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Gillian Minnehan

Gillian is an embedded systems engineer, and has experience working in a variety of teams on defense and space projects from her time at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab. She recently joined Memfault as a Firmware Solutions Engineer to enable firmware teams build more reliable IoT devices. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan and a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University. In her free time, she enjoys running and exploring NYC where she is based.

GDB Deep Dive

Status: Available Now

GDB is a powerful tool to analyze and debug firmware. It enables developers to step through instructions, view disassembly, peer into registers, analyze back traces, and so much more to help debug. Without it, I cannot imagine developing firmware! There is a lot to unpack about how to use GDB effectively, so this talk will focus on a few key topics including a rundown of important GDB commands, the GDB Python API, options for visual debugging, and how GDB plays a role even after you ship IoT device firmware.

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Demystifying Embedded: Techniques for Low-level Testing and Debugging

Status: Available Now

Many embedded software engineers start their careers with the expected software testing and debugging skills such as writing unit tests, leveraging a visual debugger, finding memory leaks with valgrind, and, let’s face it, using print statements. However, embedded software development requires more embedded-specific strategies that many do not get the chance to learn in school. This talk shares the best techniques for understanding what a microcontroller is doing at a low level, such as reading fault registers, looking at disassembly, counting clock cycles, and using logic analyzers -- strategies used by newbies and veterans alike. Each strategy will be accompanied by a demonstration and all necessary instructions so listeners can easily apply what they have learned to their work.

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Live Q&A - Demystifying Embedded: Techniques for Low-level Testing and Debugging

Status: Available Now

Live Q&A with Gillian Minnehan for the talk titled Demystifying Embedded: Techniques for Low-level Testing and Debugging

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GDB Deep Dive

Status: Available Now

GDB is a powerful tool to analyze and debug firmware. It enables developers to step through instructions, view disassembly, peer into registers, analyze back traces, and so much more to help debug. Without it, I cannot imagine developing firmware! There is a lot to unpack about how to use GDB effectively, so this talk will focus on a few key topics including a rundown of important GDB commands, the GDB Python API, options for visual debugging, and how GDB plays a role even after you ship IoT device firmware.

Go to Session