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How to develop SMP-friendly embedded code

By Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on May 13, 2009 5:47 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Recent years have seen a rapid increase in the use of multicore devices in the PC market, writes Paul Tingey of Wind River. This trend is now being replicated in the device software environment with dual-core and many-core devices being released by a wide range of silicon vendors.

While these multicore devices clear the way for increased performance, this can only be achieved if software developers adapt the way they write code so that it fully uses the newly realised hardware resources they have available. Here is an outline of the multicore programming "problem" and list five top tips for software developers to prepare themselves for the new "parallel landscape" in front of them.

Here are the 5 tips:

Tip 1: Be Aware of the Hardware Beneath You

Tip 2: Avoid Assumptions Based on Single Core Hardware

Tip 3: Parallelise to Optimise

Tip 4: Be Prepared for More Complex Debug Problems

Tip 5: Use the Three-Step Port, Test, Optimise Paradigm

Read about the tips in depth: How to develop SMP-friendly embedded code

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Hans Juergen Rauscher
Hans Juergen Rauscher is one of Wind River's most experienced Systems Architects. Based in the 'Munich' office in Ismaning, he joined Wind River in 2000 to work with some of the best-known telecoms and networking brands in the world, helping to integrate Wind River Linux for Carrier Grade applications, his main area of expertise within Open Source. 'HJ', as he is inevitably called by his English colleagues, is a keen writer and an avid motorsports addict - as anyone who's survived being driven by him will attest to.

Richard Danter
Richard, of Wind River, has been in the embedded software industry since leaving University in 1994. He worked at a major electronics manufacturer developing set-top boxes for Digital Satellites, focusing on Board Support Packages and Device Drivers for the pSOS+ Real-Time OS. He joined EST Corp, a JTAG tools company in 1999, before it was acquired by Wind River. He now participates in presenting Wind River Linux training courses.

One of Richard's main claims to fame is a series of U-Boot ports to various boards. Richard has used and explored Linux since 1996. He lives on the south coast. Besides 'anything Linux', Richard lists photography among his interests and took the self-portrait you see here!

Mark Day
Mark Day is Wind River's youngest Technical Account Manager. He joined Wind River at just 24 in 2007 to work with some of Europe's top robotics and telecoms manufacturers, integrating customised open-source packages and providing customer service to tailor Wind River Linux and VxWorks to customer specs. Mark also demonstrates Wind River Linux to device design teams that are considering going Open Source in their next project. Plus he's unstoppable on the rugby pitch!