Embedded System Compilers generate dangerous code

Volatiles Are Miscompiled, and What to Do about It by Eric Eide and John Regehr raises some troubling concerns about the tools that form the cornerstone of many Embedded Systems that we depend on daily. They ask the question Why are compilers so buggy? then follow up with several reasons. Mostly due to the badly generated code that involves the C keyword 'volatile'. Code is presented to test and in some cases correct this hidden software danger.

Renesas/uCOS-II FDA 510(k) Certification

Micrium’s RTOS Brings Critical FDA 510(k) Certification to Renesas Technology’s R32C/100 Series Microcontrollers I was involved with the the first edition of uC/OS-II. Jean J. Labrosse says, on page XIX of the Preface section, "Special thanks to Mr. Alian Chebrou and Mr. Bob Paddock for passing the code of uC/OS-II through a fine tooth comb.", in the first edition of his book "MicroC/OS-II The Real-Time Kernel; A complete portable, ROMable scalable preemptive RTOS". See Renesas DevCon from October 13-15, 2008, in San Diego, Calif., to learn more about the company’s support for Renesas’ full range of products. I had actually won a trip to DevCon this year, but had to decline due to an illness of a family member. Did not want to be on the other side of the country with their current state of health right now.

Computer Programming is an unhealthy career

In this weeks Embedded Systems Design columnist Jack Ganssle writes about how Programmers are people, too.

...[T]here are persistent complaints that never seem to go away. The first of these is overtime; the 40-hour work week is but a dream to many, and panicked overtime is de rigueur at many outfits in the last few months of a project. Absenteeism is twice the national average at companies that routinely resort to long weeks. Stress leads to sickness, and even people shackled to the desk need free time to get all of the routine activities of life done.

There is an even more disturbing article on the health consequences of being a programmer: Health Hazards for IT Workers: How Your Desk Wears You Down: Too much junk food, too little exercise and a 24/7 tether to technology? Your body ain't happy, friend. Let us count the pains.

..long days, heavy workload, poor eating, lack of exercise and cruddy posture add up to a pretty stressful work environment. ... Keep it up another ten years, and you could be looking at a host of ailments, from nagging aches and pains on up through serious, life-threatening conditions, according to a host of medical experts we spoke with. ... The combination of a sedentary workday and poor eating habits can lead first and foremost to obesity, which can put your heart at risk and lead to a litany of other diseases.

Why are you still reading this blog after reading that? Get up and go exercise!

Main stream News reports new record prime number, with no details.

The Main Stream News is reporting today that a new record prime number has been found. In their typical style, the reports lacks any meaningful detail. The new number was actually found last month. Edson Smith, Computing Resource Manager for the UCLA Department of Mathematics summarizes the achievement here, and gives the details here.

"The UCLA Mersenne Prime number is 243112609 - 1. The actual number has 12,978,189 digits. If you're so inclined, long-time Mersenne Prime researcher Landon Curt Noll has made the number itself available here. If you're really, really inclined, he also provides the entire number in English (all 328 megabytes of it) here."

Gimple Software has released version nine of their Lint program

Gimpel Software has released, Version 9.0 of their Lint program. Lint is the nitpickiest of all programs when it comes to finding errors in C and C++ code.

Most relevant to us at Software Safety .Net is the enhanced Motor Industry Software Reliability Association checking which includes the detection of recursion, support for the MISRA 2 'underlying type' concept, determination of side effects for functions and MISRA C++ support and more.

If your budget is limited this is the one program that you must have.

Renesas DevCon 2008 and ESC 2009

In the a span of a week I won a free entry to Renesas Developer's Conference 2008, plus air fair discount in San Diego CA, this October, and I was asked if I was interested in speaking at the 2009 Embedded Systems Conference, in San Jose, CA.

Alas I had to decline both due to my father being in poor health right now.

Have your ever felt like opportunity was knocking on the door, but all you were doing was complaining about the noise?

Welcome to Software Safety's new blog.