Embedded Systems Conference Boston 2011 Sessions Schedule

ESC Boston 2011 will take place on the 26-29 September 2011, four days of hands-on training, educational sessions and an interactive exhibit hall.

There are 5 programs during the event:

• ESC Boston – Embedded software development tutorials for Android, Linux, microprocessors, QA, C programming, etc…
• DesignCon East – Hardware tutorials, e.g. SDRAM debugging, hardware encryption…
• DesignMED – Embedded systems development for embedded medical devices.
• Designing with LEDs! – LED hardware and drivers.
• DesignDays – Embedded systems sessions mainly presented by semiconductor companies and hands-on tutorials on specific platforms such as Beagleboard or TI MSP430 Chronos Wireless Watch.

There are simply too many sessions (over 170) to list them all here. So I’ll selected a few among ESC Boston and DesignDays that look particularly interesting:

• Android Jump Start (Monday 26 – 8:00 – 17:00) by William Gatliff (Consultant, Freelance) and Karim Yaghmour (CEO, Opersys Inc.) .
  The features that make Android a great cell phone operating system can also make it a great OS for your next embedded application. This presentation covers important topics like what types of applications can benefit most from Android, how to adapt it for use in non-cell-phone hardware, basic programming techniques, how to implement device drivers and native applications under Android, and numerous programming examples and demonstrations.

• Manging Firmware Projects (Monday 26 – 8:00 – 17:00) by Jack Ganssle (Chief Engineer, The Ganssle Group).
  For all of the talk about technology, there is much too little said about managing the technology and managing the process of bringing an embedded system from concept to production. This tutorial covers managing schedules, dealing with difficult developers, creating and managing project specifications and expectations, creating an environment where developers will thrive, managing bugs to dramatically reduce development time, fixing the feature/schedule/quality conflict, and learning from mistakes and successes.

• Beyond Makefiles – Building Large-scale C Projects (Tuesday 8:00- 9:15) by Michael Shal (Senior Staff Engineer, The PTR Group).
  Are you tired of waiting for make to find the one C file that you changed? Do you want to take advantage of your multi-core system to compile in parallel but are afraid that the build won’t be reliable? Do you perform a clean build before checking in because you don’t trust your build system? You’re not alone. Learn why make fails its basic promise of a working and scalable build system, why the prevailing wisdom found in Recursive Make Considered Harmful is wrong, and what you can do about it.

• Kinect Teardown and Giveaway (Tuesday 12:00-12:45).
  Join us in the DesignDays Theater on the show floor to tear apart and take a look at the Kinect for Xbox 360. Kinect brings games and entertainment to life in extraordinary new ways without using a controller, allowing you to control movies and music with the wave of a hand or the sound of your voice. Stay for the entire presentation for your chance to win (and take home) your very own 250GB Xbox 360 Kinect bundle.

• Easily Create a Custom Embedded Linux for Your Embedded Device – on Any Architecture! (Tuesday 12:45- 13:30) by Mark Hatle (Senior Member of Technical Staff, Wind River) .
  Here’s your chance to get a complete overview of the Yocto Project*; an open source collaboration project that provides templates, tools and methods to help you create custom Linux-based systems for embedded products regardless of the hardware architecture.  Learn about why a developer might care about using the Yocto Project and the process of developing your own custom embedded Linux distribution for an embedded product.

• Android’s Open Accessory Kit (Tuesday 14:00- 16:45) by Michael Anderson (Chief Scientist, The PTR Group, Inc.) .
  Google announced a new initiative that’s focused on extending Android beyond the phone. The Android Open Accessory Kit is an Arduino-based platform (and now MicroChip-based) for connecting your Android device to things in the physical world. But, how does it work? What can you interface to? And, how does this play into the Android at Home platform? Come to this presentation and find out.

• USB 3 – An Introduction for Embedded Software Developers (Tuesday 14:00- 16:45) by Stephen Olsen (Software Architect, Embedded Systems Div, Mentor Graphics)
  USB is widely deployed in embedded devices of all kinds, resulting in simple interconnectivity and interoperability. This simplicity comes at a cost: the internal functions of USB are quite complex. This is of no consequence to the user of a USB-enabled device, but the embedded software developer does need some understanding of USB internals. Even if a commercial USB stack is employed, an appreciation of how it works enables it to be used optimally. In this session, the history and internal operation of USB will be reprised in detail. Then, the changes and enhancements that come along with USB 3 will be reviewed.

• Beagleboard 101 ( Wednesday 8:00- 9:15) by Jason Kridner (Software Architect and Community Develop, Texas Instruments)
   Learn or refresh yourself on the basics of running Linux on the BeagleBoard, how to engage the BeagleBoard community, detail the boot process and survey the available community and commercial software that might be of greatest interest.  A short update on the Linaro and Yocto Project community oriented organizations will be given and everyone will make sure they can boot and navigate the software installed on the provided boards.

• Embedded IPv6 Ready or Not, Here it Comes (Wednesday 8:00- 9:15) by Thomas Cantrell (Engineering Mgr, Networking, Green Hills Software) and Dave Kleidermacher (CTO, Green Hills Software)
   Embedded systems, such as home appliances and automobile electronics, are becoming new members of the Internet of Things adding features such as field upgrade, remote management, and application downloads. The growth of these new devices adding further pressure to the nearly exhausted IPv4 address space. In addition, new US Government initiatives are increasing the interest in IPv6 network connectivity not only in the government and the carrier market, but also even now in the enterprise and the home. Enterprise customers are increasingly demanding support for IPv6 from their vendors. This class starts by talking about the technical details of IPv6 in relation to traditional IPv4 networking. It talks about new requirements and standards. It then goes to explore how to add and support IPv6 at a system level and then at an application level. Finally, it offers suggestions on how to become more oriented with IPv6 networks.

• Linux LCD Integration with the BeagleBoardToys ULCD-Lite ( Wednesday 14:00- 15:15)
  Learn how to interface a system-on-a-chip running Linux to an LCD panel by deriving new panel drivers from existing panel drivers.  The basics will be explained with the existing ULCD-Lite integration and some topics regarding system integration will be covered.  Students will be able to extend their Linux kernel driver to support additional display timings and modes.

• More Embedded Linux Jumpstart (Wednesday 14:00- 16:45) by  William Gatliff (Consultant, Freelance).
  A fast-paced introduction to the most important subjects you need to know when using Linux in an embedded application. The presentation begins with a list of the needed source code, and ends with a fully functional embedded Linux system. Presentations include kernel modules, licensing issues, debugging techniques, real- time capabilities, embedded-related APIs, firmware update techniques, and more.

• MSP430 Chronos Wireless Watch Lab & Tutorial for Interfacing with Linux-based BeagleBoard (Wednesday 15:30- 16:45) by Adrian Fernandez (Product Marketing Engineer, Texas Instruments).
   Come on by to learn about sub 1GHz RF peer to peer wireless networks using the MSP430 Chronos watch! Attendees will receive an eZ430-Chronos watch, which will be paired with a random watch that has been given to another attendee. The pair that can enable a wireless connection and find their partner can win some cool prizes! To end it off, we will also provide a live demonstration on how to wirelessly interface the eZ430-Chronos watch to the linux-based BeagleBoard! Stream accelerometer, temperature & other data wirelessly using these cool TI solutions!

• Embedded Android Workshop (Thursday 8:00-12:15) by Karim Yaghmour (CEO, Opersys Inc.)
  Part of the Android Certificate Program. Bring a notebook with a minimum of 3 MB of memory and at least one of the following CPUs Intel Core2 Duo, Core i5, or Core i7 2.5 GHz or higher OR AMD Phenom or Phenom II.

• Best Practices in Designing Low Power Embedded Systems (Thursday 9:30-10:45) by Bhanu Kapoor (Consultant, Mimasic)
  We focus on the power management architecture verification experiences of Wireless SoCs and specifically focus on the tasks for validating a power managed ARM Cortex A-8 core used in SoCs targeted for mobile segment. Power techniques used on the chip include clock gating, voltage scaling, and power gating. We focus on the verification challenges faced in designing the processor core including RTL modeling of power switches, isolation, and level-shifting cells, simulation of voltage ramps, and generation of appropriate control signals to put the device into various power states.

• Device Drivers Demystified (Thursday 9:30-12:15) by Doug Abbott (Firmware/Software Engineer, Intellimetrix)
  Application programmers often view device drivers as some sort of black magic. All that bowing and scraping to the operating system. The objective of this class is to make the case that drivers really aren’t that mysterious.So what is a device driver? Fundamentally, it’s just a mechanism to abstract out the often messy details of hardware devices and present a uniform set of APIs to the application programmer, who can then deal with the device as a simple source and/or sink of data. We’ll develop an abstract model of a device driver independent of any specific operating system. We’ll explore issues such as: how the driver connects with the rest of the system, how to identify and connect to a specific device, what happens if the device has no data or can’t accept data.Then we’ll go on to look at how Linux treats device drivers.

You can access the full schedule on ESB Boston 2011 schedule page.

As with other conferences, there are different registration packages (1-day, 2-days, full pass…). Visit ESC Boston Package and Pricing for details on the packages and the entrance fees. You can get 10% discount with the Promo code: AD1. Discounts are also available for students.

There is also the free Exhibits Pass that will give you access to:

• ESC, DesignCon & DesignMED Expo Floors (September 27 & 28)
• Keynotes & Industry Addresses
• Sponsored Training Sessions
• Opening Night Reception
• DesignDays Theater Sessions
• UBM Electronics Product & Exhibitor Directory

So that means most DesignDays (DD) trainings can be accessed with the free pass as most of them are sponsored.

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