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Processors and Embedded Software

How the Internet Became Hardware-Dependant

The Web was supposed to be the great equalizer. On the Internet no one knows your computer is a dog. But something happened to change that.

Web content is now as PC-centric as Microsoft Office. If your Web site includes much more than just basic text, you better hope your audience is using x86 or ARM chips. Read more »

New On-Site Learning Tool

Business Basics for Tough Economic Times

Worried about layoffs or just want to expand your career horizons? Engineers often lack the background, training, and aptitude to become business managers or entrepeneurs.

With our new half-day seminar you'll speed-learn Business 101, geared for technical professionals. Get actionable advice and exercises that give you a competitive leg up.

Read more »

Ten Extracts from the New SeminarBusiness Survivial Skills for Upwardly Mobile Engineers

  1. Behold the Power of Marketing
    Marketing trumps engineering, every time. Hire good marketing people because they'll contribute more to success than elegant engineering.
  2. Don't Drink the Kool-Aid
    Don't get too excited about your own technology, because your customers won't. Focus on the what, not the how, and be ready to make some painful tradeoffs accordingly.
  3. Test-Drive Your Elevator Pitch
    Can you explain your product in 15 seconds? If not, there's probably a major flaw in your product, not just your delivery.
  4. Communication Skills Are Key
    Speaking, writing, and sharing information effectively is more important than technical skill — any technical skill. Your success with VCs, customers, and coworkers will depend on it.
  5. "Nobody Cares"
    Keep this in mind as you craft your marketing message. Nobody cares about you, period. Nobody's looking for your product, so you need to convince them differently.
  1. Every Product Is a Service
    Focus on the customer's total experience, including ordering, shipping, tech support, delivery, payment, setup, configuration — all of it.
  2. Patents Should Be an Afterthought
    Patents won't sell your product, they'll only stymie a competitor, and maybe not even that. Your customers don't care either way. Get the basics right and postpone the legal details.
  3. Inertia Is a Powerful Force
    Customers (and even other engineers) are surprisngly resistant to change, so don't expect anyone to jump at your better mousetrap. Religious conversions hardly ever happen.
  4. Do You Have a Product or a Feature?
    A cool new way of doing things isn't enough. Your new product idea might better be realized as a new feature in someone else's product.
  5. Learn Geography and Languages
    Do you know the difference between Taiwan and Thailand? Between a Scottish accent and an Irish one? It's a global market out there. Don't enter it unprepared.
Up2Speed

Today’s Tutorial 101: Processor or Controller? Helping professionals get up to speed

What's the Difference Between a Microprocessor and a Microcontroller?

It's largely a matter of semantics and technical nit-picking, but everyone has their own ideas about what's a microprocessor chip and what's a microcontroller chip. to make things more complicated, it seems every market-research firm uses its own definition, so you can't even compare projections from two different firms.
I tend to count them together, but if you're a stickler, here's the most common definition: microcontrollers have on-chip RAM or ROM, which allows them to run standalone (without extra memory chips).

Our "Up 2 Speed" tutorial pages are updated regularly.

Services and Skills

Jim TurleyWho Is This Guy?

updated April 2008

Analyst on Call

If your company develops microprocessor-based products, we can help you make better business and technical decisions. How? By objectively evaluating, analyzing, and researching alternative business models and technology resources. We help engineers, managers, investors, and marketing professionals work smarter.

Whether it's managing a team of engineers, educating a roomful of investors, or evaluating a dozen competing chip designs, we deliver extraordinary technical insight combined with practical business relevance.

Get a major league business/technology switch-hitter on your team. Read more »

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