ARM Community: Cost-Effective, Over-the-Air Update for SNAP OS with ARM’s code efficiency - ARM Community

A significant challenge for embedded systems is how to provide a reliable, yet cost-effective way to remotely update firmware when adding new features or providing software revisions. This is especially true when your embedded system is located far from easy access (which is often the case for products that embed wireless communication) or is in an environment prone to power interruptions. Embedded systems are also very much driven by cost, so there are rarely excess on-board resources available.

While solutions exist for easy updates wirelessly, the ability to reliably upload the entire operating system had, until recently, been just out of reach. Very efficient code generation was required to store smaller firmware images that enabled a backup should the wireless update be interrupted by intermittent power or deployment.

A new solution from Synapse for SNAP OS
Synapse Wireless has a long history of providing easy to create applications via Python scripts that users can upload wirelessly to their modules. We provide intelligent, wireless control and monitoring technology for machine-to-machine communication based on the Internet-enabled SNAP network operating system.

Our most recent solution is based on Freescale Semiconductor’s MC13224V transceiver platform. The MC13224V incorporates a complete, low-power, 2.4 GHz radio and a 32-bit ARM7TDMI® MCU with peripherals into a 99-pin LGA Platform-in-Package. The MC13224V solution can be used for wireless applications complying with the 2.4 GHz IEEE® 802.15.4 standard and is offered by Future Electronics.

We found that the ARM CPU architecture supported very efficient code generation (we used the IAR Systems compiler for C code). The smaller code size allowed us to temporarily store two complete firmware images in the MC13224V’s internal 128K FLASH. If a firmware download is interrupted by a power outage, the previous firmware image is still completely intact and will run on the next power up. This allows us to support Over-The-Air firmware updates – even in the presence of unreliable power. Of the growing number of systems we support with SNAP, the ARM firmware code is the smallest size. Keeping costs down while offering reliable field serviceability are key requirements from our customers, and the ARM platform is giving us a distinct advantage.

Guest Partner Blogger:

David Ewing is Chief Technology Officer for Synapse Wireless Inc. and is responsible for transforming new ideation and cutting-edge technology into pragmatic, well-engineered products. He is responsible for all software and hardware engineering at Synapse. With over eighteen years of experience in the Telecom, Networking, and Enterprise Database industries, Mr. Ewing has demonstrated a broad range of engineering expertise and a proven track record in building and managing software development teams. Mr. Ewing held key engineering and management positions with Adtran, Inc. and Nokia Broadband Systems. Mr. Ewing was a founder and CTO of Huntsville startup Teracruz, Inc, and Senior Software Architect for DiscoveryCom, Inc. Mr. Ewing holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Auburn University.

ARM welcomes its wealth of Partners in the ARM Connected Community (CC) to submit guest blogs to be published on our multiple community blogs. If interested in participating please submit email inquiries to Tell.Us@arm.com.

The ARM Connected Community (CC) is an extensive ecosystem covering all aspects of ARM processor-based design, from chip implementation through to system and device design. The CC provides a platform for collaborative innovation, with multiple types of forums for members to work with one another, and with customers, to solve industry challenges, all with the purpose of enabling designers to focus on differentiating features and an accelerated time-to-market for ARM powered solutions.