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Yes, ASG has extensive Coldfire experience. |
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Yes. Most of the
embedded processors today support Ethernet (as well as USB, flash RAM and other peripherals) natively. When Ethernet is needed we generally choose
a platform that already provides Ethernet drivers so that we don't have to develop something that's already available off the shelf. |
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Yes. We have experience with the development of embedded software
that falls under FDA regulatory guidelines. We have done several projects in this area. |
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Windows is becoming more popular today than in the past. The most recent
version of the CE operating system includes security mechanisms that limit access to program and memory space, which can overcomplicate the ability
to integrate certain types of peripherals and other I/O devices. In those cases, if a board support package (BSP) is not already available to work
with the hardware, there may be other choices, like Linux, that would be more appropriate. |
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C is the most common embedded programming language. We have also written embedded applications in BASIC, Ada and Assembler. |
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That depends entirely on the application. For high-speed communications the Freescale Coldfire series would seem appropriate. For small, cheap, low-power systems a Rabbit or an 8-bit PIC microcontroller may be all that is needed. For products where cost is everything, a very low-cost processor may be all that is needed, provided the application isn't too demanding or overly complex. |
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Motorola 68xxx, TMS 32xxx DSPs, Freescale Coldfire, Rabbit (Z180), Microchip PIC, Intel 8051 and Intel PC processors. We've never seen a processor we didn't like. |
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In the embedded industry we have worked with Windows CE, Linux, AMX and QNX operating systems. However, over half of the embedded applications we've developed do not utilize a commercial operating system, and in those cases we have written "executive" kernels to control peripheral devices, timed events and other low-level tasks. |
ASG staff members have provided software engineering support for a large number of embedded projects over the past 7 years. These projects included: Control systems for chemistry and blood, universal power supply, copy machine, grinding, laser and locomotive applications; Measurement systems for gastro-intestinal, cardiac, accelerometer, fluid and gas flow, electrical and RF applications; Communications systems for commercial wireless, radar and video applications. The market verticals in which ASG has developed embedded software include aerospace, manufacturing, medical devices, oil and gas, printing, semiconductors, telecommunications and transportation. |
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Our offices are located in the Buffalo,
New York area, and we attempt to perform the bulk of the work here, close to home. However, most of us do travel to our clients' sites regularly
to provide some level of development on site. We typically do that anyway at the beginning of the project (during requirements definition, high
level design and any reviews) and at the end, when the integration task requires tight cooperation among all players. |
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We define it as an engineer who is skilled in the process that makes embedded software different than simply writing an application for, say, a PC. There is nuance associated with embedded processes: They typically contain chronological tasks that must run in a certain order at a certain time; their processors are limited in computing power and available memory; they may require real-time or near real-time responses, and they may or may not have an underlying operating system. |
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