RISC-V CFU: The Nexus of Embedded Software and FPGAs

RISC-V’s instruction set architecture (ISA) has enabled seasoned embedded software engineers to experiment with FPGAs since numerous open-source RISC-V cores can be flashed onto an FPGA. One of the exciting features of the RISC-V ISA is the Custom Function Unit (CFU), which enables a framework to support custom operations in hardware that is accessible from software. In this talk, Mohammed will demonstrate the process of interacting with a RISC-V CFU using embedded software.

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Hands-on With CUDA-C on a Nvidia Jetson Nano GPU

The explosion of silicon density in the past decade has resulted in increased massive compute capabilities of modern-day microprocessors in power-efficient packages. Processors supporting trillions of floating point operations (TFLOPS) are now becoming widely available in smaller form factors. Software paradigms have also been created to leverage the underlying hardware. In this talk, Mohammed Billoo will introduce Nvidia's CUDA framework, targeting a variant of the C programming language. Care needs to be taken when implementing applications using CUDA-C. The underlying hardware, specifically the memory architecture and layout, need to be considered to ensure that the final implementation is performant. Mohammed will cover the following topics in this talk:

• Architectural differences between GPUs and CPUs
• Relevant applications for GPUs
• CUDA-C overview and build process
• CUDA-C code structure

Mohammed will conclude the talk with a hands-on demonstration of an image processing algorithm implemented in CUDA-C on a Nvidia Jetson Nano development kit. He will compare the performance of the CUDA-C implementation on the GPU against a naive implementation on a CPU.

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Live Q&A - Hands-on With CUDA-C on a Nvidia Jetson Nano GPU

Live Q&A with Mohammed Billoo for the talk titled Hands-on With CUDA-C on a Nvidia Jetson Nano GPU

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An Introduction to The Zephyr Project RTOS

A Realtime Operating System (RTOS) is a staple of most embedded systems. The Zephyr Project RTOS is relatively young and borrows certain elements and paradigms from Linux that may stump experienced embedded software developers, who are accustomed to a more "traditional" RTOS.

This talk will introduce The Zephyr Project RTOS, demonstrating the similarities and differences between Zephyr and a traditional RTOS. The focus will be on how to use the data structures and paradigms offered by Zephyr to accomplish tasks common to most embedded systems. This talk will also highlight key differences that seasoned embedded software developers will need to keep in mind when incorporating Zephyr into their projects.

Topics Covered:

• Navigating The Zephyr Project RTOS code base
• Creating tasks 
• Synchronizing data across tasks
• Creating interrupt handlers
• Incorporating peripherals
• User space vs kernel space

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Live Q&A - An Introduction to The Zephyr Project RTOS

Live Q&A with Mohammed Billoo for the talk titled An Introduction to The Zephyr Project RTOS

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Getting Started with Zephyr RTOS

The Zephyr Project is rapidly emerging as a leading real-time operating system (RTOS). Commonly referred to as “Zephyr”, its vision is to be the premier RTOS for connected, resource-constrained devices. Zephyr integreates both open-source and security best practices to ensure a vendor-neutral, secure and reliable platform.

In this webinar, we delve into an introductory exploration of The Zephyr Project RTOS.  Attendees will gain insight into the fundamental elements of an RTOS and Zephyr’s implementation stands out. We will unpack the key components of Zephyr and offer a roadmap for getting comfortable navigating its codebase.

The session will discuss the intricacies of a Zephyr application, guiding attendees on how to craft their own application, using a “Hello World” application as a demonstration. Finally, we will discuss advanced topics, including how to gain in-depth insights into our firmware using the Memfault framework, which is built right into Zephyr.

Topics covered in this talk will include:

• RTOS overview and review
• The Zephyr Project architecture
• The elements of a Zephyr application
• Advanced “Hello World” demonstration
• Firmware insights

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Using QEMU to Get Started with Embedded Linux

Getting started with embedded Linux can be a daunting task due to the inherent complexity of the Linux kernel; it can also be costly, since generally any sort of driver development and testing requires hardware. QEMU can serve as an alternative to allow engineers to get started with embedded Linux with minimal cost.

In this workshop, Mohammed Billoo will walk through what QEMU is and the different workflows that it enables, with hands-on demonstrations that attendees can follow along. Demonstrations will include setting up QEMU to emulate an ARM-based machine on a x86-based host PC and launching into a terminal, using QEMU to step through the Linux kernel, and developing and testing a simple device driver with device emulation in QEMU.

This workshop has the following prerequisites:

1. Install Ubuntu >= 18.04 on your PC (either on bare-metal or as a VM):
2. Install qemu-system-arm (sudo apt-get install qemu-system-arm)
3. Install your favorite text editor (e.g. nano, vim)
4. Clone the buildroot repository on your Ubuntu installation by executing the following from the command line:    $> git clone git://git.buildroot.net/buildroot
5. Clone the qemu repository on your Ubuntu installation by executing the following from the command line: $> git clone --depth 1 --branch v6.2.0 https://github.com/qemu/qemu.git
6. Clone the Linux kernel repository on your Ubuntu installation by executing the following from the command line:  $> git clone --depth 1 --branch v5.17 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git

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Hands-On Workshop Integrating Toradex Torizon and Amazon AWS

Toradex's Torizon ecosystem provides a complete solution for IoT device management, from device provisioning and OTA updates to device health monitoring. While the Torizon web interface may be sufficient for limited deployments, its extensibility shines when using the API to integrate with an external cloud provider. In this workshop, Mohammed will provide hands-on demonstrations on how to use Torizon's API for common cloud tasks in an IoT solution. He will show real examples using Amazon AWS as an example cloud platform.

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Using Visual Trace Diagnostics to Evaluate Linux User space and Kernel space Implementations

Developing performant implementations for Linux-based embedded systems can be difficult, due to the sheer complexity of the Linux kernel and the volume of processes and applications that generally exist on a Linux-based embedded system. For kernel space implementations, such as kernel modules, it is important to leverage the appropriate interfaces to the kernel and pay careful attention to the hardware interface. For user space applications, performance is key to ensure that the application can scale without substantial rework.

Software tracing can be an invaluable tool to ensure that an implementation is performant. It enables a developer to identify any anomalies that may exist while the system is running. While there exist numerous open-source utilities that can provide textual cues towards the performance of the implementation, they are generally not amenable to quickly identify any clear issues, due to the way the human brain operates.

Visual trace diagnostics can significantly reduce the time to identify anomalies in a Linux-based implementation. It leverages software tracing, but presents data in a manner that is easily consumed by the human brain. This results in quickly identifying and rectifying anomalies in an implementation.

Join Mohammed Billoo as he explores the different facets of visual trace diagnostics. His talk will consist of hands-on demonstrations that show the different elements of capturing and analyzing software traces on a Linux-based embedded system, in both user space and kernel space.

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Live Q&A - Using Visual Trace Diagnostics to Evaluate Linux User space and Kernel space Implementations

Live Q&A with Mohammed Billoo for the theatre talk titled Using Visual Trace Diagnostics to Evaluate Linux User space and Kernel space Implementations

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Yocto Project Hands-On with Toradex

If you don't already have an account on the Embedded Online Conference platform, you can register here and gain free access to this webinar.

It may be difficult for novice to intermediate Linux users and developers to get a fundamental understanding of the "Yocto Project", as it doesn't necessarily follow the same paradigms as traditional software development. Additionally, System on Module (SoM) vendors, such as Toradex, may apply their own customizations to the Yocto Project as part of their Board Support Package (BSP) that may require some additional understanding. 

In this webinar, we will take a hands-on look at the Yocto Project and how to get a BSP up and running.

Attendees will learn:

- The paradigm of the Yocto project

- The mindset that an engineer should have when working with a BSP based on Yocto

- The organization and structure of the BSP provided by Toradex. 

- Best practices engineers should follow when customizing a vendor-provided BSP to fit their custom hardware

Live Q&A with Mohammed Billoo - Yocto Project Hands-On with Toradex

Live Q&A with Mohammed Billoo about the free webinar titled 'Yocto Project Hands-On with Toradex'

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Ensuring Data Integrity Using Blockchain With Toradex Torizon

The blockchain has seen explosive growth in the past few years, especially with the advent of cryptocurrency. The blockchain has also become popular in the IoT space, as a mechanism to verify the integrity of data collected by sensor nodes. In this presentation, Mohammed provides an overview of the blockchain and its different uses and applications in the IoT. He also provides a demonstration on a Toradex SoM and carrier board running Torizon which implements a simple blockchain solution. In this example, data is collected on the device and added to the blockchain. Finally, the integrity of the data on the blockchain is verified.

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Getting Linux To Run On Your Custom Board (2020)

The ability of silicon vendors to pack more components and capability into a single silicon die has allowed these System On Chips (SoCs) to support Linux. In turn, developers have been able to quickly migrate their application to be deployed "to the edge" without significant rework. The main objective of this session is to provide embedded systems engineers an overview on the steps necessary to get Linux running on a custom board, issues they may face, and how to debug these issues. This session will provide an introduction to Linux and its value in embedded systems, and how it differs from "traditional" Linux that runs on desktops. This session will also discuss how Linux differs from other embedded software paradigms, such as "bare-metal" and RTOS-based application development.

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Hawkbit and SWUpdate for OTA Updates of Linux IoT Devices (2020)

Linux-based IoT devices don't have a flat Flash structure that allows for a straightforward OTA update process. There are a multitude of bootloader, kernel, and root file system combinations that must be taken into consideration, along with the different failure modes. The combination of Hawkbit and SWUpdate aim to standardize the OTA update process for IoT devices running Linux. This session will provide an overview of Hawkbit and SWUpdate, the different components that can be updated, and the different failure modes that are supported. A case study will be presented to demonstrate how to set up Hawkbit and SWUpdate to support OTA updates for a Linux-based IoT device. Finally, ongoing work by the presenter to address current shortcomings will be discussed.

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