Hardware/Software Interfacing Explained at UK Technical Conference

This workshop introduces the fundamental principles of interfacing with hardware in an embedded system, including an overview of device drivers. It discusses plenty of essential practical techniques along with traps for the unwary and how to avoid them. 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.

Hardware interfacing and the writing of device drivers is very much a specialist occupation,” said Ian Willats, Managing Director of development consultants Pebble Bay. “It does require a passion for both hardware and software, a lot of patience and an eye for detail. The hardware interface code will also be critical to the overall performance of the system, so writing this code can be a big responsibility. In this workshop, we will be sharing our knowledge and experience, and will be discussing the methodology that we have developed over many past projects.”

UK-based Pebble Bay is a business that helps companies build and improve all kinds of products based on microprocessors. Since the company's launch seven 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. With extensive knowledge and experience of a broad range of RTOS's, Linux and Windows based OS's and a thorough understanding of microprocessor-based hardware, the Pebble Bay team has become a valuable resource to the worldwide embedded systems industry.

We are very pleased to have Pebble Bay on board for this event, said Richard Blackburn, Event Organiser. Pebble Bay is a world leader in the field of software development for embedded systems and this is the kind of standard for which we have been striving. We also respect that engineers now need a very good reason to leave their desk and come to an event like this. I think well presented and well thought-out workshops such as these will prove to be a worthwhile investment of their time.

The Device Developers’ Conference will include a vendor exhibition, a series of technical presentations and a series of half-day workshops. This event is free to engineers and managers in the technical sector, although there will be a small charge for places on the workshops. Places at each event are limited, so engineers are encouraged to register for the event in good time.