Modern C++ programming very much abstracts what is happening “under the hood” – i.e. what code the CPU is actually executing. This is nice for the programmer … if it works well. Unfortunately, C++ also introduces a stability problem in embedded systems. Many programmers are unaware of this problem. This post gives some background, explains […]
Securing embedded systems with digital signatures: The basics
Securing an embedded system is incredibly important, and having a digital signature plays a crucial role in that. A digital signature confirms that a specific piece of information came from a specific organization (i.e. the one with the private key as described below) and has not been modified. Follow-up articles will firstly cover related issues […]
C++ real-time allocation — a chess engine
This article describes a new capability that I added to SEGGER emRun, now available in Embedded Studio 6, to support real-time dynamic storage allocation. These enhancements were inspired during my development of a chess engine, and I’ll describe some of the engine design and why emRun now offers a new allocator.
Hacking emSecure?
On October 24th of 2021, we were contacted by the Moscow based security company BI.ZONE Research Lab. BI.ZONE is a security research firm, checking software and computer systems for vulnerabilities. They were trying to find weaknesses in J-Link.
Algorithms for division – part 4 – Using Newton’s method
In the previous article I presented an algorithm for division by calculating a reciprocal. This article presents a way to calculate the reciprocal, rather than looking it up, trading size of lookup table against speed of calculation.
Algorithms for division – part 3 – Using multiplication
We’ve explored simple algorithms that develop a quotient one digit at a time: reliable, understandable, but ultimately quite slow. Now it’s time to change up a couple of gears and turbocharge division for speed!
Saving power in embedded systems – Reducing idle CPU speed
Dynamic power, meaning power consumption that is proportional to a clock speed, is a significant part of the power usage of a computer system. Reducing CPU load is one way to reduce this. More interestingly, reducing CPU clock speed in idle mode is another way. And there is hardly any downside!
Algorithms for division – part 2 – Classics
This article will explore the classic division algorithms and how they can be implemented efficiently, in terms of code space and execution time, by exploiting machine features. Don’t expect anything astounding here, the algorithms are classic for a reason: this path is well-trodden.
Algorithms for division – part 1
This is the first in a series of articles that attempt to dispel the mystique around division algorithms. We do this by presenting coded algorithms that correctly divide, and describe how variations of these algorithms are used in emRun and emFloat, our C runtime and floating-point libraries.
emWeb: User interface in the web browser
Recently at SEGGER, we released a brand-new product: the Flasher Hub. During development, it became clear that the Flasher Hub needed an easy user interface for monitoring and configuration. The device itself is headless: No display and limited resources. Years of experience with web interfaces used in our J-Links and Flashers made our decision easy. […]