The Embedded Systems Conference 2017 will take place over two days in Boston, US on May 3-4, and the organizers have published the schedule of the event. Even if you’re not going to attend, you’ll often learn something or find new information by just checking out the talks and abstracts, so I’ve created my own virtual schedule with some of the most interesting sessions.

Wednesday, May 3rd

08:00 – 08:45 – Combining OpenCV and High Level Synthesis to Accelerate your FPGA / SoC EV Application by Adam Taylor, Adiuvo Engineering & Training Ltd

This session will demonstrate how you can combine commonly used Open source frameworks such as OpenCV with High Level Synthesis to generate a embedded vision system using FPGA / SoC. The combination of OpenCV and HLS allows for a much faster algorithm development time and consequently a faster time to market for the end application.

09:00 – 09:45 – Understanding the ARM Processor Roadmap by Bob Boys, Product Manager, ARM

In 2008, the ARM processor ranged from the 32-bit ARM7 to the Cortex-A9. There were only three Cortex-M processors. Today the roadmap has extended up to the huge 64-bit Cortex-A72, down to the tiny Cortex-M0 and out to include in the winter 2016, the new Trustzone for ARMv8-M.

The ARM roadmap, in order to effectively service many markets, has grown rather complicated. This presentation will explain the ARM roadmap and offer insights into its features. Questions answered include where processors should be used and sometimes where it makes more sense to use a different processor as well as different instruction and core feature sets.

This will start at ARM 7 TDMI and how and why ARM turned into the Cortex family. Each of the three components: Application (Cortex-A), Real-Time (Cortex-R) and Microcontroller (Cortex-M) will be explained in turn.

10:00 – 10:45 – Mixed Signal Analysis: digital, analog and RF by Mike Borsch, Application Engineer, Rohde & Schwarz

Embedded systems increasingly employ both digital, analog and RF signals. Debugging and analyzing these systems can be challenging in that one needs to measure a number of different signals in one or more domains simultaneously and with tight time synchronization. This session will discuss how a digital oscilloscope can be used to effectively debug these systems, and some of the instrumentation challenges that go along with this.

11:00 – 11:45 – Panel Discussion: The Extinction of the Human Worker? – The Future Role of Collaborative Robots in Smart Manufacturing

12:00 – 12:45 – How Will MedTech Fare in our New Public Policy Environment by Scott Whittaker, President & Chief Executive Officer, Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed)

13:00 – 13:45 – Embedded Systems Safety & Security: Dangerous Flaws in Safety-Critical Device Design by Michael Barr, Co-founder and CTO, Barr Group

When safety-critical devices come online, it is imperative that the devices are not only safe but also secure. Considering the many security concerns that exist in the IoT landscape, attacks on connected safety-critical devices are to be expected and the results could be deadly. By failing to design security into dangerous devices, too many engineers are placing life and limb at risk. Join us for a look at related industry trends and a discussion of how we can work together to put future embedded systems on a more secure path.

14:00 – 14:45 – Intel EPID: An IoT ID Standard for Device Authentication & Privacy by Jennifer Gilburg, Director IoT Identity, Intel Platform Security Division

Approved as a TCG & ISO direct anonymous attestation method and open sourced by Intel—EPID (Enhanced Privacy ID) is a proven solution that has been shipped in over 2.5 billion processors since 2008. EPID authenticates platform identity through remote attestation using asymmetric cryptography with security operations protected in the processors isolated trusted execution environment. With EPID, a single public key can have multiple private keys (typically millions). Verifiers authenticate the device as an anonymous member of the larger group, which protects the privacy of the user and prevents attack maps that can be created from traditional PKI authentication. Learn how to utilize or embed EPID in a device and discover the wide range of use cases EPID enables for IoT including 0 touch secure onboarding to IoT control platforms.

15:00 – 15:45 – Building A Brain With Raspberry Pi and Zulu Embedded JVM by Simon Ritter, Deputy CTO, Azul Systems

Machine and deep learning are very hot topics in the world of IT at the moment with many projects focusing on analyzing big data to make ‘intelligent’ decisions.

In this session, we’ll use a cluster of Raspberry Pis running Azul’s Zulu embedded JVM to build our very own brain. This will use a variety of programming techniques and open source libraries to emulate a brain in learning and adapting to data that is provided to it to solve problems. Since the Raspberry Pi makes connecting sensors straightforward we’ll include some of these to provide external stimulus to our artificial brain.

We’ll conclude with a demonstration of our brain in action learning and adapting to a variety of input data.

16:00 – 16:45 – Vulnerabilities in IoT: Insecure Design Patterns and Steps to Improving Device Security by M. Carlton, VP of Research, Senrio

This talk will explore vulnerabilities resulting from insecure design patterns in internet-connected embedded devices using real-world examples. In the course of our research, we have observed a pattern of vendors incorporating remote configuration services, neglecting tamper proofing, and rampantly re-using code. We will explore how these design flaws resulted in vulnerabilities in a remote power supply, a web camera, and a router. This talk is intended for a wide audience, as these insecure design patterns exist across industries and market segments. Attendees will get an inside view into how attackers operate and walk away with an understanding of what must be done to improve the security of embedded devices.

Thursday, May 4th

08:00 – 08:45 – Heterogeneous Software Architecture with OpenAMP by Shaun Purvis, Embedded Systems Specialist, Hardent

Single, high-performance embedded processors are often not adequate to meet today’s system-on-chip (SoC) demands for sustained high-performance and efficiency. As a result, chips increasingly feature multiple processor types to deliver flexible compute power, real-time features and energy conservation requirements. These so called heterogeneous multiprocessor devices yield an extremely robust SoC, but also require a more complex software architecture capable of orchestrating multiple dissimilar processors.

This technical session introduces the OpenAMP software framework designed to facilitate asynchronous multiprocessing (AMP) in a vendor agnostic manner. OpenAMP can be leveraged to run different software platforms concurrently, such as Linux and an RTOS, on different processors within the same SoC whether homogeneous (multi-core), or heterogeneous (multi-processor), or a combination of both.

09:00 – 09:45 – How to Build Products Using Open Platform Firmware by Brian Richardson, Technical Evangelist, Intel Corporation

Open hardware platforms are great reference designs, but they’re often not considered “product ready” due to debug features built into the firmware… but a few firmware changes can turn an open hardware board into a production-quality platform.

This session demonstrates how to optimize firmware for product delivery, using the MinnowBoard Max as a practical example, by disabling debug interfaces and optimizing the platform for an embedded software payload. Examples are also given for enabling signed firmware updates and secure firmware recovery, based on industry standard UEFI firmware.

10:00 – 10:45 – Understanding Modern Flash Memory Systems by Thomas McCormick, Chief Engineer/Technologist, Swissbit

This session presents an in-depth look at the internals of modern flash memory systems. Specific focus is given to technologies that enable current generations of flash memory, both SLC and MLC, using < 30 nm process technologies to provide reliable code and data storage in embedded computer applications.

11:00 – 11:45 – Implementing Secure Software Systems on ARMv8-M Microcontrollers by Chris Shore, Director, Technical Marketing, ARM

Microcontrollers incorporating ARM TrustZone technology for ARMv8-M are here!. Now, software engineers developing on ARM Cortex-M processors have access to a level of hardware security which has not been available before. These features that a clear separation between secure and non-secure code, secure and non-secure data.

This presentation shows how software developers can write secure code which takes advantage of new hardware features in the architecture, drastically reducing the attack surface. Writing software carefully builds on those hardware features, avoiding bugs and/or holes which could compromise the system.

12:00 – 12:30 – Keynote: State of the Medical Device Industry by Frost & Sullivan

13:00 – 13:45 – Enabling the Next Era of Human Space Exploration by Jason Crusan, Director of the Advanced Exploration Systems Division within the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, NASA

Humankind is making plans to extend its reach further into the solar system than ever before. As human spaceflight moves beyond low Earth orbit NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems is developing innovative tools to driving these new efforts and address the challenges that arise. Innovative technologies, simulations and software platforms related to crew and robotic autonomous operations, logistics management, vehicle systems automation, and life support systems management are being developed. This talk will outline the pioneering approaches that AES is using to develop prototype systems, advance key capabilities, and validate operational concepts for future human missions beyond Earth orbit.

14:00 – 14:45 – Common Mistakes by Embedded System Designers: What They Are and How to Fix Them by Craig Hillman, CEO, DfR Solutions

Embedded system design is a multilevel engineering exercise. It requires synergy between software, electrical and mechanical engineers with the goal to create a system that meets customer requirements while remaining within budget and on time.

The propagation of embedded systems has been extremely successful. Many appliances today contain embedded systems. As an example, many fuel pumps contain single board computers whose sole purpose is credit transactions. Some companies doing positive train control (PTC) use ARM/RISC and ATOM based computer modules. And embedded systems are currently dominating the Internet of Things (IoT) space (ex. mobile gateways). However, all of this success can tend to mask the challenges of designing a successful embedded system. These challenges are expected to increase dramatically with the integration of embedded systems into IoT applications, where environments can be much more severe than standard home / office installations. This course presents the fundamentals of designing a reliable embedded device and the most common pitfalls encountered by the system designer. 15:00 – 15:45 – Porting to 64-bit on ARM by Chris Shore, Director, Technical Marketing, ARM The ARMv8-A architecture introduces 64-bit capability to the most widely used embedded architecture in the world today. Products built to this architecture are now mainstream and widely available. While they are capable of running legacy 32-bit software without recompilation, clearly developers will want to make maximum use of the increased and expanded capability offered by these processors. This presentation examines the steps necessary in porting current 32-bit ARM software to the new 64-bit execution state. I will cover C porting, assembly language porting and implementation of hand-coded SIMD routines.

If you want to attend ESC ’17, you’ll need to register. The EXPO pass is free if you book in advance, and gives you access to the design and manufacturing suppliers booths, but won’t allow you to attend most of the talks (except sponsored ones), while the conference pass gives you access to all sessions including workshops and tutorials, as well as complimentary lunch vouchers.

CONFERENCE PASS EXPO PASS SUPER EARLY BIRD

(Ends March 31st, 2017) $949 FREE STANDARD

(Ends May 2nd, 2017) $1,149 FREE REGULAR/ONSITE $1,299 $75