While it’s not possible to see everything at a show as large as embedded world, David and I pull out many of the highlights. 

Check out this week’s Embedded Executives podcast. and hear about some of the things that stood out for David (and for DigiKey).

Most systems developers either can’t get the memory they need today, or they are being quoted exorbitant prices for that memory. And “systems” fall into just about every application. The crisis has a lot to do with the huge capacities needed for artificial intelligence, but there are other reasons as well. 

To understand what this means, and when (and if) it’ll end, I spoke to Sean Dougherty, a Vice President with Everspin Technologies, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

At the top of that list, and the application that’s responsible for changing our designs seemingly overnight, is the data center. Efficiently powering these data centers is key because they consume lots of power, and they are popping up in more places than originally expected. 

To help understand how to deal with these key issues, I spoke to Steve Tateosian, Infineon Technologies’ Senior VP for its IoT, Compute and Wireless Business Unit, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

Hear why and how from the company’s Founder and CEO, Window Snyder, who has seen far more than most of us when it comes to security. Window was this week’s guest on the Embedded Executives podcast.

On this week’s Embedded Executives podcast, I was able to corral Axel Sikora, the Chairman of the conference’s technical committee. We walked through some of the highlights of the upcoming event.

Until recently, I would have said “Almost everywhere,” since it hadn’t yet affected the industrial sector. However, according to Simon Ford, the Founder of Blecon, Bluetooth has now entered that final frontier. It’s done so for obvious reasons, like power, performance, and ubiquity, and a few other reasons. 

Hear what Simon has to say on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

UWB has been around for many years, but the LE variant is relatively new. In addition to lower power, it also offers a much higher bandwidth than Bluetooth, amongst other benefits, all of which are detailed by Frederic Nabki, the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of SPARK Microsystems. Frederic joined me on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

One vendor, who may have a leg up, is VSORA, who claims to "make AI more accessible, efficient, and sustainable than ever.” That sounds like a tall order, but a great move to reaching that goal is to bring along someone who’s actually climbed the mountain before. In this case, that would be Sandra Rivera, a long-time Intel veteran and former CEO of Altera, and now the Chairwoman of the Board at VSORA. Sandra was my guest on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

To understand what’s going on with this important act, I spoke to Reza Azarderakhsh, the Founder and CEO of PQSecure Technologies. Reza introduced this act to our audience about a year ago, so this serves as a great update. We also dive into the related security issues developers need to stay on top of. 

Hear it all on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

For example, they can power a transceiver to turn a light on or off simply by pushing a button or power the mechanical mechanism in a door lock by turning a knob 90 degrees. This would replace a battery that needs to be swapped on a regular basis. 

Hear more about it on the week’s Embedded Executives podcast, where I speak to WePower Technologies’ Founder and CEO, Larry Richenstein.

To understand how the survey was conducted and, more importantly, what the results showed, I spoke to Alex Iuorio, Avnet’s Senior Vice President for Global Supplier Development. 

Alex and I discussed the results, what they mean, and what the future looks like in terms of AI in engineering. Check out this week’s Embedded Executives podcast to hear what he had to say.

Recently, the WPC released the latest version of its charging spec, pushing the charging level from 15 W up to 25 W. Hear more about it on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast, where I speak to the WPC’s Marketing Director, Paul Golden.

To get answers to these questions, I spoke with Sivaram Trikutam, Senior Vice President of Wireless Products at Infineon Technologies. Sivaram and I went through the latest protocols to understand how things like range, power, frequency, and bandwidth will change (or not) going forward. 

To that end, Infineon just launched its latest Wi-Wi-Fi transceiver, the AIROC ACW741x product family, which the company claims is the industry's first 20-MHz tri-radio device optimized for IoT applications.

In this week’s Embedded Executives podcast, Mike explains how protocols are evolving and what needs to occur to ensure interoperability between all devices, including those that may have been in the field for decades.

One of the keys, as you’ll hear, is the backward compatibility that’s been maintained. Faisal Bhaiyat, the Co-Chair of ZigBee Working Group, Connectivity Standards Alliance, and also a Senior Software Architect with Silicon Labs, fills me in on the details on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

In my discussion with Marcus Webster, the Founder and President of Webster and Webster Associates, I learned that people are using AI to help them get jobs, and in some cases, they are jobs that they should not be getting, for security reasons. People are submitting fake resumes and even conducting fake video-based job interviews. Honestly, it’s both fascinating and scary. 

Check out this week’s Embedded Executives podcast to learn more.

In my discussion with Jerry Chen, Founder and CEO of Upbeat Technology, he explains the reasons for that approach, and, as you’ll hear, he tells it like it is and explains why the company partnered with SiFive. 

The applications that make sense for the Upbeat offering include always-on IoT, wearables, drones/UAVs, smart audio, predictive maintenance, and edge-AI sensors, basically anything battery-powered. Hear our discussion on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

If you’re wondering, like I was, where the company would choose to go this route, check out this week’s Embedded Executives podcast with Ralph More, the Founder and President of Micro Digital.

Analog Devices is taking a different tack, where they are providing just about everything the developer needs, thanks to its CodeFusion Studio, which includes an IDE, a software development kit, and coding tools. 

Hear more about it on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast, where I spoke to Rob Oshana, Analog Devices’ Senior Vice President of Software and Digital Platforms.

To explain how that works, I spoke to Jon Harros, who leads the Alliance Certification and Testing team at the CSA, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast. Jon goes through the need for the program, how it’s implemented, and what developers need to know.

To understand how these compilers should be tested and implemented, I spoke to Sjoerd van der Zwaan, the Chief Product Officer at Solid Sands, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast. 

Sjoerd explains how and why compilers for ADAS are different from general compilers, and why you need to run your compiler through an appropriate series of tests to ensure compatibility.

Having your processing at the endpoint presents a few significant challenges, namely the amount of processing that can be made available and the ability to run from a battery. EMASS has come up with a way to do this a little differently from what’s been done previously. They can attach their RISC-V processing element to any sensor, making the device an AI accelerator. It’s a little difficult for me to put into words here, so check out this week’s Embedded Executives podcast, where I spent some time with Mark Goranson, EMASS’s CEO, who explains it in detail.

To get a handle on how you would do this, at least where you would begin this daunting task, I spoke to two experts: Patrick Carrier, a Manager for Secure Solutions at Infineon, and Xin Qiu, the Head of Security Solutions at CommScope. 

On this week’s Embedded Executives podcast, they lay out the need and then the process a developer would follow.

Performing AI at the endpoint has not been feasible for those reasons. With ambiq’s Sub-threshold Power Optimized technology (SPOT), performing AI at the endpoint is a reality. And the doors/applications that it opens are extremely cool. 

Hear more about it in this week’s Embedded Executives podcast, where I spoke to Ambiq’s Vice President of AI, Carlos Morales. Note that Ambiq just recently released the latest version of neuralSPOT, which now includes key performance enhancements specific to the company’s Apollo5 family, amongst other features, some of which are specific to AI development.

On this week’s Embedded Executives podcast, I spoke to Jonathan Hacker, the Founder and CTO of TeleCANesis, and that’s exactly what they do. We got into the issues of why automated coding is better than manual coding. Then we had a very interesting discussion about why you shouldn’t consider AI for code generation, at least not yet.

To understand what these challenges are and where a designer can turn for help, I spoke to Amir Panush, the CEO of CEVA, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast. He addresses these issues on a regular basis and has a good understanding of what a designer needs to know.

To get answers to these questions and many related ones, I spoke to Sharon Hagi, the Chief Security Officer at Silicon Labs, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast. You may be surprised by his responses, that not every design needs this level of security.

Folks like the experts at Infineon are doing what they can to do just that. And the best part is that they are trying to insulate their customers from having to deal with all the different measures that must be put in place. 

Hear from Eric Wood, Infineon’s Senior Director of Microcontroller Cryptography and Product Security, to see if this sounds like a fit for your design. Check out this week’s Embedded Executives podcast to learn more.

To understand how the company’s technology works, I spoke to Sean Park, Point2’s President, CEO, and Founder, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

Unfortunately, many designers don’t think about thermal management until it’s too late in the design process, which further exacerbates the problem. So what’s a developer to do? That’s what I asked Carl Schlachte, the President and CEO of Ventiva, who specializes in this technology, in this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

To understand where and how the antenna design should begin, I spoke with Dermot O'Shea, the CEO of Taoglas, an expert in antenna design and certification, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

Details are still coming out, so we don’t know exactly when that stoppage will occur. So what does that mean for TSMC partners who relied on them to produce their products? 

To understand what that means, I spoke to Johannes Schoiswohl, the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Infineon’s GaN Business Line. Infineon may have an easier time than others making this transition, but it’s an interesting time nonetheless. Check out this week’s Embedded Executives podcast to learn more.

In this case, I asked Robert Moran, the GM & VP for Automotive Processors at NXP Semiconductors. As we add AI and autonomous drive to the software-defined vehicle (SDV), a move like this is pretty much a requirement. Hear it right from the horse’s mouth on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

So what’s a manufacturer to do? That’s the concept that was on the table for this week’s Embedded Executives podcast with Eystein Stenberg, founder and CTO of Northern.tech.

To boost my limited knowledge, I invited Sakya Dasgupta, the Founder and CEO, EdgeCortix, to be my guest on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast. He has experience in this space (pun intended) and we discussed what’s happening today and what we can expect in the near future.

On this week’s Embedded Executives podcast. I spoke to Øyvind Strom, the EVP of Nordic’s Short-Range Business Unit. He explains why a developer should sit up and take notice, and what the design community can expect from this powerful combination down the road.

If you fall into that latter group, does that change some of your design decisions, even where you begin? 

Do you start with a Pi, or do you use something that’s more “professional?” 

This is the conversation I had with Okan Saracoglu, the Vice President of Growth at Sixfab. Hear what he had to say on the subject forward, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

To remedy the situation, I invited Jill Britton, the Director of Compliance at Perforce, onto this week’s Embedded Executives podcast. Jill explained what the standard is all about and which parts of it are key for embedded developers to understand.

Stay tuned to hear about some of the issues the Foundation has been involved with and what’s been required to keep the community on par with other areas of the technology landscape. And that includes the ORC working group, which you can learn more about on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

When you talk to experts in this space, they’ll tell you that the amount of power needed, specifically the power density, is staggering. One of those experts, Tim Phillips, President, CEO, and Founder of Empower Semiconductor, joined me on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast. He gave some insight into what we need to do to handle the power (and associated heat) issue.

Hear my discussion with Vegard Wollan, Nordic’s President and CEO, where he explains some of the moves he has made in his tenure, and what can be expected going forward, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

Someone has, and that would be PIMIC. To learn what this means and how it works, I spoke to Subi Krishnamurthy, the Founder and CEO of PIMIC, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

Passing the functional safety testing process can be rigorous, especially if you’re going through it for the first time. But even the best experts take at least six months to get software certified. 

To understand exactly what functional safety is, what the testing process is like, and how and when a developer should get started, I spoke to Bill Lamie, the President and CEO of PX5 RTOS, and someone who’s been through the rigors of functional safety testing on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

So, how do you manage that tradeoff, and when you do, what other factors come into play? 

To better handle this topic, I spoke to Praveen Vaidyanathan, the Vice President and General Manager of Micron Technology’s Data Center Business Unit, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

To understand what the current state of the art is, both in terms of power levels and the WiFi standard itself, which is moving to version 7, I spoke to Sivaram Trikutam, the Vice President of Wi-Fi Products for Infineon on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

This sounds like a lot of black magic, but it becomes less cloudy when someone who understands the process walks you through it. To get more clarity for myself, I invited Scot Morrison, the Vice President of Shift Left Software Product Management at Siemens EDA, to be my guest on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast. Scot first lays out the problems, then walks through some of the various solutions.

To understand what that means, I spoke to Denis Noel, the Director of Strategy in the Secure Connected Edge business unit at NXP on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast. Denis walked through each of the various steps a developer should be taking.

I also expressed my frustration on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast with Josh Heller, the Manager of Product Security at Digi International. Josh confirmed my fears, but had some great suggestions to help solve the problem.

I needed to understand how this is possible, so I invited Michael Wishart, the CEO and co-founder of Efabless, to explain how it works on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast, with Kumar Gala and Maureen Helm, both Distinguished Engineers with Analog Devices.

That’s where ClearBlade comes in, with its framework that developers “design to,” using hardware, software, and even terminology that the design community is accustomed to. That process may seem vague and complex, but it needn’t be, as stated by Aaron Allsbrook, the Co-Founder and CTO of ClearBlade, in this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

Obviously, there are different requirements within this range. 

When you’re choosing an MCU for this space, you had better understand what your specific requirements are. Making the wrong choice will likely have an impact on the efficiency of your end product, which could result in higher power consumption, less heat, and so on. To understand where a designer should start the MCU selection process, I spoke to Steve Tateosian, the Senior Vice President of Consumer, IoT, and Industrial MCUs at Infineon, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

Myth: Raspberry Pi is not a secure platform.

I believed in that myth until a recent conversation with Alex Kaay, the CTO and co-founder of Zymbit. The beauty of the Pi is in its simplicity, but don’t equate simplicity with unsecure. Alex walked me through why people's beliefs are what they are, and more importantly, why those beliefs are misguided. Check out this week’s Embedded Executives podcast and see if you’re a believer.

I asked them to join me together because they have partnered on some interesting Edge AI technologies. We walked through the Renesas vision and strategy for AI and machine learning (ML) and how that led to the partnership with EdgeCortix. More importantly, we discussed what that means to the design engineer and the embedded community at large.

I wanted to understand what the results of the user study showed. Do developers feel confident in deploying the technology? How does it work globally? To understand more I spoke to the Alliance’s Chairwoman and CEO, Donna Moore, on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

I know Z Wave has been around for quite some time, but the Alliance was previously a manufacturer-owned group, and now it’s independent. That “launch” comes on the heels of a second supplier being added to the mix. Previously, you had to go to Silicon Labs to get your transceivers. Now that the spec is truly open, other transceiver manufacturers will likely come on line, and Trident IoT is the first to join. To hear more about what this means and where the spec and the Alliance is headed, check out this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

To understand more about the new device family, I sat down with Steve Tateosian, Senior Vice President of the IoT, Compute, and Wireless Business Unit at Infineon Technologies. Hear from the expert about what choices are available to you in this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

To try and understand this dilemma and the potential solution(s), I spoke to Marcus Webster, who is the principal of Webster & Webster Associates and a recruiter for most of the companies that you’re aware of. Check out this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

As a sidenote, the LoRa Alliance will be holding its first live event of 2023, LoRaWAN Live, in a couple of weeks in Orlando. 

And you may want to check out the End of Year Report that Donna references in the podcast.

To try, yet again, to understand why we still have the same discussions over and over, I spoke to Paul Chawla, the CEO of Eurotech. Eurotech likes to live on the Edge of the IoT, so they well understand the need for advanced security at the Edge, in the Cloud, at the endpoint. Hear what Paul had to say on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

For those of you who agree with Bob Scaccia's perspective, here’s his ask: help him, help us, help our firmware community by coming together and consistently explaining why firmware matters. If we align and educate from the same viewpoint, we can turn firmware from invisible to visible, and give the discipline the respect it deserves in this era of mass device and IoT adoption. Only acting in unity can we educate the media and the general public as well. On your mobile device, text yesfirmware to 877-379-4135 join the movement to make firmware visible.

And be sure to check out the other stops we’ve made on the road to embedded world: AVerMedia, WINSYSTEMS, Diamond Systems, MACTRON GROUP, MiTAC, Neousys Technology, SECO, and iBase Technology.

 Check out the other stops we’ve made on the road to embedded world: MACTRON GROUP, MiTAC, Neousys Technology, SECO, and iBase Technology.

According to Steve Hanna, a Distinguished Engineer at Infineon Technologies, Matter will be raising the security bar to where it needs to be. Obviously, security is a moving target, and the group will continue to evolve the standard.

Our second guest, Chris LaPre, Director of Technology for the CSA, speaks from the Alliance’s perspective on what needs to happen to get a large number of influential contributors to agree on a standard that continually keeps the end user in mind. 

Hear all that and more in this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

Note that Alan is also a speaker at this year’s IoT Device Security Conference, talking place on Nov. 9 (and available any time after that). Lots of good talks, all looking at different aspects of IoT Device security, including the automotive, and industrial and consumer applications.

In case you were wondering, Part I looked at the general definition of AIoT, which you likely know, means different things to different people. Then in Part II, Allan and I discuss whether there’s really a need for AIoT, and if the current solutions are really solutions.

In part I, Allan and I put down our collective definitions of AIoT - level the playing field, so to speak.

PS: Have you seen the Wind River web site lately? I have to admit it had been a while for me, and it’s very different from what used to be there. Check it out.

week’s Embedded Executives podcast, where I spoke to Alan Grau, the Vice President of IoT and Embedded Solutions at Sectigo.

If you look at the list of collaborators, you have to believe that this standard will stick. It includes Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance. To describe what the standard is and how it works, I spoke to Steve Hanna, a multi-hatted engineer. Steve is a Senior Principal at Infineon Technologies, Co-Chair of the Embedded Systems Work Group in the Trusted Computing Group (TCG), and he is my guest on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

One IC vendor that’s sticking his proverbial neck out in the RISC-V space is GigaDevice. The company is betting that the tools are ready and they’re better than “good enough.” That was opined by Reuben Townsend, a European FAE for GigaDevice in this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

They claim that with enough data in hand, they can tell you whether you have the infection simply by coughing into a microphone. And the test should produce results that are about 90% accurate. Wow! To be clear, this does not meet the requirements of a clinical tool, but it’s a fantastic start.

When I heard about this, I knew I had to hear more, so I dialed up SensiML’s CEO, Chris Rogers, who explained exactly how it works in our Special Edition of the Embedded Executive podcasts.

These are just some of the questions I threw at Kate Stewart, a Senior Director of Strategic Programs for the Linux Foundation, the governing body of Zephyr in this week’s Five Minutes With…discussion.