Slashdot Mirror

vocaro writes "The U.S. Supreme Court appears ready to rewrite the standard of what makes a patent 'obvious.' In a case before the court, brake manufacturer Teleflex is accusing a rival, KSR International, of violating its patent on a brake assembly. Large patent holders, including Microsoft, IBM, and Cisco, have submitted briefs supporting KSR, saying that true innovators can have a patent held up against them that reflects nothing more than an obvious combination of preexisting elements, then be told they have to leave the market or pay royalties. The court appears to be on KSR's side, saying that Teleflex's invention would have been obvious to an individual of reasonable skill. During oral arguments, Justice Breyer observed, 'It looks to me at about the same level as I have a sensor on my garage door at the lower hinge ... and the raccoons are eating it. So I think of the brainstorm of putting it on the upper hinge.'"

Slashback tonight brings some corrections, clarifications, and updates to previous Slashdot stories, including a short history of Honda's ASIMO. Also, Intel bows out of the embedded processor market, Microsoft's USB giveaway fizzles, CSIRO gets close to a WiFi win, lawmakers target MySpace again, and the New York Times weighs in on net neutrality. Read on for details.

A Short history of Honda's ASIMO. Ant writes to tell us that Honda has posted a short overview of the evolution leading up to the ASIMO. The history showcases the progress Honda has made in robotics over the last 20 years. It contains drawings, photographs, specifications, and other information about each prototype.

Intel bows out of the embedded processor market. markrages writes "Embedded.com is reporting Intel is withdrawing from the embedded processor market. From the article: 'The company will stop producing the 8051, 251, 8096/196, 188/186, i960, all versions of the 386 (including the 386EX) and 486.'" The product change notification is also available from Intel's site.

Microsoft USB giveaway fizzles. An anonymous reader writes "If you thought you could get something for nothing from Microsoft. Think again. NetworkWorld is reporting that Microsoft is backing down from the free USB drive marketing promotion they launched last February."

CSIRO close to WiFi win. Trapped Database Adm writes "Australian IT reports that Leonard Davis of the U.S. District Court for the eastern district of Texas issued a Markman opinion, providing 'strong support for CSIRO's position in its patent infringement test case.'" From the article: "The CSIRO claims its patent relates to several wireless standards, and the technology covered by its patent is a standard feature of most notebook computers and many other devices. Many technology companies are refusing to pay up, however."

Lawmakers target MySpace again. ardyng writes "It appears Congressman Michael G. Fitzpatrick,(R-Penn) has introduced a bill to the U.S. House of Representatives that would ban minors from accessing social networking websites such as Myspace, as well as any site that 'allows users to create web pages or profiles that provide information about themselves and are available to other users; and offers a mechanism for communication with other users, such as a forum, chat room, email, or instant messenger. The Bill, H.R. 5319, also known as the 'Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006', is still in its infancy, but in its current form, would forbid libraries from allowing access to such sites as well." (That description would also include the site you're reading now.)

New York Times weighs in on net neutrality. KarmaOverDogma writes "The New York Times' Adam Cohen provides an argument in favor of neutrality on the World Wide Web. Cohen succinctly provides a brief history of the World Wide Web, its creator Tim Berners-Lee's vision of how it should operate, why he designed that way, and the forces moving to create a tiered pricing system of access. From stifling creativity and competition to free speech and innovation, Cohen shows why strange bedfellows have come to favor enforcing the 'Democratic Ethic' of the internet by Legislation."

Cadre asks: "Can a regular COTS FireWire card be used for monitoring data (kind of like a regular COTS ethernet card can be put into promiscuous mode and the data can be monitored with libpcap)? I work for an organization that does a lot of databus monitoring and hardware-in-the-loop testing of large systems. Firewire has become popular (Ethernet too, but we've solved that problem with libpcap) and we're looking for a solution to monitor and simulate data. There are a couple manufactures that sell specialized equipment for FireWire testing that include onboard FPGAs but they seem more geared towards testing the FireWire bus than testing the overall systems on the bus."

shootTheMessenger asks: "My company is porting our C++ Windows app to C in an embedded device and the question of whether to use dynamic memory allocation continues to come up. So far I have resisted malloc/free use but it gets tedious having the same argument with the next set of managers to take an interest in the project. Is there a definitive answer on the subject, especially one to counter the 'we have plenty of RAM - 16MB - so why not use dynamic allocation' argument? A quick google search finds that some sites frown on allocations within embedded applications, while others say it is OK in some contexts and yet others hack around it with pseudo-static allocations. How do you feel about this particular subject?"

prostoalex writes "Jim Turley from Embedded Systems Programming magazine answers the question of where microprocessors come from. While the public generally knows about the silicon and microprocessor vendors, few can describe the process of turning the beach sand into the latest and greatest several-hundred-dollars-worth CPU."

daksis writes "Non base two computing is nothing new. But it is an idea that, for various reasons, never really caught on. Embedded.com is running an op/ed piece that asks if hardware and software engineers are ready to move to ternary or quaternary logic. A move to multi-valued logic provides more computational capability without the standard increase in die size or transistor count. Is the need to make do with the current fabrication technology enough to drive the move to multi-valued logic? Or will Moore's law continue without the need for doing more with less silica based real estate?"

prostoalex writes "UK-based Imagination Technologies announced the first port of Linux to multi-threaded DSP architecture. The port is done for Imagination's META core that it licenses out to those needing a generic DSP architecture. According to the company, 'META can run Linux on one hardware thread while running real-time DSP tasks on the other threads. META can also re-allocate MIPS on the fly so that each thread can be delivered the guaranteed share of processing resource and response time that it needs, while never clocking the processor faster than is required.'"

cloudkj writes "Processor selection too often turns into a religious war. Debunking the dominant myths is the first step towards making a rational choice. Embedded.com has an article highlighting the 10 most common lies and misconceptions about microprocessors."

Embedded Geek writes "Embedded Systems magazine is running an interesting story about building an embedded system (specifically, a diagnostic tool for auto mechanics) using Linux. Despite the foreboding title and tagline ('If your embedded system doesn't need networking and storage, porting Linux to your hardware may not be worth the effort'), it offers a balanced look at how the engineer implemented his solution and observations on each step. Interestingly, his discussion is as much about embedded design philosophy versus Linux's philosophy, pointing out where each meets or diverges. A nice read."

Embedded Geek writes "Embedded Systems magazine is running an interesting story about building an embedded system (specifically, a diagnostic tool for auto mechanics) using Linux. Despite the foreboding title and tagline ('If your embedded system doesn't need networking and storage, porting Linux to your hardware may not be worth the effort'), it offers a balanced look at how the engineer implemented his solution and observations on each step. Interestingly, his discussion is as much about embedded design philosophy versus Linux's philosophy, pointing out where each meets or diverges. A nice read."

prostoalex writes "For a while academia and R&D labs explored the possibilities of asynchronous logic. Now Bernard Cole from Embedded.com tells us that asynchronous logic might receive more acceptance than expected in modern designs. The main advantages, as article states, are 'reduced power consumption, reduced current peaks, and reduced electromagnetic emission', to quote a prominent researcher from Philips Semiconductors. Earlier Bernard Cole wrote a column on self-timed asynchronous logic."

prostoalex writes "For a while academia and R&D labs explored the possibilities of asynchronous logic. Now Bernard Cole from Embedded.com tells us that asynchronous logic might receive more acceptance than expected in modern designs. The main advantages, as article states, are 'reduced power consumption, reduced current peaks, and reduced electromagnetic emission', to quote a prominent researcher from Philips Semiconductors. Earlier Bernard Cole wrote a column on self-timed asynchronous logic."

oxgoad writes "Need a closed-form algorithm to derive square roots? Stymied by strange and scary results from your favorite compiler's math library? Math Toolkit for Real-Time Programming by Jack W. Crenshaw attempts to shed some numerical light. Read on for the goods." Oxgoad's review continues below. Math Toolkit for Real-Time Programming author Jack W. Crenshaw pages 466 publisher CMP Books rating 8 reviewer oxgoad ISBN 1929629095 summary A casual discussion of algorithms ranging from abs to numerical calculus.

Who & What

Jack W. Crenshaw, Ph.D. (Physics) wrote his first computer program in 1956 for an IBM 650. He has been working with real-time software for embedded systems ever since -- contributing several years to NASA during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. In addition to other activities, he is currently a contributing editor for Embedded Systems Programming magazine and author of the Programmer's Toolbox column.

In Math Toolkit for Real-Time Programming, his effort is focused on describing the pitfalls of vendor-provided math libraries and providing robust replacements. In section one he gives a thorough overview of constants and the various manners in which to declare them, naming conventions, and error handling. As the work progresses, in section two, he builds a library of proven algorithms ranging from square roots to trigonometrical functions to logarithms. Did you suffer through calculus in college with a barely passing grade? Section three will teach you more about numerical calculus in a half-hour than you may have learned in three semesters.

Kudos

Math Toolkit is written in an easy to understand anecdotal manner. You might be tempted to think that the author was animatedly relating the history of computing square roots while having lunch with you. This method works very well and keeps what could be a rather heavy subject from becoming too much of a burden. Most chapters have historical tidbits liberally sprinkled throughout.

Even if college algebra left you with post-traumatic stress disorder, you will not have any trouble with section two. Indeed, you may find yourself intently following the author on the trail of the perfect arctangent algorithm -- much as a sleuth on the trail of a villain.

The depth of knowledge shown, and its presentation, is exceptional. The author's years of experience are evident in his self-confident writing style. You will rarely see a clearer overview of numerical calculus. Quibbles

The cover of the book states: "Do big math on small machines." This, combined with the Real-Time Programming phrase in the title, might lead one to believe that the book's primary audience is intended to be the embedded microcontroller crowd. Sadly, not so. There is very little here for the die-hard assembler programmer other than some very handy integer square root and sine routines - and these examples are in C++. Based on the cover, I would have liked to see a greater emphasis on processors lacking a floating point unit. Also, some code examples in pseudo-assembler would have been welcome, as the author chose C++ as the language of choice for all examples.

Crimes

As is so often the case nowadays, there are various typographical errors scattered throughout. This seems to be an epidemic in current technical books. Fortunately, it didn't affect the readability of Math Toolkit.

Conclusions

I believe Math Toolkit for Real-Time Programming would be a great, perhaps mandatory, addition to the bookshelf of anyone that is involved in writing code that has a heavy math component. Other than the somewhat misleading cover, I cannot find anything truly negative to say about this work. Congratulations are in order to Mr. Crenshaw on a job well done.

The book also includes a CD-ROM of all example source code. In reality, to get the best benefit from the book, you should mostly ignore the CD-ROM and work through the examples. To quote the author: "Never trust a person who merely hands you an equation."

Table of Contents

1. Getting The Constants Right
2. A Few Easy Pieces
3. Dealing with Errors
4. Fundamental Functions
5. Getting the Sines Right
6. Arctangents: An Angle-Space Odyssey
7. Logging in the Answers
8. Numerical Calculus
9. Calculus by the Numbers
10. Putting Numerical Calculus to Work
11. The Runge-Kutta Method
12. Dynamic Simulation

• Appendix A: A C++ Tools Library

Disclosure

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher. Thus, my loyalties and opinions may be completely skewed. Caveat Lector.

You can purchase Math Toolkit for Real-Time Programming from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

oxgoad writes "Need a closed-form algorithm to derive square roots? Stymied by strange and scary results from your favorite compiler's math library? Math Toolkit for Real-Time Programming by Jack W. Crenshaw attempts to shed some numerical light. Read on for the goods." Oxgoad's review continues below. Math Toolkit for Real-Time Programming author Jack W. Crenshaw pages 466 publisher CMP Books rating 8 reviewer oxgoad ISBN 1929629095 summary A casual discussion of algorithms ranging from abs to numerical calculus.

Who & What

Jack W. Crenshaw, Ph.D. (Physics) wrote his first computer program in 1956 for an IBM 650. He has been working with real-time software for embedded systems ever since -- contributing several years to NASA during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. In addition to other activities, he is currently a contributing editor for Embedded Systems Programming magazine and author of the Programmer's Toolbox column.

In Math Toolkit for Real-Time Programming, his effort is focused on describing the pitfalls of vendor-provided math libraries and providing robust replacements. In section one he gives a thorough overview of constants and the various manners in which to declare them, naming conventions, and error handling. As the work progresses, in section two, he builds a library of proven algorithms ranging from square roots to trigonometrical functions to logarithms. Did you suffer through calculus in college with a barely passing grade? Section three will teach you more about numerical calculus in a half-hour than you may have learned in three semesters.

Kudos

Math Toolkit is written in an easy to understand anecdotal manner. You might be tempted to think that the author was animatedly relating the history of computing square roots while having lunch with you. This method works very well and keeps what could be a rather heavy subject from becoming too much of a burden. Most chapters have historical tidbits liberally sprinkled throughout.

Even if college algebra left you with post-traumatic stress disorder, you will not have any trouble with section two. Indeed, you may find yourself intently following the author on the trail of the perfect arctangent algorithm -- much as a sleuth on the trail of a villain.

The depth of knowledge shown, and its presentation, is exceptional. The author's years of experience are evident in his self-confident writing style. You will rarely see a clearer overview of numerical calculus. Quibbles

The cover of the book states: "Do big math on small machines." This, combined with the Real-Time Programming phrase in the title, might lead one to believe that the book's primary audience is intended to be the embedded microcontroller crowd. Sadly, not so. There is very little here for the die-hard assembler programmer other than some very handy integer square root and sine routines - and these examples are in C++. Based on the cover, I would have liked to see a greater emphasis on processors lacking a floating point unit. Also, some code examples in pseudo-assembler would have been welcome, as the author chose C++ as the language of choice for all examples.

Crimes

As is so often the case nowadays, there are various typographical errors scattered throughout. This seems to be an epidemic in current technical books. Fortunately, it didn't affect the readability of Math Toolkit.

Conclusions

I believe Math Toolkit for Real-Time Programming would be a great, perhaps mandatory, addition to the bookshelf of anyone that is involved in writing code that has a heavy math component. Other than the somewhat misleading cover, I cannot find anything truly negative to say about this work. Congratulations are in order to Mr. Crenshaw on a job well done.

The book also includes a CD-ROM of all example source code. In reality, to get the best benefit from the book, you should mostly ignore the CD-ROM and work through the examples. To quote the author: "Never trust a person who merely hands you an equation."

Table of Contents

1. Getting The Constants Right
2. A Few Easy Pieces
3. Dealing with Errors
4. Fundamental Functions
5. Getting the Sines Right
6. Arctangents: An Angle-Space Odyssey
7. Logging in the Answers
8. Numerical Calculus
9. Calculus by the Numbers
10. Putting Numerical Calculus to Work
11. The Runge-Kutta Method
12. Dynamic Simulation

• Appendix A: A C++ Tools Library

Disclosure

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher. Thus, my loyalties and opinions may be completely skewed. Caveat Lector.

You can purchase Math Toolkit for Real-Time Programming from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Embedded Geek writes "Jack Ganssle has posted a column at embedded.com pondering whether Red Hat and other open source companies serving the embedded community are due a shakeout similar to the dot com collapse. He cites Red Hat's March cuts in their embedded division and their losses of $80M to $140M a year. He admits, though, that because the embedded market is smaller and many companies are privately held it is difficult to get a pulse on what's going on behind closed doors. "

Embedded Geek asks: "There's an interesting opinion piece at Embedded Systems Magazine about [embedded] programming being a dead end job. The author cites burnout ('Pushing ones and zeroes around doesn't sound like a lot of work, but getting each and every one of a hundred million perfect is tremendously difficult.'), prestige, and skill obsolescence as big reasons for programmers to quit or to go 'over to the dark side' and join management or marketing positions. While the piece primarily addresses embedded programmers, the issue is rising for IT workers and other tech workers. When the age issue is combined with the export of jobs offshore, it makes me nervous just to be pushing 35..." Even though the market is going thru a rough patch, and the number of detrimental aspects to programming are increasing (ageism and so forth), I still do not feel that programming is a dead end job. Computers are going nowhere folks, and as long as they are around, programmers will be necessary. People who are in this career for the money or the prestige may not like it after a while, but the people who are in this for something else will tolerate quite a bit before deciding to opt out. The simple measure here: "as long as you love doing it, you'll keep doing it." Isn't this true for any career?

Embedded Geek asks: "There's an interesting opinion piece at Embedded Systems Magazine about [embedded] programming being a dead end job. The author cites burnout ('Pushing ones and zeroes around doesn't sound like a lot of work, but getting each and every one of a hundred million perfect is tremendously difficult.'), prestige, and skill obsolescence as big reasons for programmers to quit or to go 'over to the dark side' and join management or marketing positions. While the piece primarily addresses embedded programmers, the issue is rising for IT workers and other tech workers. When the age issue is combined with the export of jobs offshore, it makes me nervous just to be pushing 35..." Even though the market is going thru a rough patch, and the number of detrimental aspects to programming are increasing (ageism and so forth), I still do not feel that programming is a dead end job. Computers are going nowhere folks, and as long as they are around, programmers will be necessary. People who are in this career for the money or the prestige may not like it after a while, but the people who are in this for something else will tolerate quite a bit before deciding to opt out. The simple measure here: "as long as you love doing it, you'll keep doing it." Isn't this true for any career?

krow writes: "Embedded.com is running an article where the author is making some assumptions of Linux's use in the embedded markets based on the opinion of one consultant and the fact that Lineo had to lay off some people this year. It's still interesting reading though for some insight into a different world for Linux and there is a nice reference in the comments to the interview of Victor Yodaiken of RTLinux fame by by Kevin Fu on the ACM site."

krow writes: "Embedded.com is running an article where the author is making some assumptions of Linux's use in the embedded markets based on the opinion of one consultant and the fact that Lineo had to lay off some people this year. It's still interesting reading though for some insight into a different world for Linux and there is a nice reference in the comments to the interview of Victor Yodaiken of RTLinux fame by by Kevin Fu on the ACM site."

Embedded Geek writes: "Embedded Systems Programming has a piece about Microsoft organizing its employees to advocate their embedded products in online newsgroups (part of "a new culture at Microsoft" making "an effort to shed the company's reputation as an incommunicative giant.") This is coordinated with Microsoft's launch of Windows XP Embedded at their Embedded Developers' Conference (the countdown clock on their homepage says Wednesday but the launch party is Thursday)." News.com notes that this will be used in slot machines and ATMs. Insert obligatory free-money joke.

Embedded Geek writes: "Embedded Systems Programming has a piece about Microsoft organizing its employees to advocate their embedded products in online newsgroups (part of "a new culture at Microsoft" making "an effort to shed the company's reputation as an incommunicative giant.") This is coordinated with Microsoft's launch of Windows XP Embedded at their Embedded Developers' Conference (the countdown clock on their homepage says Wednesday but the launch party is Thursday)." News.com notes that this will be used in slot machines and ATMs. Insert obligatory free-money joke.

Milican writes "I think its time we ask our fellow Slashdotters, 'is there still room in a company for a quirky 'guru', or are projects so large now by necessity team-based development rules.' Read this article on Embedded.com and decide for yourself." I think this article didn't describe someone really 'quirky' though - it was someone who didn't really want to work.

Milican writes "I think its time we ask our fellow Slashdotters, 'is there still room in a company for a quirky 'guru', or are projects so large now by necessity team-based development rules.' Read this article on Embedded.com and decide for yourself." I think this article didn't describe someone really 'quirky' though - it was someone who didn't really want to work.