ESC West 1999:  Part 1  |  Part 2  |  Part 3

Embedded Systems Conference West

Part 3

Microcontroller.com   Special Report

Embedded Internet and Other Bedtime Stories

Bill and Mike and Chris and the Roller Coaster
Wednesday night was the 10th Anniversary Reception of the Embedded Systems Conference, held at Paramount's Great America, about a fifteen minute ride from the show. The event was sponsored by Motorola, and was co-sponsored by Integrated Systems, Microsoft, OSE, and QNX. Selected rides were open at no charge to conference attendees from 7:30pm to 10:30pm. Most of those attending the conference may have felt "too old" to attend, but those of us that counted braved the turmoil and went on in.

I don't care how old you are, you never outgrow bumper cars. New York and Boston drivers (I count as a member of both groups) seem to take to bumper cars with a particular zest. I know of two particular marketing guys who were ganging up on a competitor that, earlier that day, had criticized their booth's demo. Hell hath no fury like a marketing guy scorned...

The ride of the evening, though, was Top Gun, a high-G inverted floorless roller coaster ride. The entire ride takes 2 minutes, 26 seconds (includes screaming). I went on, at the front seats (of course) with two friends, Mike & Chris. With no floor, your feet are literally whipped around by the high-G forces, and if I hadn't laced my sneakers tightly one of them could have come loose and brained an onlooker. This sort of ride really tests your faith in engineering, and makes you realize what's important in a real-world situation. As one online editor was heard to remark above the screaming, "Screw the Pentium III - I want that steel bracket to hold!!!"

It sometimes takes that sort of an event to make you realize solving real-world problems can be a lot different from the neat stuff many of us think up. Embedded Internet is an example.

Embedded Internet 101
There are many systems out there that use multiple modules, based on microcontrollers, networked together and controlled by one or more PCs with GUIs, either Windows or Unix boxes or whatever. You've got to maintain your code in each individual microcontroller-based system; plus, you've got to maintain the GUI.

Embedded Internet is an excellent solution for many, but not all, of these systems. The microcontroller contains not only your application interface but your GUI as well. By serving up forms-based web pages to your TCP/IP network, each system can provide its own GUI to the PCs on the network that have web browsers. By using forms, data can be submitted to the servers (microcontrollers), and work performed by the microcontrollers can be adjusted. By using CGI methods, system status can be monitored and feedback provided to the user. Many microcontroller manufacturers are attempting to enter this marketplace; however, to be successful requires two key knowledge points: an understanding of the microcontroller marketplace, and detailed knowledge of what can and cannot be done with a web browser and HTML-related technologies.

Alas, many of the solutions presented were not of that ilk. The Scenix demo was an excellent example of a demo that served little purpose - all the device could do was serve up static web pages. It could not process data by HTML forms, lacked a CGI interface, and could not even report on the status of an I/O pin. To that end, it was no more useful than a piece of paper in presenting static data.

The Triscend embedded internet demo was also amusing. Triscend has a very innovative microcontroller that is an 8051 with a PLA on board. When I heard that they had an embedded internet demo at the show I couldn't wait to see it - I assumed that the TCP/IP stack was programmed into the onboard logic! But no, the connectivity was provided by a Seiko embedded TCP/IP chip that had an iReady logic solution. Ethernet connectivity was provided by an AMD chip. The PLA? I was told it was used for "registers" - I never got a good understanding of what that meant. I think the PLA was used to provide the signals to an LCD display, which made it an excellent demo on the capabilities of the Triscend custom logic, but was not by any means an embedded internet demo.

More examples like this abounded. There was a lot of talk about consumer appliances - networking coffeemakers to toasters to refrigerators and the like. But this technology has existed since 1978. There's nothing new about this, except for the fact that for the first time semiconductor vendors have the ordacity to go into their customers and present strategy. I've seen no surveys that say people want, or need, this sort of connectivity in their homes. I even contacted The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers in Washington, DC, and they could not verify a market. Have the semiconductor marketing people really gone batty with this embedded networking of consumer appliances?

Well, I was relieved to see that most of the semiconductor people still have their sanity. When cornered, almost all of the vendors that were touting internet-enabled consumer appliances told me that they were pursuing other strategies; almost all the semiconductor vendors told me that promoting solutions for internet-enabled consumer appliances was the only way they could get headlines in the trade press!!! The applications that are actually successful in Embedded Internet? Industrial Control and Telecom.

The Winners Are...
Who are the people actually providing real-world solutions in Embedded Internet? It doesn't appear to be EmWare - I still haven't been able to verify a high-volume customer for them - but the Big Three are NETSilicon, Agranat, and US Software.

And the one semiconductor company that is really doing ground-breaking work in embedded internet, with a cost-effective revolutionary no-compromise demo/application board, wasn't even heard from at the Embedded Systems Conference...

Why are the Big Three of Embedded Internet successful? And what is wrong with the other strategies? Stay tuned for my next editorial.

-Bill Giovino

For more information on developing Embedded Internet strategies for your company, Contact Me

Comments on the ESC Experience? Send to the editor.