Tuesday, Oct 13, 2026 Week -- 20:27:24
Understand firmware signing, encryption, secure boot, and read-only filesystems with practical Linux and MCU examples, key-management advice, update safety tradeoffs, and a production checklist.
Understand why CPU clock speed alone cannot predict MCU performance. Learn how IPC, pipelines, memory wait states, caches, buses, compilers, and workload shape real embedded throughput.
A practical guide to the CoreMark benchmark: what it measures, how CoreMark/MHz is calculated, how it compares with DMIPS, and how to use benchmark results without mistaking them for application performance.
Clear explanation of hardware FPU, VPU, NEON, and SIMD instructions and their massive impact on CPU performance. Real benchmarks, use cases, and comparisons showing 10-100x speedups in signal processing, graphics, ML, and math-heavy applications.
A beginner-friendly, comprehensive guide to understanding CPU, GPU, and NPU: what they do, how they differ, their architecture, real-world use cases, pros and cons, and when to use each for your project. Perfect for engineers and developers.
Complete guide to PWM (Pulse Width Modulation): how it works, frequency vs duty cycle, practical MCU configuration examples, real-world use cases including LED dimming, motor control, and DAC simulation. Clear explanations with working code.
Complete guide to DMA controllers in embedded systems: how Direct Memory Access works, when to use it, DMA modes and transfer types, practical configuration examples, and common pitfalls to avoid in production code.
A practical guide to choosing between ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers and Cortex-A processors for embedded projects. Learn the architectural differences, performance trade-offs, real-world use cases, and decision criteria for MCU vs MPU selection.
Deep-dive into DMIPS vs MIPS: what Dhrystone measures, why MIPS alone is misleading, how to interpret DMIPS specifications in MCU datasheets, and what these metrics actually tell you about real-world performance.
Practical comparison of ESP32 (Xtensa dual-core MCU with integrated Wi-Fi/BLE) vs ARM Cortex-A application processors for IoT projects. Learn cost, power, complexity tradeoffs, and when each is the right choice for your connected device.
