embedded award 2024: Start-up nominees

Standardised digital component models, IoT communication and a platform-as-a-service technology

Embedd – AI Datasheet Analysis and Automated Driver Generation

Exhibitor: Embedd
Hall/Booth: 4/4-453

The integration of active semiconductor chips into devices is a costly process for the industry. Each year, over 865 million hours are spent on the manual, repetitive task of driver development. Embedded software developers must analyze heterogeneous, non-machine readable documentation and manually integrate it into code.

Given the variety of target architectures used in the market, from various RTOSs to bare-metal, porting these drivers can be a challenging task. Simultaneously, semiconductor manufacturers deal with a long tail of components that lack any software support packages, which becomes a sales friction point for them. 

Embedd uses artificial intelligence to analyse component datasheets and generates standardised digital component models that embedded software developers can configure. The configuration is done through a user-friendly application with VSCode integrations that allows to manage all driver related data and set up component based on the particular application. Users can then automatically generate driver code in C/C++ for their specific target architectures and compliance requirements such as MISRA or IEC 61508.

MYNA

Exhibitor: TEKHNĒ
Hall/Booth: 5/5-371

It solves 3 problems:

• 1. The problems that some IoT communications have, offering the benefits of new Wi-Fi HaLow for multiple applications as industry, agriculture, smart homes and cities.
• 2. The problem of integrating IoT communications into a device in an easy way, offering a compact and flexible module with an easy implementation and fast time-to-market. It has an integrated and tunable antenna to fit in any application and with no need of external antenna. It also has a tunable speed and it provides Open-CPU with a rich developing environment SDK, firmware update over-the-air (OTA), native IP with no need for proprietary gateways, and latest WPA3 security. We also offer an evaluation board to help our customers with the integration and their first tests.
• 3. And the big problem of the social and environmental impacts that the electronics sector has. MYNA module is designed with meticulous studies of its components to avoid conflict minerals, designed through eco-design techniques, efficient energy management, application of 4Rs, reliability studies and obsolescence mitigation plans, respectful manufacturing, and appropriate end of life. 

Our module MYNA gives IoT communication to any device in an easy and sustainable way, offering new Wi-Fi HaLow with multiple advantages over other IoT communications and in a compact module with embedded antenna with no need of external antenna. It offers a very good material penetration through walls and other obstacles, with a long range of approximately 1 km, high speed of up to 15Mbps, high density of up to 8191 client devices per single access point, and low power 400% more efficient than other LP-WAN technologies, being able of use coin cell battery for months or years. It is also designed with innovative sustainable criteria to reduce the large impacts that electronics and technology have.

TACTUN

Exhibitor: TACTUN LLC
Hall/Booth: 3A/3A-335

There are many controllers, PLCs, PACs, and embedded computers out there that are well-suited for factory automation and making manufacturing smarter. However, we couldn't find any convenient, high-performance, and affordable technology that could be easily utilized in a variety of industrial equipment manufactured in those factories. The big players in every such niche manufacturing market have the capabilities to design and manufacture their own custom solutions, yet they spend tens of millions of dollars on those R&D teams. In those niche industries, 3-4 major players own more than 50% of the market share, making it very challenging for the smaller players to change the status quo without having innovative technology to back them up.

Midsize industrial equipment manufacturers either purchase some standard PLC solutions and struggle to program and customize for their machinery or invest millions of dollars in Software R&D and spend many months customizing their equipment and machinery for each specific application. Examples of such equipment include oil well pumps, MRI machines, testing machinery, scientific instrumentation, wind turbines, heavy machinery, and other advanced niche machinery. Another challenge these manufacturers face is a lack of software engineering expertise comparable to larger competitors in the market.

Often, the software technologies they use are outdated, making their machinery less competitive. The TACTUN is a combination of hardware (controller) and software technologies that enable machinery manufacturers to reduce their R&D costs by more than 80% and the lead time to set up custom solutions from several months to several days. The same technology allows those manufacturers to shift their business models from a single-sale model to recurring revenue generation by introducing a Machine-as-a-service business model.

This shift is made possible by eliminating their capital expenditures on controllers and gaining access to the TACTUN platform-as-a-service technology, which takes care of not only the final software creation, configuration, and setup but also licensing, pricing, and billing of the end customers. The software platform is a no-code environment where the machinery manufacturer can design and configure the end-user software application, including its dashboard with a variety of widgets required and a sequencer and rule engine running the machinery behind the scenes. The hardware (controller) configuration is also done using the same platform through a wizard-based interface that is adapted for the particular vertical niche.