Today, more and more often you can hear about the development of embedded software, as well as their importance for business development. Let’s figure out what it is, as well as what are the pros and cons of such systems. Naturally, before ordering a development, you must understand what benefits you can get in the future, as well as how soon your investment will pay off. Many inexperienced users may mistakenly classify ordinary electronic products as embedded software, which have something similar to an embedded control device. But this is the wrong approach. We will tell you what to look for and how to choose a contractor to get a decent result.
What happens in practice?
An embedded system is one that runs under the control of a computer. That is, this definition includes all devices and gadgets equipped with a hardware platform. In fact, the specialty of such a developer lies at the intersection of programming and hardware engineering. Tasks vary from developing a driver for a particular module to integrating the code with existing software. It all depends on the specific project. Sometimes the responsibilities are limited only to working with the board, and sometimes embedded developers take part in writing the business logic of the product or developing the hardware.
Companion smartwatches are a good example. This means that they do not sync with your smartphone and do not support a similar OS. There are fewer and fewer such manufacturers. They are not in high demand precisely because such watches are only compatible with the branded hardware platform. But for corporate custom development, this can be a great solution. For example, if you are very concerned about corporate security and trade secrets. Of course, if they try, employees will still be able to take your secrets outside the enterprise. But it won’t be so easy if they could just connect to the base from any device, since a single OS is used for everything. You can ask questions on this topic to specialists at https://diceus.com/industry/insurance/.
Applications of embedded systems
Here you can talk about tasks such as:
· Adapting the code to the camera firmware and improving the work of the existing code.
· Development of modules for driving a car from the moment the device is turned on and ending with the user interface.
· Working with boards, devices, microcontrollers in the format of assistance not only in the selection of a component base, but also in making architectural decisions. The embedded systems engineer decides how to design the system or which interfaces to use. It also chooses which sensor to put on which tire.
What to consider when choosing a development team?
The main challenge for a developer at the beginning of a project is to choose the right hardware platform on which everything will be implemented. If this choice turns out to be wrong and the platform hardware does not suffice, you will have to start from scratch on a new platform. If, on the contrary, the hardware platform was chosen too much, the final product will turn out to be more expensive than it could have been.
The next task is to select and adapt the existing implemented algorithms for the limited resources of the chosen platform. This requires the skills of Kernel, System and Application-engineering in one person.
An embedded developer does not work with user interfaces, databases, or complex file formats. As a rule, all his attention is focused on hardware and its characteristics, for example: processor power and amount of memory. Due to the nature of the environment, these resources are always limited. Therefore, you have to focus on memory optimization, performance, and power consumption.
Conclusions
It is extremely important to pay attention to the issues of reliability and long-term autonomy, since the product can work for years without the user’s attention. It is necessary to consider crashes, loss or weakening of power supply, translation of dates, and so on. An important role is played by the automatic procedure for updating software and its components. For example, renewing SSL certificates.
Another specificity is the need to work with different devices. An ordinary programmer can develop software on his computer and start or debug it there. As a rule, an embedded developer does not have such an opportunity. For development and testing, he needs to have the device. First, he compiles the code on his computer, then uploads it to the device.
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