Solving Remote Manufacturing Challenges using the Cloud

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About Kevin Perreault

With decades of experience developing hardware and software development tools, Kevin leads PEmicro's effort to create robust solutions for debug, test, and secure production programming of embedded systems.

About PE Micro

Incorporated in 1982, PEmicro was founded by a single question - with so many configurations of programmable memory being made by so many different manufacturers, was there a way to build a single general purpose tool to both erase and program all of these EPROM devices?

As a Boston University professor, Dr. David A. Perreault addressed this question by designing and building the world's first general purpose programmer. It was based on the Z80 microprocessor and provided the ability to reconfigure pinouts.

Using software control it was able to turn outputs on/off and featured a configurable patch panel for setting up the proper pins to be programmed on each device. The configurable design allowed engineers the flexibility to design their products for a variety of manufacturers and use this one tool to program it.

From these humble beginnings PEmicro has grown to become an award-winning international business expert in Embedded Systems tools. Our Cyclone programmers and Multilink debug probes are some of the fastest and most sophisticated production tools on the market which are seamlessly integrated into a variety of popular 3rd party IDEs.

We are committed to providing unrivaled features and performance at great value, so that our customers can enjoy speedy development and high quality production programming at a price that doesn't break budgets. And we still incorporate the universal philosophy of that first general purpose programmer into our tools today, so that engineers can take advantage of that same degree of flexibility, albeit with a much more advanced tool set.

Over the years, we have been fortunate to build many great relationships that have contributed to our success, and our partners' success. Although much has changed over the years, we have always practiced the same philosophy: a dedication to excellence designing products that are both sophisticated and reliable to help make the complete development cycle faster and easier.

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Solving Remote Manufacturing Challenges using the Cloud

Kevin Perreault - PE Micro - Watch Now - EOC 2023 - Duration: 41:09

Solving Remote Manufacturing Challenges using the Cloud

Kevin Perreault

Abstract Test Your Knowledge Questions & Comments

Remote manufacturing of products is challenging to manage and control. How do we keep secure control of the firmware IP used to program a product? How can we authorize legitimate builds of our product while preventing over-production and counterfeiting? How do we update the firmware IP being used during manufacturing? How do we keep a detailed accounting of every device programmed, including recorded unique device identifiers?

In an ideal production flow, we should be able to answer these questions regardless of where a product is produced. This talk is a discussion of how cloud technologies can be leveraged to provide the necessary control and visibility over our programming IP to achieve this in remote manufacturing facilities. A demonstration of such a novel system is shown.

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According to Kevin Perreault, what is the primary thing you should manage and control via the cloud when using remote contract manufacturers for production programming?

A Direct remote control of the manufacturer's programming equipment

B The physical inventory and shipment schedules of the contract manufacturer

C The product owner's data and programming IP stored in the cloud

D The contract manufacturer's employee access permissions

E All PCB design files and BOM data stored on the manufacturer's PCs

Why does Kevin recommend delivering 'jobs' to the cloud rather than providing raw programming binaries directly to a contract manufacturer?

A Because the cloud makes programming physically faster on every programmer

B Because cloud-delivered jobs allow you to revoke or pause programming, share counts globally, and get complete visibility into each device programmed

C Because contract manufacturers cannot store binaries on their local systems

D Because cloud jobs remove the need to encrypt firmware

E Because cloud jobs permanently transfer your cryptographic keys to the manufacturer for convenience

What security model for cryptographic keys did Kevin describe for protecting programming images in the P&E Cloud demo?

A P&E centrally stores and manages every customer's image decryption keys

B Customers generate their own keys and install them into Cyclone programmers; P&E does not store those keys

C Keys are embedded in unencrypted images so the manufacturer can access them when needed

D Keys are sent to the contract manufacturer's PC at runtime for decryption

E Only the cloud holds the keys and Cyclones fetch them automatically without any customer involvement

How did Kevin define a 'job' in the context of cloud-enabled production programming?

A A physical batch of PCBs shipped to the manufacturer

B A log of all devices previously programmed

C A set of production programming data that maintains a tether to the cloud

D A local script that runs only on the manufacturer's PC without any cloud interaction

E The unique device ID assigned by the microcontroller vendor

Which of the following did Kevin identify as a genuine drawback of using cloud-connected production programmers?

A The cloud automatically makes intellectual property less secure than a disconnected setup

B You lose the ability to cryptographically protect images when using the cloud

C Dependence on a reliable network connection at the manufacturing site; you may need a fallback for offline operation

D Cloud connectivity forces direct remote control of the manufacturer's programming equipment

E Using cloud-connected programming eliminates the need for traceability and logging

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Topic(s) Covered

About Kevin Perreault

About PE Micro

Solving Remote Manufacturing Challenges using the Cloud

According to Kevin Perreault, what is the primary thing you should manage and control via the cloud when using remote contract manufacturers for production programming?

Why does Kevin recommend delivering 'jobs' to the cloud rather than providing raw programming binaries directly to a contract manufacturer?

What security model for cryptographic keys did Kevin describe for protecting programming images in the P&E Cloud demo?

How did Kevin define a 'job' in the context of cloud-enabled production programming?

Which of the following did Kevin identify as a genuine drawback of using cloud-connected production programmers?

Quiz Complete!

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