Energi Technical Marketing

UK embedded engineering experts, Pebble Bay, have announced that they will be presenting a half-day technical workshop at this year's Embedded Masterclass event. Entitled "An Introduction to Hardware Interfacing and Device Driver Development" the workshop is intended to help engineers understand how software interfaces with typical embedded system hardware and to understand the purpose, structure and typical components of a device driver.

The Embedded Masterclass will take place 6th and 11th May 2010 in Cambridge and Reading. Over the past 9 years, the Embedded Masterclass has established itself as an important UK event for hi-tech engineers looking to explore the most recent tools and technologies for the development of microprocessor based systems.

UK based Pebble Bay is a business that helps companies build and improve all kinds of products based on microprocessors. Since the company launch nearly five years ago, Pebble Bay has become a respected leader in the development of board support packages and hardware software interfacing, working with companies around the world.

"One of the biggest challenges for any hi-tech engineer is the task of enabling software to interface with new hardware," stated Ian Willats, Managing Director of Pebble Bay. "The phenomenal speed and complexity of a modern microprocessor and the demands that we now put on such systems means that this task is not only very difficult but very often safety critical. The aim of the session is to de-mystify what can be considered a black art for those who have little or no experience of hardware interfacing. It includes demonstrations on an embedded target system."

Over 30 industry vendors have sponsored this year's event. Companies include Lauterbach, LDRA, IAR Systems, Phaedrus Systems, SDC Systems, Wind River, Green Hills Software, LDRA, MontaVista, QNX and Enea. In addition to the workshops, the event offers a schedule of short technical presentations and a vendor exhibition. At this year's event, presenters have been asked to abandon Power Point in favour of a whiteboard, flip chart and hand-outs. The organisers are hoping that this will make the presentations more dynamic and ensure the presenters are well prepared.

"This workshop is a great fit for this event," said Richard Blackburn, the event organiser. "Our objective is always to put on an event that engineers will find productive and will be useful in their everyday working environment. In many ways, hardware interfacing and driver development is the 'Holy Grail' of embedded development. The performance and the reliability of the entire system rely on how well the software is integrated to the hardware. Also, it takes a special person to do this work. It has to be an engineer that not only understands hardware issues, but can also craft good software code. We are very pleased to have a world leader such as Pebble Bay prepared to come along and share some of their secrets."

Pebble Bay offer independent software services to companies in a broad range of industries, from motor sport to defence, and from telecoms to medical. With a highly skilled and experienced team of software engineers, Pebble Bay help manufacturers develop new products by providing low level code solutions that enable their clients to quickly and reliably create new market beating products. www.pebblebay.com

"Providing board support packages and device driver code is our main business," said Ian Willats. "This enables our clients to focus on their core technology and push on with the software that makes their products special. We can work with a number of operating systems and we have a great deal of experience with most hardware formats, enabling us to quickly deliver reliable and effective solutions."

In addition to six half-day technical workshops, Embedded Masterclass includes a schedule of eight 40-minute technical presentations on assorted topics, and a vendor exhibition. Attendance at the exhibition, including the series of 40-minute technical presentations, is free to embedded engineers and technology managers. The half-day workshops are £95.00+VAT. Engineers are advised to register early, as space at the event is limited. Registration is on-line at www.embedded-masterclass.com 

Pebble Bay Contact:

Tanya Wrycraft

Business Development and Marketing Manager

+44 (0)1926 453 681

tanya.wrycraft@pebblebay.com

Embedded Masterclass contact:

Richard Blackburn

richard@energi-tech.co.uk

+44 (0)1603 278228