embedded – Observations from Uppsala

The 0b111111 DAC –More Systems and Software

I have been a semi-regular attendee at the Design Automation Conference going back to 2008 or so, and over the years I have slowly drifted towards EDA (Electronics Design Automation). I have presented various talks as part of the “engineering track” at the DAC, always in some kind of “systems” category. This has now come to its logical conclusion, when I step up and join the Engineering Track Technical Program Committee (TPC), taking care of the Systems and Software topic. We need more systems and more software at the DAC!

DVCon Europe 2025 – Virtual Platforms and a Real Party

DVCon Europe 2025 took place on October 14 and 15, with the SystemC Evolution Day on the 16th. I was there, running around talking to people, taking photos, and listening to presentations. Just like it usually is. Great conference, great fun, great learning! The conference dinner was back by popular demand, and there was a lot of virtual platforms.

DAC 2025 – All About AI

The 62nd Design Automation Conference (DAC 62) took place in San Francisco, California, USA, from June 22 to 25, 2025. It was the first time in three years that I attended the DAC (this blog is a little bit late, sorry for that). For those that do not know, the DAC is the biggest show in EDA, combining a major research conference with an industry exhibition and engineering track. This year the theme was AI (Artificial Intelligence), and not much else.

Working in EDA for Real (Finally)

In late May, the VLAB Works part of ASTC was acquired by Cadence, and as a result I am finally working in EDA for real. What a change! When I started working with the Simics simulator at Virtutech in 2002, we were at pains to distance ourselves from EDA. Now, almost 25 years later, I am working in one of the big three EDA companies.

What I Saw at the Embedded World 2025

Last week, I visited the Embedded World (2025). Only the exhibition, not the conference part. It was great to be back again, meeting old friends and making new acquaintances in the embedded business. I already told you the dramatic story of how I got there. This blog is about what I saw at the show – trends and technologies.

A Lucky Trip to the Embedded World (2025)

Last week, I visited the Embedded World (2025). Only the exhibition, not the conference part. It was great to be back again, meeting old friends and making new acquaintances in the embedded business. It turns out I was rather lucky in getting there at all – there was that now infamous strike.

“Unusual Perspectives on AI” – Computer and System Architecture Unraveled Event Five

The fifth CaSA, Computer and System Architecture Unraveled, meetup took place on January 30. We finally gave in and joined the AI hype train, resulting in an event with a somewhat different audience and different discussions. More society and applications, less computer architecture. Our two presenters were Håkan Zeffer from SambaNova Systems and Björn Forsberg from RI.SE (doing his second CaSA presentation!). Håkan talked about the architecture of the Sambanova AI processors, and Björn about AI compilers.

New Job, New Simulator

As already leaked by LinkedIn, I recently started a new job at ASTC, as Global Technical Marketing Manager for the VLAB virtual platform product. This is my first major change of job I since I joined Virtutech to work on the Simics simulator back in 2002. It is both a big change and a small change – staying in the world of virtual platforms, but working with a new product that is quite different from Simics. In fact, more things are different and new and fresh than the same…

Reversing out of Reverse

The Intel Simics simulator version 7 removed a long-standing feature from the simulator framework. Reverse execution is no longer available. In its place, in-memory snapshots were introduced, which arguably offer most of the benefits at a lower implementation cost. What happened? I’ve been asked about the reasoning behind the chance on several occasions since I left Intel. I’d like to share my perspective on the decision, as it highlights the challenges of turning an idea into a robust, shippable feature.

“Processor Performance Insights and Optimization” – Computer and System Architecture Unraveled Event Four

Finally, the fourth CaSA, Computer and System Architecture Unraveled, meetup happened on November 6. It took far too long to get it organized, but we finally did it. The theme was about processor performance analysis and efficient processor implementation, offering two talks from very different perspectives. The location was almost the same as before, on the 19^th floor of the Kista Science Tower building. Once more thanks to the sponsorship from Vasakronan and Kista Science City.

DVCon Europe 2024 – AI and More

The 2024 DVCon (Design and Verification) Europe conference took place on October 15 and 16, in its traditional location at the Holiday Inn Munich City Centre. This year there was even more talk of artificial intelligence than last year, and quite a few sessions related to virtual platforms. And lots of other interesting presentations and discussions.

Embedded Conference Scandinavia 2024

The Embedded Conference Scandinavia took place at Kistamässan in Kista, Sweden, on April 10 and 11 2024. This was a reboot of a show that used to run as a small tradeshow/exhibition plus technical talks until the pandemic hit. There was no Embedded Show anymore, just the Embedded Conference and its speaker program. The ECS was instead co-located with Elektronikmässan, the long-running and apparently thriving gathering for “electronics” companies in Sweden.

The Mathworks Automotive Conference (MAC) 2022

The Mathworks Automotive Conference (MAC) 2022 was one-day vendor-specific conference about how Mathworks products can be/are used in the automotive sector. The set of companies represented was truly impressive. There were presentations from Lightyear, MAN, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Infineon, Toyota, Bosch, Continental, Real-Time Innovations, and of course the Mathworks themselves. It was a day well-spent listening to interesting talks. Here is my personal summary.

DAC 2022 – Back in Person, Chiplets, an Award, and Much More

The 59th Design Automation Conference (DAC) took place in San Francisco, July 10-14, 2022. As always, the DAC provided a great place to learn about what is going on in EDA. The DAC is really three events in one: there is an industry trade-show/exhibition, a research conference that is considered the premier in EDA, and an engineering track where practitioners present their work in a less formal setting.

I had two talks in the engineering track – one on the Intel device modeling language (which actually won the best presentation award in the embedded sub-track), and one on using simulation technology to build hardware software-first.

The DAC was almost overwhelming in the richness of people and companies, but this blog tries to summarize the most prominent observations.

The ESA Schiaparelli Crash & Simulation

Back in 2016, the European Space Agency (ESA) lost the Schiaparelli Mars lander during its descent to the surface on Mars. From a software engineering and testing perspective, the story of why the landing failed (see for example the ESA final analysis, Space News, or the BBC) is instructive. It comes down to how software is written and tested to deal with unexpected inputs in unexpected circumstances. I published a blog post about this right after the event and before the final analysis was available. Thankfully, that has since been retired from its original location-it was a bit too full of speculation that turned out to be incorrect… So here is a mostly rewritten version of the post, quoting the final analysis and with new insights.