MCUs and analog. That’s generally not a combination you hear too often. But there are so many circumstances where they should be combined. Performing this operation with discrete components is one option, and it’s the one most engineers use. But there are lots of advantages to having those analog peripherals integrated on-chip.

As Rich and Vin will tell you in this episode of DevTalk, people like Renesas are making this process less painful than it was in the past. Check out this episode of DevTalk with Rich and Vin.

When you are developing an application using a particular MCU, likely one of the popular models, maybe built around an Arm core, you have a few different paths you can take. You can go at it on your own, you can get an assist from the MCU vendor, or you can partner with a third party to get you past the rough patches. Each of these choices comes with different tradeoffs, including the costs, design times, and a few other factors.

To help you understand how to make these choices for your application, Rich and Vin brought in one of those potential partners to discuss the various trade-offs. This episode of DevTalk with Rich and Vin features Ranganathan SK, the Associate Vice President of Product Engineering Services at MosChip Technologies.

Nary does a conversation take place these days in my professional circles without some mention of AI. And for good reason. It’s not just the latest cool technology. It is, without question, a game changer.

However, AI does come with a downside, and a potentially deep and dark downside if you believe some “experts.” In fact, that downside can be extremely destructive. Hence, who should be watching over the makers of this technology to ensure it is used in a safe and viable manner?

That’s a question that is not easily answered, as you will hear on this episode of DevTalk with Rich and Vin, with special guest Dr. David Utzke, a former U.S. Treasury cybercrimes technologist.

The community has been designing embedded systems for a very long time. If we look at one slice of time, say the last 25 years, how have embedded systems changed over the last 25 years?

The short answer is: immensely.

You could argue that there’s very little resemblance between today’s AI-based computing platforms and large, generally single-function embedded computers of yesteryear.

Rich and Vin decided to dive deeper into the topic, and it became quite animated in the latest episode of DevTalk with Rich and Vin.

Do you know the difference between a microcontroller and a microprocessor, aka an MCU and an MPU?

Many people use the terms interchangeably, but that would be inaccurate. But more importantly, when do you use one versus the other in your design?

That’s the topic Rich and Vin tackle in this episode of DevTalk with Rich and Vin, using the Renesas devices as examples.

embedded world North America is right around the corner (Sept. 22-24, Anaheim, CA). The topics at the conference are fairly diverse, but many have a common theme, namely, AI.

Artificial intelligence is creeping into all aspects of our lives, including what and how we design our embedded products.

To see specifically how this technology integrates with the embedded world program, Rich and Vin sat down with Jason Hallstrom, the Chairman of the Embedded World technical conference. Check out the latest episode of DevTalk with Rich and Vin.

MCU vendors always knew that, regardless of what they might say, it was relatively easy to retain existing customers and quite difficult to get engineers to switch from a competitive architecture.

The biggest reason for that is the tons of software that the customer already has in its arsenal, and the difficulty of rewriting that code for a different architecture.

However, and this is a biggie, AI potentially removes that hurdle and might allow for a complete code rewrite in a pretty short amount of time. That’s a game-changer (maybe good, maybe bad) for the MCU vendors.

Hear what Rich and Vin have to say about it on this episode of DevTalk with Rich and Vin.

AI means different things to different people. For example, a marketer might have a different definition than an engineer when asked what AI is. In today’s complex world, both may be right. But when consumers need to understand what is AI about their devices, the waters can get muddied pretty quickly.

On this episode of DevTalk with Rich and Vin, we share our definitions, which are open to debate.

Once the AI issue is cleared up, Rich and Vin discuss a recent news item—Arm is becoming a silicon provider. While that could mean lots of things to Arm’s existing customers, we look at how it might affect the engineering community.