Embedded World 2020 will certainly be memorable for a number of reasons, not least due to the large number of exhibiting companies and delegates choosing not to participate in the event due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Even so, the event provided a great platform in which to showcase businesses and promote new products, none more so than for UltraSoC. It was certainly a busy time; we welcomed the opportunity to announce the UltraSoC CAN Sentinel, a new hardware-based cybersecurity solution aimed at the automotive industry; and we were delighted to win a Best in Show Award from Embedded Computing Design for our Bus Sentinel.
In the main program, our Director, Customer Solutions Architect, Hanan Moller gave a talk about next-generation processor trace. You can download a copy of his presentation from our resource area.
And at our booth in the RISC-V pavilion, we demonstrated the full range of our embedded analytics technology, including heterogeneous system analytics, and debug via Ethernet. Also, Marketing Director Andy Gothard presented on our analytics technology. Click here to access the presentation.
UltraSoC was not alone at the show in emphasizing the importance of safety and cybersecurity. It was a recurring theme in many of the interactions we had with visitors and other exhibitors; and it featured in multiple presentations within the conference program – in fact it had its own conference track. But the main focus – at least in what we saw – was in quite “traditional” techniques such as cryptography and secure enclaves. Technology like UltraSoC’s, which takes a fundamentally different, hardware-based approach, was thin on the ground.
It was also good to be involved in a much-expanded presence at the show for the RISC-V Foundation. The Foundation’s pavilion included participation from 14 member organizations, with on-booth presentations and live demos throughout.
Given that Mobile World Congress and other events had been cancelled in the few weeks leading up to Embedded World, there was an underlying uncertainty about the overall success of the event. Would, and could, the event thrive without many prominent exhibitors? What would the attendance figures be like? Those were just a few of the questions on the remaining participating companies’ minds when they arrived at the exhibition center for what they hoped would be a successful show.
When the UltraSoC team arrived it was eerily calm, but was this the calm before the storm, or an omen of a quiet week ahead…? On what would normally be a busy and bustling set-up day, with people arriving to get their booths ready, at the entrance to the halls there was no-one. It felt a bit surreal. Inside, though, there were plenty of companies setting up their booths, giving a clear and reassuring impression of ‘business as usual’.
The organizers had reacted to the numerous withdrawals by consolidating booths into fewer halls – a re-organization which mostly worked well. There were also new seating areas within the halls which made a good practical use of the space and did not let it look sparse.
The storm certainly came on Thursday, at the end of the event. As we left with a driving blustery and snowy wind behind us we had a sense of achievement in the face of adversity, and felt that we had put on a great show in unexpected circumstances that were beyond our control. We just needed to navigate our way home… which is another story.