Embedded Technology Journal Update

a techfocus media publication :: April 24, 2007 :: volume VII, no. 03

FROM THE EDITOR

This week, we look to see what it takes to get a software project off the ground – literally. If you want your code to do anything important on an aircraft, you’ll be dealing with the venerable DO-178B. Our latest feature examines the ups and downs of embedded software certification for aviation.

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Kevin Morris – Editor
Embedded Technology Journal

ANNOUNCEMENTS

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CURRENT FEATURE ARTICLES

When Software Flies
Doing DO-178B
USB Goes Vertical
by Jim Turley, Embedded Technology Journal
Smaller is Bigger
ESC 2007 Tracks Technology
Bigger, Faster, More Connected
Embedded Technology Looms at ESC
ArcticLink
Connectivity Without the Watts
ARM Optimizes for FPGA
ARM/Actel Announce Cortex-M1
Mixing Fossil Fuel and Electrons
by Jim Turley, Embedded Technology Journal

JOURNAL WEBCASTS

Using Processors in FPGAs? The industry's only soft IP ARM7 core for Flash FPGAs sponsored by Actel

Low Power FPGA design with Actel IGLOO, the 5µW FPGA for cool portables sponsored by Actel

ARM7, Analog,Flash and FPGA in a Single Chip Actel's ARM in Fusion sponsored by Actel

Introducing Actel Fusion – the world’s first Flash-based FPGA, with Memory and Analog front end sponsored by Actel

Introducing Spartan-3AN FPGAs – Non-Volatile Secure Platform for Highest System Integration sponsored by Xilinx

Embedded Design with LatticeMico32 Open, Free 32-bit Soft Processor sponsored by Lattice Semiconductor

Speed Adoption of Intel® Multi-Core Processors with VirtualLogix Real-Time Virtualization™ Technology sponsored by VirtualLogix

When Software Flies
Doing DO-178B

Software development is still, by far, the squishiest segment of the engineering discipline.

This is not because software engineers lack discipline. Certainly some of the most methodical and disciplined individuals I have ever met were in the software engineering profession. The problem is in the discipline itself – software is the most complex component of almost every modern embedded system. As a component becomes more complex, our ability to conceptualize its operation and to design an organized methodology for its development and verification is dramatically reduced.

Aviation is one of the most conservative areas of engineering. The acute awareness that even small engineering decisions and procedures carry a great weight in the potential loss of human life has pushed the community into a cautious rigor that would craze engineers accustomed to working in more liberal fields. This extreme caution, and the regulation that goes along with it, has kept aviation decades behind the technology curve in many areas such as materials, powerplant design, and, most notably, electronics. [more]