The engineering index
Where embedded work is documented
A reference for the people who design, program and debug systems that have to run without a screen, without a user and without a reboot.
01
Domains
Four areas
MCU / MPU
Microcontrollers
Architectures, toolchains and the trade-off between a part that is cheap and a part that will still be sourceable in seven years.
RTOS
Real-Time Systems
Scheduling, latency budgets and what a deadline actually means when missing it is a failure rather than a delay.
02
Form Factors of Record
Four standards
Four mechanical standards shaped industrial computing for two decades. Most are no longer specified for new designs, and all four are still running in equipment that will outlive the companies that built it.
PC/104
Stackable boards on standoffs, no backplane, no cage. Designed for vibration and for places nobody will ever service.
90 x 96 mm
1992
ISA, stacked
VMEbus
The rack standard of industrial and defence computing. Eurocard mechanics, a parallel backplane, and a service life measured in decades.
160 x 233 mm
1981
VME, parallel
CompactPCI
PCI signalling in Eurocard form, with hot swap and positive retention. The bridge between the VME world and the PC world.
160 x 100 mm
1995
PCI, backplane
TMS320
Not a form factor but a dynasty: the DSP family that defined how fixed-point signal processing was taught, written and shipped.
silicon
1983
Harvard, MAC
Long-life design
Parts you can still buy in 2033
Selecting a controller for a product with a ten-year service life is a sourcing decision wearing an engineering costume. Peripherals decide whether the design works; availability decides whether it ships in year seven.
03
Recent entries
Newest first
TMS320: the DSP family that taught fixed point
The TMS32010 shipped in 1983. It had 144 words of on-chip data RAM, a 16 by 16 multiplier that produced a result in one instruction cycle, and a Harvard…
CompactPCI: PCI in a Eurocard
By the mid-nineties the PC industry had a fast, cheap, well-supported bus, and the industrial world had mechanics that could survive a factory floor….
Latency budgets: what a deadline actually costs
A real-time system is not a fast system. It is a system whose worst case is known. The distinction decides the architecture, the operating system, and often…
Choosing a microcontroller you can still buy in 2033
Selecting a part for a product with a ten-year service life is a sourcing decision wearing an engineering costume. Peripherals and clock speed decide whether…
PC/104: stacking instead of a backplane
PC/104 solved a mechanical problem before it solved an electrical one. An industrial controller that has to survive vibration cannot rely on a card edge…
VMEbus: the rack that outlived its industry
VMEbus was specified in 1981 around the Motorola 68000 and the Eurocard mechanics that European instrument makers already had on the shelf. Forty years later…