Articles, white papers and publications

I like to write about things, I know well.

Can you make it cheaper?

... or smaller, or simpler, or smarter, or more secure, or more accurate, or more reliable?

These are the most common questions I get from customers. Even when they are asking me to design something that never existed before, they imply that that something must be cheap, and small, and smart, and secure.

And the answer is almost invariably, YES.

Test me!

Send me your circuit, and I will make it cheaper.

Firmware Upgrade

As microcontroller programs get more and more complicated the need for safe and secure field upgrade increases. And because the communication capabilities of microcontrollers are also increasing, this is becoming easier than ever.

Encryption Made Easy

Encypted communication between small microcontrollers can be used for firmware upgrade, or to exchange of sensitive data. These microcontrolles usually do not have the power to implement any of the algorithm used in asymmetric cryptography, but need an equally safe, and very simple algorithm.

Fortunately steam ciphers are safer and simpler. Even the famous ChaCha algorithm is simple enough to be used in small microcontrollers, even though making those 32-bit operations on an 8-bit microcontroller is slow.

Programmers' Pets

Most professional programmers regard programming not only as work, but as a hobby too. Writing software is such a tremendous experience that programmers continue doing it in their spare time. The only difference is that when they are free of other people's deadlines they work on their "pet" applications. Ordinary people keep cats, dogs, fish or dwarf hamsters as pets. Programmers keep pet applications.