Ferrous Systems GmbH’s Post

#WikiToday 🚀 New to embedded programming? Meet MicroBlocks, a beginner-friendly block-based language that lets anyone (from kids to adults) code microcontrollers in minutes. Unlike its simplicity suggests, MicroBlocks is powerful—with support for GPIO, I2C, SPI, serial communication, nearly 200 libraries, and faster performance than MicroPython. Perfect for rapid prototyping, it makes coding with our XIAO ESP32C3 fun and interactive. 💡 Our latest wiki guide walks you through setting up MicroBlocks on the XIAO ESP32C3, covering firmware installation, connecting your board, and even your first LED blink project. With Wi-Fi + BLE connectivity and a smooth live-coding environment, you can see results instantly as you build and test scripts. Start exploring hardware programming the easy way! Check out the full guide here 👉 https://bit.ly/46lChS8 #SeeedXIAO #micropython #microblocks #esp32 #LED #WikiGuide

Lot of truth in this. My colleague recently used the Zephyr real time I/O framework to sample sensor data. It was far too slow and nothing like the maximum theoretical sampling speed. After much hair pulling and swearing he ripped it all out and wrote his own sampling code, at which point we hit the rate we needed. Don’t get me wrong. I am not anti-RTOS (if it’s well written and not a pile of complex non-functional comp-sci nonsense, naming no names). But as with security by design, understand your use case, understand the challenge. Know what tools are available. And make good architectural choices based on your project needs rather than blindly jumping into whatever people are trying to sell you as “the one true solution”

Explore Gluon, a GPU programming language sharing Triton's compiler stack, offering fine-grained kernel control for enhanced performance. Unlike Triton, Gluon exposes details like tile layouts and memory management, enabling hand-tuned optimizations. Use Cases: - Developing custom kernels requiring specific memory access patterns. - Optimizing performance-critical sections of existing Triton code. Impact: Empowers developers to maximize GPU utilization. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/giSQ3kGP #GPUprogramming #KernelDevelopment #HighPerformanceComputing #Triton #Gluon

🏗️ Embedded Software Architecture — Explained Simply In this session, I break down the layers of embedded software architecture — from application code to hardware abstraction — and highlight the key tools that support each layer. Whether you’re building bare-metal systems or prepping for RTOS, understanding this flow is essential. ▶️ Playlist: https://lnkd.in/gGm-cRTA 📺 Watch now: https://lnkd.in/gK-n8E7Q #BitflipAcademy #EmbeddedSystems #BareMetal #SoftwareArchitecture #STM32 #TechnicalEducation

I completed "C Programming for Embedded Applications" #embeddedc, #c.

🔧 Bit Tricks Every Embedded Engineer Should Know Working close to hardware means working with bits. Here are 3 tiny, constant-time C patterns you’ll use everywhere: ⚡ Set / Clear a Bit → Use OR (|) with a mask to set, AND (& ~) to clear. 🔄 Toggle a Bit → XOR (^) flips only the target bit (perfect for flags). 👀 Check a Bit → AND (&) isolates the bit; nonzero = set. These patterns are the backbone of register manipulation, driver code, and even interview questions. Clean, fast, and reliable. #Embedded #CProgramming #Firmware #BitManipulation #LowLevel For more details, please refer to the following article:

🔹 Small keyword, big impact: volatile in firmware In firmware engineering, sometimes a single keyword decides whether your system runs smoothly or fails in mysterious ways. The volatile keyword in C tells the compiler: 👉 “Don’t make assumptions. This value can change anytime — trust me, just read it.” Without it, compilers might optimize away crucial reads/writes to hardware registers or shared memory, causing bugs that are incredibly hard to trace. 💡 That’s what excites me about firmware development — the tiny details (like a single keyword) have a huge impact on hardware reliability, performance, and ultimately the user experience. 👉 Have you ever spent hours debugging, only to find the fix was just one line of code? #EmbeddedSystems #Debugging #FirmwareEngineering #CProgramming

Why Rust is an Excellent Choice for Embedded Development Developing embedded systems has always been an area where stability and efficiency are crucial. Every byte of memory and every millisecond of processor time matters. Traditionally, C and C++ have been used for such tasks, but today Rust is emerging as a language that combines high performance, reliability, and modern syntax. Read full article: https://lnkd.in/eK2GPSxf

As embedded projects grow in complexity, concurrency problems creep in: ⚠️ Race conditions ⚠️ Deadlocks ⚠️ Priority inversions ⚠️ Starvation ⚠️ Missed deadlines The result? Spaghetti code & unresponsive threads. A better approach: the Active Object pattern. By combining shared-state concurrency, OOP, and event-driven programming, we can eliminate blocking code, keep objects fully encapsulated, and build systems that stay responsive—even under demanding conditions. Clean architecture = reliable embedded systems. 🚀 #EmbeddedSystems #Firmware #RTOS #SoftwareArchitecture #Engineering #SafetyCritical #RealTimeSystems #Aerospace #Technology

Really nice quantum programming review by Thomas Cherickal. Definitely worth reading. Especially the code comparisons. Here is the summary for Quantinuum: “Quantinuum's stack offers a unique three-tier architecture designed for both near-term and fault-tolerant quantum computing, with Guppy providing high-level programming, Selene handling mid-level optimization, and Helios managing low-level hardware control.” And, this is just the beginning! https://lnkd.in/eaAVpUKd