ARM TechCon 2012: Software & System Design Schedule

ARM Technology Conference (TechCon) 2012 will take place on October 30 – November 1, 2011, in Santa Clara, and UBM Electronics has already posted the detailed schedule for the event. The first day (October 30) will be Chip Designs day and the other 2 days will focus on Software & System Design. Even if, like me, you are not be able to go there, it’s still interesting to know what will be discussed at the conference, to have a better idea where ARM is going, and what new technologies and/or development techniques are (or will become) available.

There will be around 70 sessions categorized in 15 tracks:

Android / Open Source – Development tools, middleware for native application development, and optimized drivers for Android, Linux, FreeRTOS etc …
Compute Platforms – Development and implementation of standards and specifications, from board/module design to consumer and server designs
Developing / Debugging – Programming and debugging for ARM, power optimized software across multicore platforms where processing is shared across different size processors and GPUs.
Keynote
Low Power Design – Development and use of hardware and software techniques to maximize performance while reducing power use and trade-offs.
Microcontroller & Programmable Platforms – Specification and design of off-the-shelf devices, development tools and systems which simplify programming and application design. Design and use of embedded cores on FPGAs.
Multimedia Processing: Graphics, Audio, Video – Graphics, Audio & Video Designing for and exploiting Mali GPUs, and software optimized 3D graphics middleware, video engine architecture and audio processing.
Networking & Connectivity – Hardware and software integration of wired and wireless connectivity, implementation of networking stacks and power management.
Safety & Security – How to develop secure services within TrustZone, development of firmware for safety and security against tampering in hardware and/or software, physical or network interference.
SoC Architecture & Analysis – Architectural choices, IP integration issues, and system analysis.
SoC Design & Verification – Design and verification flow for ARM processor-based SoCs, from conceptual frameworks to best practices
SoC Design for Power & Performance – Techniques that can be used to match performance or power targets
SoC IP – IP qualification process and some novel new alternatives in IP for ARM processor-based SoCs.
Software Optimization on ARM-Powered Systems – ARM code generation and profiling tools, methods and metrics to measure performance and identify bottlenecks. Examination of system and hardware issues and their impact on performance including use of software with big.LITTLE.
The Fundamentals of ARM

The “Chip Designs” tracks are the one starting with “SoC”, all other tracks will take place during the “Software & System Design” days.

Here’s the schedule for Software & System Design events on the 31th of October.

Time	Session	Track
10:30	Embedded Java in Smart Energy and Healthcare – Oracle	Software Optimization on ARM-Powered Systems
10:30	Hardware/Software Co-design – Mistral Solutions Pvt Ltd	Low Power Design
10:30	Introduction to ARM – ARM	The Fundamentals of ARM
10:30	OS Porting and Analysis for Dual-Core ARM Cortex-A9 Based Systems – Imperas	Developing / Debugging
10:30	New Approach to Near Field Communication – AltiMega	Networking & Connectivity
10:30	Systemwide Security and the TrustZone Ready Program – ARM	The Fundamentals of ARM
11:30	A Beginners Guide to ARM Microcontrollers – ARM	The Fundamentals of ARM
11:30	Avoiding Multicore Race Conditions in Linux/Android – The PTR Group	Android / Open Source
11:30	Iterative Optimizations for Common Workloads on ARM Servers – Canonical	Software Optimization on ARM-Powered Systems
11:30	Practical Cortex Debugging: Serial Wire Viewer, ETM, and PTM Tracing – ARM	Developing / Debugging
11:30	Trusted Execution Environment and Virtualization: Similarities and Differences – Trusted Logic Mobility	Safety & Security
11:30	Wireless Connectivity for the Internet of Things – Avnet	Networking & Connectivity
13:30	Advanced Compiler Optimizations for the Smallest, Fastest Code – Green Hills Software	Software Optimization on ARM-Powered Systems
13:30	ARMv1 to ARMv8: The evolution of an Architecture – ARM	The Fundamentals of ARM
13:30	Java SE Embedded Development on ARM Made Easy – Oracle	Developing / Debugging
13:30	Maximize 4G-Network Performance through Advanced Packet-Processing Solutions and Multicore-Software Optimizations – 6WIND	Networking & Connectivity
13:30	Security Architectures for Mobile Platforms – AuthenTec	Safety & Security
14:30	Application Parallelization for Multicore Android Devices – Vector Fabrics BV	Software Optimization on ARM-Powered Systems
14:30	Developing Safety Critical Applications that Meet IEC 61508 Standards Using cSoCs with Embedded ARM Cortex-M3 and FPGA – MicroSemi Corporation	Safety & Security
14:30	Embedding TCP/IP: Working Through Implementation Challenges – Micrium	Networking & Connectivity
14:30	Improving the Speed and Debug Ability of Emulation/Prototyping Phase of ARM SoC Development – Cadence	Developing / Debugging
15:30	An Overview of CMSIS-RTOS – Feabhas Ltd.	The Fundamentals of ARM
15:30	Meeting Smart Energy Profile 2.0 Compliance: Developing Power-Aware Embedded Systems for the SmartGrid – Mentor Graphics	Safety & Security
15:30	Multicore Development Challenges in Embedded Space – Freescale	Developing / Debugging
15:30	Toward a Coding Standard for the ARM Architecture – ARM	Software Optimization on ARM-Powered Systems
15:30	Transitioning from IPv4 to IPv6 – The PTR Group	Networking & Connectivity

Here’s the schedule for Software & System Design events on the 1st of November:

Time	Session	Track
10:30	Advances in big.LITTLE Technology for Power and Energy Savings – ARM	Compute Platforms
10:30	Analysis of Software-Driven Power-Management Policies Using Functional Virtual Platforms – Cadence Design Systems	Low Power Design
10:30	ARM MCUs: The Chorus Line of Microcontrollers Ready for Off-the-Shelf Programming – Strategy Sanity	Microcontroller & Programmable Platforms
10:30	Introduction to OpenCL Programming for ARM CPUs and GPUs – ARM	Multimedia Processing: Graphics, Audio, Video
10:30	Port Your Operating System to Cortex-A – VU University Amsterdam	Android / Open Source
11:30	Audio Synthesis and Dynamic Filtering in Real Time with Linux and Assorted Open-Source Software on Cortex-Ax-Based Hardware – Embedded Artisan	Android / Open Source
11:30	Designing Your System for High Reliability – Green Hills Software	Developing / Debugging
11:30	Power Optimizations in System Design from Core DVFS Control to Peripheral Power-Aware Drivers – Embedded Artisan	Low Power Design
11:30	GPGPU on ARM – The PTR Group	Compute Platforms
11:30	Small Footprint Java-Based GUI Design for Cortex-M Processors – IS2T	Microcontroller & Programmable Platforms
11:30	Take GPU Processing Power Beyond Graphics with GPU Computing on Mali – ARM	Multimedia Processing: Graphics, Audio, Video
13:30	Accelerating Multimedia Performance of Your ARM Processor with a Coprocessor – Xilinx	Multimedia Processing: Graphics, Audio, Video
13:30	Achieving Maximum Motor Efficiency with Dual-Core SoC FPGAs – Altera	Microcontroller & Programmable Platforms
13:30	Low-Power-Design Techniques for Microcontrollers and Embedded SoCs – ARM	Low Power Design
13:30	Patterns for Machine-to-Machine Solutions with Cloud – IBM	Compute Platforms
13:30	Porting Linux to Emerging ARM Server Systems – Red Hat	Android / Open Source
14:30	Early Bring-Up and Optimization of Android Stacks for ARM big.LITTLE Processing – ARM	Android / Open Source
14:30	Exploring and Developing with ARM Cortex-M4F Microcontrollers (with Floating Point) – Texas Instruments	Microcontroller & Programmable Platforms
14:30	Low-Power and Multicore Processing: Optimizing Performance and Power with Programmable Systems – Xilinx	Low Power Design
14:30	Taking Advantage of Quad ARM Cortex A-9 CPUs and ARM Mali GPUs for Rich Graphical Effects – Mentor Graphics	Multimedia Processing: Graphics, Audio, Video
14:30	ULP-COM: Ultralow-Power Modular ARM Implementation – Kontron	Compute Platforms
15:30	Algorithmic Acceleration of Processing Systems Using High-Level Synthesis – Xilinx	Microcontroller & Programmable Platforms
15:30	Building a big.LITTLE Processing and Mali Compute Subsystem: An Overview from Linux to GDSII – ARM	Compute Platforms
15:30	Get Up and Running Quickly with Embedded Vision Using OpenCV on Android – BDTI	Android / Open Source
15:30	Implementing Software Methods To Manage Power Usage in Battery-Powered Embedded Devices – Mentor Graphics	Low Power Design
15:30	Safety Features and Standards for Cortex-R Processors in Embedded Systems – ARM	Safety & Security

Compared to last year, new subjects have appeared such as big.LITTLE processing and GPGPU which have only been recently available with Cortex A15/A7 cores and Mali-T6xx GPUs, and this year there will be talks about ARM servers and M2M & the internet of things.

If you would like to go to ARM TechCon 2012 and attend any of these sessions, you can register online. You could also pay onsite, but this is usually more expensive.

	Super Early Ends 6/30	Early Bird Ends 9/7	Advanced Ends 10/29	Onsite 10/31 – 11/1
All Access	$899	$999	$1,099	$1,299
2 Day Pass	$699	$799	$899	$1,099
1 Day Pass	$399	$499	$599	$799
Expo Pass	FREE	FREE	FREE	FREE

It’s too late for Super Early discount, but you can also use the promo code “TWITTER” to get 15% discount. [Update: If it does not work, you can try to use “LINKEDIN”]

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.