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Welcome! This site briefly describes the capabilities and experience of the Embedded Art firmware/software development service company.

Our Mission

To advance the art of programming, one project at a time; by achieving an optimum balance between cost, schedule, functionality, reliability, and maintainability.

Company Profile

Embedded Art is a small independent software house, specializing in process control and automation. In its current form it represents the culmination of 20 years of experience in the software development consulting business. Founded by Joe Stack in 1983 (under the name of Prowess Engineering) in Southern California, the company thrived for 15 years until shifting focus to the Sacramento area to take advantage of growth in the Silicon Valley.

Now, 5 years later, the expertise of Embedded Art has landed in the Austin Area expecting to lend a hand to the growing high technology industry in South-Central Texas.

The concept behind the success of Embedded Art is that we provide the experience and muscle for addressing complex software engineering development tasks. Much of today's programming is a step-wise refinement of previous development projects. With 20 years of experience, we provide the expertise that can effectively navigate around many of the pitfalls that snare the unseasoned engineer (indeed, we've seen many of the same mistakes made again and again by the inexperienced).

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Site Map

One of the most important aspects of communication is getting the quick view of the 'big picture', no web site is really complete with out the overview.

[image: note] This page is also a demonstration of an interesting documentation paradox. In its current state, the design is very simple; so simple, that one wonders why even bother with a map. However, without the map it takes a visitor much longer to figure out just how simple the layout is.... ah, that all of life should be so simple.

Home

• Contents
• Services
  • Customer Reference Accounts
  • Environments
• Contact Us
• News

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Development Services

Throughout our twenty-year history we have grown as the software industry has grown. Twenty years ago the industry largely regarded the development of end-user software to be an entirely different pursuit than that of an embedded controller application. The main reason being because the operating environments were vastly different. Firmware generally was associated with tight processing constraints in minimally capable hardware environments (and, of course, was burned into ROM).

In recent years, however because of the proliferation of low cost, abundantly capable microprocessors and support hardware, the difference between the embedded firmware operating environment and that of the typical end user application has become almost insignificant.

It is not at all unusual to find embedded systems with a multitasking operating system, a full network protocol stack, a relational SQL database server, a multi-user graphical user interface server and more.

Visit our list of Environment Element Components page to see a catalog of some of the many processors, protocols, languages, libraries, and facilities we have worked with over the years.

Embedded Systems Development

In this age, almost every device we encounter that is electrical has some kind of electronic automation. Microprocessor controllers play a part in everything from devices as simple as home appliances to complex computer peripherals. Over the years, we've produced firmware for a wide spectrum of these fascinating devices.

Embedded System Development Areas of Specialization

In every firmware development process there are frequently trouble spots which engineers encounter. Our experience in these areas allows us to help insure a development effort will remains on schedule, and within budget. Some specific areas include:

• Environment Development
• Microprocessor Start-up Code
• Operating System Integration
• Device Driver Implementation
• Algorithm and Process Refinement
• Firmware Product Maintainability

End-User Application Development

Our end-user application development experience started with an interactive text editor built for a port of Unix back in the early 1980's. Since then, we've garnered praise from numerous customers (Western Digital, Sorrento Electronics, Warner Bros. Studio Stores, and many more) for the demonstration of our ability to define application user interfaces that present information in a clear, concise, and efficient format which is intuitive and productive for the user.

Software Quality Assurance

In software engineering circles, it's an odd fact of lift that many of the most talented developers have an aversion to both the Software Quality Assurance (SQA) and the documentation processes. It has been our experience that one of the most expensive mistakes a company can make is to short-change the SQA process.

No amount of effort will turn up all possible software problems (indeed, any given module only functions within its specification in a tightly controlled context). However, the key to achieving stellar results from SQA efforts lies in understanding how a given software environment works and what must be done to methodically examine each possible failure point.

Technical Documentation

Writing high quality, comprehensive documentation (whether it's a requirement specification or an end-user document) and designing an efficient software algorithm are very similar exercises. In both cases it takes skill and dexterity at defining a problem to be solved, organizing just the right pieces of information into the optimal order so that everything is presented as it is needed, and carefully presenting all that is necessary and nothing more.

Designing a good documentation set can be almost as complicated as a good systems design (and every bit as important). However, many of the technical writer staff (while highly qualified authors) have a poor grasp of the documentation tools and the ramifications of how to design a system that can live and breath in an engineering department over the years without quickly becoming unmanageable and obsolete. We've solved this problem, and have the know-how to do it again with the next generation of tools.

Customer References

Follow the link to our Customers Page for a partial list of our customers, their projects and a description of some of our roll in those projects.

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Customer Reference Accounts

In the engineering world one's past accomplishments are a good indicator of what might be expected in the future. We're justifiably proud of the company we keep and our contribution to the industry, and we think that our record speaks for itself. Here is a list of some of our customers, their projects and a brief description of part of our contribution to the effort.

Cylink Corporation

Project: The Cylink CY8300 IPSec high-performance security processor

• Design the instruction set for the CY8300 internal CPUs (dual RISK processors)
• Write and document the CY8000 Cross Assembler
  (Hosted on Windows NT, Sun Solaris, and Linux)
• Develop the CPU functional validation test suite using the CY8300 assembly language
• Develop the CPU simulation environment using Verilog HDL & PLI
• Perform validation simulation using both the Verilog "NCSim" environment and on prototype hardware
• Write an IPSec Datagram generation/encryption utility for packet generation, encryption/decryption (using DES, TDES, & SHA-1) and authentication (using SHA-1, MD5, HMAC-SHA1, HMAC-MD5, & DES-MAC)

DMC Stratex Networks

Project: The Spectrum and Altium product lines, high-capacity wireless communication platforms (i.e., microwave radios)

• Add SNMP Agent support to the highly successful Spectrum II radio
• Design and implement the control algorithm for unit failure detection and recovery
• Resolve numerous integration and configuration issues from legacy code
• Port legacy code base to the new Altium hardware platform and map a maintenance path for the future
• Integrate and resolve issues with HTTP Server and Network Management User Interface web page
• Work with the QA team to characterize outstanding functionality issues

Occasionally, as experienced software engineering consultants a we are called on to provide more than firmware development services. For this particular client, for example, this involved providing department management and development team strategic advice for the Director of Software Engineering. It also meant serving as mentor and tutor for programmers of all experience levels.

Western Digital Corporation

Project: A high-performance multi-function ESDI/SCSI/Floppy controller for the Apollo networked workstations and high-end PCs.

• Design and implement production firmware
• Design and implement the host multi-tasking software test platform and implement other Apollo-based utilities to exercise the product for SQA
• Serve as technical liaison between Apollo Computer (Chelmsford, MA) and WDC (Irvine, CA)

Equinox Industries/Warner Brothers Studio Stores

Project: Distribution Center Processing Automation

• Architect data center automation processing
• Implement PM-GUI functionality and complete initial distribution center management software integration effort
• Define and design implement and integrate software for:
  • host merchandising control processing
  • automated sorting equipment
  • conveyer management equipment
  • hand-held RF data entry terminals
  • shipping dock merchandise management and tracking
• Administrate the network equipment deployment and management effort

Interstate Electronics Corporation

Project: IEC 9002 GPS-based Flight Management System

• Define and analyze requirements
• Implement a flash file system for pilot-defined route storage management (based on the Linear File Storage standard for PCMCIA flash memory)

Project: The IEC 9002 Navigation Database Update Processor, a Windows-based, off-line data reduction tool

• Complete and supervise upgrades and modifications
• Supervise release cycle and CMS process for product release

Project: IEC 9002 MCDU, an ARINC-739 compatible Multi-purpose Control and Display Unit

• Design and implement a Windows NT-hosted development environment for the embedded target's RTOS and operational firmware
• Implement the production unit's Built-in-Test Manager and Bootstrap Program Loader (which allows the flash-based firmware to be updated)

Project: GPS Satellite Simulator (Military & Commercial unit)

• Design and implement firmware/software for process control

Project: IEC Military Plasma Display, an 80186/82720-based "intelligent" terminal boasting multi-mode text graphics display, ANSI Standard compatibility, multiple virtual screens, and downloadable display generation capability

• Design and implement firmware to manage the display, keyboard, and communications hardware

Everett Charles Technologies

Project: ECT 9090(tm) Bare Board Tester

• Provide firmware support and update releases for AMD 2900-based measurement controller hardware
• Provide user field support and problem tracking and resolution management
• Provide software support for OS/2 PM-based test management control software
• Implement Version 2 release for test management control software

MOST, Inc.

Project: 2.6GB SCSI II read/write CD-ROM (Magneto/Optical) drive

• Design and implement cache algorithms and code featuring anticipatory pre-fetch and write-back cache allowing immediate write command completion with timed write data synchronization
• Implement SCSI II compliant cache control command set
• Performance analysis and tuning, and debugging

Emulex Corporation

Project: SCSI/ATA(IDE) chipset firmware base (early C++)

• Design and implement hardware interface library components

Cable & Computer Technology, Inc.

Project: An AMD-2900 based bit-slice magnetic tape controller

• Design and implement upgrades and enhancements
• Prepare delivery components and complete end-user acceptance procedure

AEI Kongsberg

Project: AEI Container Maker (a Windows-based CAD package for designing specialized containers)

• Design and implement GUI Dialogs and Components

Controlled Induction

Project: A DOS-based, commercial engine analysis & design tool

• Design and implement the User Interface and develop processing algorithms
• Write and produce the User Manual
• Administer the first production run for the product

Taradactyl Technovation, Inc.

Project: The Mileage Elephant (vehicle usage tracker)

• Design and implement prototype user interface for host database application.

Teledyne Systems Corporation

Project: An AMD-2900 based bit-slice emulation/simulation of IBM's 32-bit AP101-F floating-point processor

• Design and implement fixed and floating-point math functions as well as SIN, COS, and ARC TAN trigonometric functions (using the Cordic Algorithm w/Taylor Series Expansion algorithm developed by IBM)
• Design and implement instruction decode processing
• Design and implement instruction execution time tracking

Hughes Aircraft, Fullerton

Project: A multi-processor control system composed of six 68000 processors, twenty-two 8085 processors and various dedicated interface hardware

• Design and implement hardware fault monitoring processing

Sorrento Electronics, Inc.

Project: Process Control System

• Design and implement an Alignment Parameter Entry API
• Implement firmware for system Data Transmission Simulator product
• Design and implement a Dynamic Link Data Control application to allow engineers to dynamically program and monitor the data being transmitted on multiple serial links
• Implement a PL/M-to-DOS API for an engineering software validation test tool

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Key Environment Components

The vast different number of variables that can be combined to produce the embedded developer tool set and environment underscore the importance that practical, hands-on experience plays in the success of a project. This list highlights several key technology components with which we have experience.

• Processor Host Environments:
  • Motorola 6800, 68K, etc.
  • Intel x86, 8080/85, 8051, etc.
  • Zilog Z80, Rockwell 6502
  • Various DSP & Proprietary Process Control Engines
  • Various Bit-Slice Architectures
• RTOS Environments:
  • ATI Nucleus
  • WindRiver pSOS
  • Linux
  • Numerous Proprietary Executive Schedulers & OS
• Computer Bus Specifications:
  • SCSI
  • ESDI
  • ATA/IDE
  • ARINC-769
  • PCMCIA
  • Others...
• Network Protocols:
  • TCP/IP & UDP/IP (IPv4 & IPv6)
  • SNMP
  • HTTP (w/Server)
  • FTP & TFTP
  • PPP/CHAP & SLIP
  • Numerous Network Interoperability Protocols (e.g., ICMP, SMB/CIFS, LDAP, NAT, etc.)
• IPSec (Network Security) Protocols & Data Encryption Algorithms:
  • IKE/ISAKMP & ESP/AH
  • DES/TDES & DES-MAC
  • SHA1 & HMAC-SHA1
  • MD5 & HMAC-MD5
• Commercial Database Engines:
  • Oracle/SQL
  • DB2
  • MS Access/FoxPro, Paradox
  • BTrieve, Informix
  • Others...
• Compilers & Computer Language Environments:
  • C, C++, Java
  • Pascal, Ada, FORTRAN
  • Fourth, PL/M
  • Various shell script environments including CShell, Korn, VMS, Rexx, others

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Contact Us

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News & Changes

This is where we'll announce the most recent additions to our web site. If you've visited us before and want to know what's changed, take a look here first.

• It's official..... if you read this, we're officially running on our new web host! Hopefully, there aren't any newly broken links or scripts (FTP isn't the most reliable facility these days... sometimes it quits during a data transfer without any error notification). If you spot something odd, please drop the webmaster a note.

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