Embedded Systems

Firmware and hardware design and development of microprocessor based notebook, internet appliance and embedded systems.

• Designed a CDROM embedded controller board based on the Atmel AT89S51 (8051) microprocessor. Proof of concept and reference design for use in "music on demand" kiosks utilizing standard CDROM drives communicating via ATA/ATAPI protocol.
  • Hardware and firmware specification and development.
  • Schematic design, board layout, PCB fabrication and hardware debug.
  • Wrote firmware in 'C' utilizing "Small Device 'C' Compiler" (SDCC).
• Development of a "Blind Spot Alert Sensor" (BSAS) device based on Atmel ATMega-8 and infrared (IR) sensor targeted for use in the automotive industry.
  • Developed alert architecture and sensor detection firmware algorithm. Performed initial hardware debug.
  • Performed hardware development of a second generation BSAS including schematic entry, board layout, PCB fabrication and hardware debug.
• Provided consulting services to high tech startup specializing in ARM-based ASIC's providing real time music encoding/decoding and peripheral I/O control. Developed firmware in C++ and ARM assembler to run on RTXC operating system.
  • PowerManager and Instant-ON architectures for handheld MP3 players.
  • C3 Decoder for CDROM "Yellow Book" Data-CD in ARM assembler.
  • CDROM Read/Write interface routines for Redbook music CD playback utilizing IDE/ATA/ATAPI interface.
  • Assembler routines for improved hard disk performance for PIO and DMA modes for IDE/ATA/ATAPI interface.
  • Refinement of IDE/ATA/ATAPI device reset, identification and initialization.
  • Performance test for IDE/ATA interface throughput evaluation.
• Development of WebPAD™ internet appliance.
  • Wrote Embedded Controller Specification during the product definition phase.
  • Embedded controller firmware architecture, design and development.
  • Wrote the embedded controller (COP8CBR9) firmware.
  • Architected and implemented custom battery gas-gauge support, custom boot block providing fault tolerant field upgrade capability of the FLASH memory and custom interface providing host processor control of the embedded controller.
• Provided software support to a Z80 microprocessor based Power Monitor/Control System, a real-time, event driven, data acquisition and process control system designed for managing telephone office central power room resources.
• Ported Z8 microprocessor hardware and firmware design to a new product platform.
• Developed diagnostics for a 68000-based network file server.