Posts by eric.verhulst(Altreonic)

Upgrading Linux with Rust looks like a new challenge. It's one of our oldest

... no straight thing was ever built. Not even a kernel?

Well, that's not really true. Our own embedded RTOS (now called VirtuosoNext) was formally developed from scratch using Leslie Lamport's TLA+. It has a history before it. VirtuosoNext (previous name was OpenComRTOS) was a 5th generation development. The previous 4th generation (that has roots in Hoare’s CSP) one made it into the open-source Zephyr (after WRS acquired the IP). The issue is less one of using C versus other languages (like ADA, Spark-ADA and RUST). The first domain to tackle is architecture. Monolithic vs. modular. With separation of concerns. That includes semantics. This is where a formal design delivers. The VirtuosoNext kernel is 5 to 10 smaller than it predecessors because it has no duplicated code. It's kBytes vs. Mbytes. It also supports fine-grain space partitioning with real-time fault recovery in microseconds. This is on the technical side. A major issue is market acceptance. Most software done is coding, not engineering. People reuse what they know and often this is what they learned at school. Economic factors are important. Most often people prefer a quick and dirty solution rather than one taking more time but then being more trustworthy. Hence the need for vast third-party libraries and tools (the lack thereof is why Modula-2 failed). We have looked several times to rewrite it in not-C, but in the end the reason to stick to C is the availability of compilers (for embedded targets).

RIP: Software design pioneer and Pascal creator Niklaus Wirth

Great man, thinking things through

Wirth and Hoare have been very inspirational in developing our Virtuoso RTOS. It's a pity that the software world took the opposite path of complexity. It's even amazing that our software-driven world hasn't collapsed yet. I remember being with Niklaus Wirth at one of the first conferences on embedded software. After a pretty clear presentation on garbage collection in Java, he stands up and says "Now I know why I shouldn't be using Java". It was the real conclusion that could be drawn from the presentation, but nobody was expecting it to be voiced so clearly.

Apple's magical quality engineering strikes again: You may want to hold off that macOS High Sierra update...

Contacted Apple, fo which I have to sign up(!).

Posted this: After installing 10.13.4 my macbook never goes into sleep anymore but reboots instead all the time.

I hear and read that severla people have now this issue, but no information at all to be found.

I had similar problems with earlier updates (but not all the time and the issues disappeared).

I found this information: Apple's magical quality engineering strikes again: You may want to hold off that macOS High Sierra update... • The Regis…

Please undo whatever you put in that update to avoid this. I use this Macbook for my business!

When I want to submit I get this:

You are not allowed to create or update this content.

Grr.

We've found a ‘vaccine’ for fake news. Wait! No, we really are Cambridge researchers

Fake science, it's not new. Newton would not be happy as it comes from Cambridge.

Russian hackers got Trump elected? Yeah, let's take a close look at that, says Obama

Sure, the USA never interfered

Desperate tactics from loosers. Emails are being hacked all the time. But the point is, how often did the USA not intervene? How dictators did they not put in power?

ESA: Sorry about Schiaparelli, can we have another €400 mill?

Re: So, you want an extra €400 million?

Rosetta went quite well with software that was developed years ago. Simplicity is the key.

Software testing is not enough. One needs to have formal verification of teh softwrae but aso of teh system design. What were the assumptions? As far as I can read, a sensor gave an overflow. From ESA's website: "However, saturation – maximum measurement – of the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) had occurred shortly after the parachute deployment. The IMU measures the rotation rates of the vehicle. Its output was generally as predicted except for this event, which persisted for about one second – longer than would be expected.

When merged into the navigation system, the erroneous information generated an estimated altitude that was negative – that is, below ground level."

This begs the questions: did the software take into account larger then expected values? This is often overlooked and the remedy is simple: clamp the data. If the sensor was in error, was there a back-up sensor? Were feasibility checks included? Etc. It is not so likely that testing alone will find this because testing cannot always simulate unspecified states. The process needs to included several reviews and confirmation activities. This type of errors (if confirmed) look a bit like beginner's errors. An academic environment could be the cause. It's only when engineers hit a few times the wall, that hard lessons are learned.

Leaked paper suggests EM Drive tested by NASA actually works

Years ago I had to investigate an issue on klystrons. They would visibly detoriate (on the inside) from metal ions being ejected due to being bombarded with stray electrons (the design was missing a little circular "barrier" that the competing vendor had. Hence, my guess: it's actually metal ions being ejected. The ones that escape through the "exhaust" (because the rest hits the "motor") provide the micro) trust. No violation at all of classical mechanics. Should be easy to verify. Measure the displacement of a metal foil placed behind the exhaust.

Geohot gone geocold on georides: Comma.ai self-driving car kit cancelled

There is a big gap between proof of concept and fully and safe under all circumstances autonomous driving for all vehicles on the road (actually the phase in between will be most challenging). Maybe Hotz realised that and then you see that the task is daunting. Nevertheless, I think his approach is much more promising than the AI/rule based approaches. For my view on it see http://kurt.mobi/193-2/

Smartmobes in spaaace: NASA deploys Android nanosats

Radiation and SEU hardened?

How does a smartphone survive space radiation and SEUs? The probalistic life time of these nanosats could be very, very low. In addition, they made the problem worse by using memory eating software. One alpha particle and blue screen is the result.

'Impossible' EmDrive flying saucer thruster may herald new theory of inertia

The explanation could be very simple; The microwaves bounce of the inner wall and this releases atoms of which some escape through the back-end opening. I have seen this in microwave klystrons 30 years ago. No magic needed.

Intelligent Energy secures $7.5m to develop smartphone fuel cell

Expensive proof of concept

7.5 million? For a device that is inferior to a normal battery. Just connect a solar cell if you need some power in the wild or carry some extra with you. I see no added value in this hydrogen FC.

Three-mile-high pyramid found on alien dwarf world, baffles boffins

Due to a timeshift, the actual discovery date was 1st April. Or was that when this article was written? Every trick is good to keep the money flowing.

Oz energy company AGL promises to decarbonise by 2050

It's OK if they filter the partly burned emission gases (because that's bad for our health), but it's really not an issue at all to release the CO2. The world needs CO2. Without CO2, plants will start to die.

Scientists splice mammoth genes into unsuspecting elephant

This article has many "holes". Tundra cooler? Global warming (the CO2 myth, another fundraiser). Reviving mammoths? You don't get mammoths by changing a few genes in an elephants' DNA. Looks to me like someone needs attention to gets his funding flowing. They should create a price for that. idem dito for the journalist who never check their sources.

TI throws DSPs at supercomputers

Software for C66xx available

Consider it done. To get maximum performance, one needs very efficient (small code size, low communication latency) distributed (RT)OS. http://www.altreonic.com/content/opencomrtos-supports-high-performance-c66xx-dsp-texas-instruments