Embedded Systems Weekly #117

Embedded Systems Weekly #117

A few days ago, I decided to give a lot more time to the job board. As more and more opportunities are published, it was becoming necessary to create a dedicated account to share them on Twitter. If you are a Twitter user, and you are looking for a new job, it could be interesting to follow Embedded Systems Jobs. On the other side, if your company has open vacancies, please, consider posting for free on our job board.

happy reading!

Articles

Ushering out strlcpy()
String copies question in the Linux kernel is a long story. Mentalities and the best practices evolved from strncpy(), then strlcpy() and now to the newest strscpy(). It looks like the tail end of the perfect string copy function is finally here with the strong recommendation of strscpy() described by Linux Torvald as a optimized memcpy for strings.

C++ Tip of The Week
A short tip release every week, as you can imagine the format reasoned with me. Sadly, I couldn't find a way to subscribe, but I'll try to remember to check it out.

John Regehr's Integers in C quiz
If you want to measure how well you know the implementation details of Integers in C, this test is for you. For questions with different answers depending on the compiler or the target, assumes that you are using GCC/LLVM on a x86/x64.

Memory Tagging: A Memory Efficient Design
ARM MTE is a few years old technology, and it's now the right time to reflect on the current state of the different implementations (the Glibc standard library, the Linux kernel, Android, etc...) This paper is doing a great job at describing how MTE is used and, as well, to propose potential improvements.

DC and Steady-state AC Circuit Analysis Made Easy with Python
That's a good example that shows how basic coding skills can help much electronics engineers. And in the process, you have the pleasure of using free and open-source software.

What’s the smallest variety of CHERI?
I already talked about CHERI in the past, but the targets of this hardware mechanism to safely access memory were more microprocessors than microcontrollers. Thanks to Microsoft work, this is about to change. This article gives a first view on how they scaled CHERI down to make it works on microcontrollers.

News / Business

NASA Selects SiFive and Makes RISC-V the Go-to Ecosystem for Future Space Missions
Probably the biggest news ever for the relatively new/young RISC-V architecture. That's a public validation that RISC-V is a viable alternative.

Education / Community

Fundamental of Embedded Systems
This Udemy course is free today. It has been done by thousands of students and it is rated 3/5 stars. Eventually, you can enroll today to have it for free and do it later.

Jobs

BrightDrop , Senior Electrical Engineer, Full-time, Palo Alto (Open to remote)
At BrightDrop, we are reshaping e-commerce by developing smarter, greener, and more efficient ways to deliver goods and services to your door, while delivering a brighter future for the cities where we live.

Misc

Debugging Behind the Iron Curtain
When an irradiated cattle on a train used to crash a railroad station computer. What a scary story!