Firmware Design
The brain of each device is Firmware and Software that work inside the device and implement full logic of the work and integrates with current platform (MCU or MPU)
ContactKey capabilities
Languages
C/C++ / Assembler
Diagrams
Block / UML / Workflow / APIs
Interfaces
I2S / SAI / MIPI-DSI / MIPI-CSI / USB 2/3.x / LTDC / DDR3/DDR4/LPDDR4 / I2C / SPI/QSPI / UART / CAN / Ethernet
Wireless
NB-IoT / LTE M / GPRS / GPS / LTE / UWB / WiFi / BLE / ZigBee / Z-Wave / LoRa / Thread / 6LoWPAN / Sub 1GHz / NFC (13,6 MHz) / RFID 433 MHZ and 128 kHz
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Protocols
MQTT / HTTP / FTP / Modbus TCP/RTU / SNMP / TCP/IP / UDP/IP / DLMS / custom protocols
Security
AES / SSL/TLS / custom algorithms
Libs and frameworks
TouchGFX (GUI lib for MCU) / emWin (GUI lib for MCU) / LVGL (GUI lib for MCU) / WolfSSL (SSL/TLS) / Mbed TLS(SSL/TLS) / osxMotionFX (Sensors fusion algorithm based on the Kalman theory) / FatFS / lwIP (TCP/IP stack) / WICED (Wifi stack) / aws/amazon-freertos / Paho MQTT / TensorFlow
Embedded OS
FreeRTOS / TI-RTOS / ZephyrOs / Embedded Linux / Yocto / ROS
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MCUs
NXP (i.MX-RT1160, i.MX RT1064, LPC1100, LPC4000) / Nordic (NRF52/NRF53/NRF9160, NRF7002 ) / TI (CC3220/CC26xx/CC1100/CC3200/MSP430) / Espressif (esp32-s2, esp32-s3, esp32-c2, esp32-c3, esp32, esp32-h2, esp8266) / ST(STM32H7/F7/F4/L4/F0/L0/WB/WL/G0 and STM8) / Atmel/Microchip(SAM D20/D21/L21/R21/V70/V71/SAMA5/SAM4/SAMD4) / Silicon Labs(EFR32/ ZGM130S) / Cypress (PSoC 3/PSoC 4) / Kinetis (Family MK81FN256VDC15) / Holtek (HT66xx, HT68xx)
MPUs
Analog Devices (ADSP-2156x SHARC) / Qualcomm (Snapdragon 625/425/610/845) / Allwinner (V3S, V3LP, A64, A33, H3, H6 series) / NXP (I.MX6/I.MX7/I.MX8) / ST(STM32MP1)
SOMs
Toradex (Colibri iMX6, IMX7, IMX8) / Raspberry pi (CM3, CM4 modules) / Inforce (Qualcomm Snapdragon 410, 820, 845 SOM) / 8devices (Mango on Qualcomm IPQ6000/IPQ6010 Soc) / Sensiedge(SensiBle 1 and 2, SensiLora) / NVIDIA (Jetson Nano, Jetson Orin) / Compulab (CL-SOM-iMX8Plus, UCM-iMX8M)
Tools that we use
ST Cube IDE
CCSTUDIO
Segger embedded studio
Eclipse IDE for Espressif
PSoC® Creator
Simplicity Studio
Atmel/Microchip Studio for AVR® and SAM Devices
MCUXpresso IDE
CrossCore® Embedded Studio
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GCC (Bar metal)
Arduino
Holtek ht-ide3000
Project process
Requirements design
As a first step our team makes technical requirements of the firmware, it describes all hardware parts (wireless/wires interfaces, sensors, control parts), communication protocol, and power modes with full logic of the work
Diagram design
At this stage, we do architecture design based on the requirements. It usually includes a workflow diagram (describe deep logic of the work) and UML/API diagram(describe all files and code classes/modules )
Start code development
In this stage, we divide the scope of the work based on the UML/API into small sprints (usually 2 weeks each) and plan the delivery with the delivery of each part. Each week we make small delivery of the code based on the planning
Code review and testing
If the code size and budget are enough (we have some rules), we do a code review by a responsible engineer of each code file and after testing(as pass review) by QA engineer (manual or write a test code). For the current steps, we use the standard GIT mechanism with merge request and management schema from Jira
Code delivery
As some part of the code is done that we agree with the customer, we make delivery of the firmware. Use usually for this GIT standard mechanism of the delivery/release code and GIT tags. The delivery includes full development of the current stage, code review, full regression testing and a demo project that shows how the current part of the code works on the dev kits or the custom device (if it’s ready at this stage)
Bring up the device with the hardware developer
As the samples of the device are ready, we prepare a test code for samples testing. The test code usually checks all peripherals (interfaces, sensors, control parts) and out the result of the testing to the console. If something is wrong, the firmware developer works together with the hardware developer to find and fix issues
Finalizing code development
It’s the last hot stage of the development, on this stage we finish the development, code review and testing of the final code with the final device version. We make sure with the customer, we fit with technical requirements and work how we expect
Support and bug fixing
Each project has a support stage and bug fixing because after production or field testing, will need some improvements and bug fixing. We usually agree with the customer on a period of support. It could be how a few months and a few years (if complicated device)
Our Offices
Kyiv
Kyiv City, str Vaclav Havel 4, office 422
Vinnytsia
Vinnytsia City, Kyivska 41
Kharkiv
Kharkiv City, St. Karazyna 1,
Kyiv
Vinnytsia
Kharkiv
Kyiv
Vinnytsia
Kharkiv
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+380442374050
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