Top 5 Skills that Embedded Programmers should look for

Embedded system development has become significantly diverse and is gaining momentum by leaps and bounds over the last few years. Needless to say, the embedded systems have found their prominent place everywhere in the modern world of predominant computing. It is exciting to see so many opportunities available to enter the world of embedded development. With the pace with which technology is shaping up its dynamic nature, it has become important to make sure you are upskilling yourself with the latest techniques, skills, and tools. These give you a competitive advantage and help you develop customer-centric products that are modernizing the needs and improving the system intelligence. 

Master your software but gain the knowledge of the latest hardware: 

To become a successful embedded developer, you must keep yourself updated with the latest processors and microcontrollers that can fit your development needs. You should avoid pigeonholing by sticking to any particular processor or controller. As you experiment more and keep playing around with new hardware available out there, you broaden your expertise and sharpen your skills to customize and program any microcontroller that your embedded system demands. 

Strong understanding of communication protocols: 

Transmission of information and synchronization of communication are key aspects in designing embedded systems. You need to understand how various I/O peripherals and sensors can be connected for effective transmission between microcontrollers. There are various protocols available such as I2C, SPI, UART, CAN, and MQTT, and each one has its own significance. Developing a strong understanding of these protocols is necessary to identify the appropriate communication protocol for your own embedded systems. Practicing different implementations of drivers, distributed processing techniques, and system-level embedded communication will definitely help you gain an important skill in designing robust embedded systems.

Troubleshooting and debugging problems: 

Many times you may have come across situations where you were required to spend hours and hours to find the defect in your embedded system. Mastering troubleshooting and debugging skills give you an upper edge when you have a strong foundation in designing, coding, and assembling embedded systems. Whether it is an integrated circuit or any other faulty component in your system, if you patiently perfect your debugging skills, you can quickly resolve the issues and find the solutions in a much more efficient manner. If you know how to prevent possible defects and develop debugging techniques, it will greatly improve the development life cycle and will save several weeks of development time as well as overall cost, quality, and system features.  

Practical understanding of Internet-based technologies: 

The Internet of Things has been one of the most significant technology trends that has emerged in the last few years. IoT, 5G, and Edge computing bring boundless potential that makes embedded technologies smarter and achieves any extensive range of communication between connected devices. Internet-based technologies are driving the world of embedded development, and this is going to bring a major revolution in the coming years. The sooner you start experimenting with IoT-based embedded systems, it definitely is going to help you master the art of embedded development. So, aren’t you excited to build your first smart home automation system? 

Master concurrent and parallel programming techniques:

Ensuring the performance of embedded systems in terms of meeting key objectives and reliability is a must for developers. Concurrency and parallel programming play a significant role in designing highly complex, robust, and predictable embedded systems. Many processes and threads run continuously where systems need to perform multiple tasks simultaneously with extensive interaction with hardware that makes embedded systems autonomous and highly responsive to the physical environment. While programming the microcontrollers, keeping concurrency in mind is of utmost importance. A strong understanding of the concurrency model is an essential skill to have for a highly qualified candidate for any challenging embedded development project. If you keep practicing different techniques involved in concurrent programming, you would certainly be able to tackle complex challenges in managing synchronization and event-driven issues in your embedded systems.

Acquiring these skills and exploring more on your own would help you make your embedded development more efficient and consistent, while adopting new skills and techniques will push you towards becoming an expert embedded system developer. Developing your own creative embedded projects and being tenacious in practicing and acing the essential skills would definitely give you rewarding experiences in the long run.

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