 1949, Maurice Wilkes, the creator of the first stored-program computer, discovered that debugging was going to consume more of his time than he had anticipated: "As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that it wasn't as easy to get programs right as we had thought. Debugging had to be discovered." It is nearly 60 years later, and debugging embedded software has not changed all that much from how it was done on Wilkes's EDSAC.
[more]
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