Multicore webinar coming to a screen near you

If you're developing software for an embedded system equipped with a multicore processor, have we got a webinar for you.

On Wednesday, February 15, the "two Jeffs" — Jeff Schaffer of QNX and and Jeff Logan of Freescale — will present a webinar on achieving maximum performance on multicore chips. Topics include threading models for creating multiple concurrent tasks, design patterns for increasing parallelism, and techniques for optimizing cache usage.

Did I mention? If you attend the live webinar, you'll be eligible to win a QorIQ P2020RDB-PCA reference design board through Arrow Electronics. Cool, that.

So what are you waiting for? Click the link and register. The webinar happens Wednesday February 15, at 2:00 p.m. EST.
 

Is multicore a viable choice for medical devices?

Will even relatively simple devices
eventually require multicore?

Multicore processors, and the software required to run on them, can increase the complexity of any embedded system. Some industries, notably networking, have long embraced this added complexity. The medical device market isn't one of them.

It's easy to see why, as this same complexity could potentially hinder or prolong the process of securing FDA approval for a medical device. Getting approval is already hard enough and long enough; any new technology that might further extend the ordeal is rightly looked upon with skepticism.

And yet, multicore is the way of the future for medical devices, save for relatively simple products. We've seen this trend in other markets, including automotive, and the medical device market will, in all likelihood, follow suit.

Should medical developers be concerned? Yes, but not too much. As my colleague Justin Moon argues, the techniques needed to validate multi-core medical systems are, in fact, the same proven techniques that developers already apply to single-core systems. These techniques include testing, statistical analysis, fault tree analysis, and design verification. Meanwhile, the tools and OS technology needed to create, analyze, and optimize multicore-capable applications are, in many cases, quite mature.

And, of course, let's not forget a key benefit of multicore: significantly increased performance (through concurrency) without an attendant increase in power consumption and heat dissipation.

But enough from me. To get the argument straight from the horse's mouth, read Justin's article, Smart OS strategy makes multicore viable for medical devices, which EE Times published earlier this month.

Testing, statistical analysis, and design validation complement one another to validate a software system, whether it is running on one or multiple cores. (Click image to magnify.)
 

QNX-powered flight simulators help airline pilots earn their wings

As a pilot, how do you learn to handle a critical problem, such as a hydraulic failure in mid-flight, when that problem may occur only once (if ever) in your career? And how do you practice difficult maneuvers until you get them right, without endangering yourself or anyone else? In a flight simulator, of course!

Mechtronix is one of the biggest, and fastest growing, flight simulator vendors in the world. And to get there, they've taken the road (or should I say flight path) less traveled. Rather than equip their simulators with all the hardware deployed on actual planes — the traditional method — they use software to replicate most of an airplane's behavior.

Eliminating hardware offers numerous benefits. It cuts costs dramatically. It makes the simulators lighter and easier to transport. And it makes them easier to maintain, since the customer no longer needs a specialized avionics engineer. But enough from me — let's hear Thomas Allen, VP of Technology at Mechtronix, describe the company's approach and how the QNX OS helps make it possible:



Two things stand out for me. The first is QNX's talent for juggling many concurrent tasks and gazillions of I/O points. This ability to support intense multitasking, while delivering fast and predictable response times, is essential to replicating the experience of flying a real plane.

Second, I was fascinated to hear how the system design adopted by Mechtronix parallels the architecture of the QNX OS. Years, ago, someone explained to me how the QNX OS isn't simply a well-designed, modular OS; it also encourages well-designed, modular systems. In Mechtronix, we have an example.
 

Two naughty! My favorite QNX marketing campaign

Let me guess: You probably assume that the corporate culture at QNX is a bit geeky. And if so, I don't blame you. We are an OS company, after all. But you know, we can also be a little cheeky.

Case in point: A few years back, we introduced some innovative tools and OS features to help developers migrate from single-core to multi-core processors. And to promote these technologies, we decided to have some fun.

Here's the billboard we came up with:



And here's the billboard mounted on a truck, prowling the streets of San Jose during the Embedded Systems Conference:



In case you're wondering, here's what the other side of the truck looked like:



If you don't get the tightly coupled reference, it's a pun on the tightly coupled multiprocessing provided by multi-core processors. Because even when we're cheeky, we're still a little geeky.

 

New gesture video for BlackBerry PlayBook

If you've ever tried a BlackBerry PlayBook, you'll agree that it's one heck of a multi-tasking machine. Mind you, that should come as no surprise. After all, the PlayBook's underlying QNX Neutrino OS has supported multi-tasking since the early 1980s and symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) since the late 1990s.

Still, a true multi-tasking tablet can't simply process multiple tasks all at once. It must also allow the user to interact with those multiple tasks in a fluid, intuitive manner. And that's where the advanced gestures of the BlackBerry PlayBook come into play.

Recently, a couple of my QNX colleagues put together a video to show how those gestures can help you make the best use of the PlayBook. So, without further ado, roll the tape:


 

QNX VP showcases multitasking prowess of BlackBerry PlayBook

Hey, check out this video of Sebastien Marineau, VP of engineering at QNX, as he explains how the multi-core capabilities of the QNX Neutrino OS allow the BlackBerry PlayBook to run multiple apps simultaneously:



Technically speaking, QNX Neutrino's advanced support for symmetric multiprocessing, or SMP, makes this multitasking possible. A large variety of systems, including the world's largest Internet routers, have used QNX SMP for well over a decade. Which means that the PlayBook, with its ability to deliver a full web browsing experience, uses the same technology that helps power the Web itself. Now that's pretty cool.
 

Shootout: BlackBerry PlayBook versus Apple iPad

Hey, check out this video of the PlayBook and iPad going head-to-head on browser speed, Flash support, and HTML5 performance:



For previous posts on the BlackBerry Playbook, click here.
 

QNX wins Best in Show at FTF India

This just in: QNX Software Systems has won the Best in Show award at the Freescale Technology Forum in India.

QNX took top honors for its multi-core tools and RTOS, which were showcased on a dual-core version of the Freescale QorIQ P2020 communications processor.

QNX takes a two-pronged approach to multi-core support: 1) the QNX Neutrino RTOS, which supports symmetric multiprocessing, and 2) the QNX Momentics Tool Suite, which provides a system profiler for diagnosing and optimizing multi-core software behavior.

Using the system profiler, a developer can track threads as they migrate from one core to another, diagnose IPC flowing across cores, and identify resource contention between threads on different cores. As a result, it becomes much easier to pinpoint bottlenecks and identify the best strategy for improving performance.

Here's an example of the system profiler being used to diagnose a missed deadline on a quad-core system (click image to magnify):



To learn more about how the system profiler helps improve the performance of multi-core systems, check out this whitepaper.
 

ESC Best of Show awards go to multicore tools and operating system

Late last week, VDC Research handed out its Best of Show awards for ESC Silicon Valley 2009. The results were interesting: The winner, CriticalBlue, took top honors for its multicore analysis tools, and the runner-up, QNX Software Sytems, received an honorable mention for its multicore-enabled secure RTOS.

The analysts at VDC follow the embedded market closely, so their choice of two multicore-related products speaks volumes, IMHO. It's their way of stating that multicore processors — and the software tools that support them — are becoming increasingly important to embedded developers.

To read VDC's complete report on ESC Silicon Valley, click here.

Need to parallelize your code for multi-core execution?

I'm always on the lookout for websites and tutorials dedicated to writing parallel code, so I was glad to see that Intel's Clay Breshears has written a new programmer's guide called The Art of Concurrency.

I don't know anyone who has used the book — not a surprise, given that it only comes out in May — but the premise looks good. Rather than focus on theoretical programming models, the book promises to provide a hands-on, experience-based approach to parallelizing existing code.

To learn more about the book, visit the O'Reilly website.

Do American developers fear parallelism?

Is skill in parallel programming a cultural phenomenon? Do most real-world computing problems parallelize easily? For a heated discussion on these and other pressing multi-core issues, visit Slashdot and check out "More Interest In Parallel Programming Outside the US?"

The thread started today in reaction to a blog post from Intel's James Reinders, who claims that developers in the U.S. and Europe are falling behind when it comes to embracing parallelism. He also states that programmers with <15 years' experience show significantly more interest in parallelism than programmers with >15 years' experience. Fighting words!

If you're an American developer, you don't have to take this lying down. You can still register for the Multicore Expo, which goes from April 1 to April 3, and prove to the world that you embrace your inner parallelism. Lots of multi-core hardware/software vendors will be there, including Intel, QNX, Freescale, Sun, and Texas Instruments. (I work for QNX, so, yes, this is a shameless plug. :-)