Perforce was among the 180 exhibitors and the 3,500 attendees who connected with the embedded community at the highly anticipated first edition of the Embedded World conference in North America. Taking place at the Austin Convention Center this year, the event inspired numerous members of the embedded community with keynote speeches, expert panels, and speaking sessions in addition to the trade show.
Having attended Embedded World in Nuremberg, Germany, the Perforce team was pleased to represent in the tech and cultural hub of Austin, Texas — and proud to win Embedded Computing Design’s Best in Show for our Static Analysis solutions Helix QAC and Klocwork in the Security category.
Read on to revisit or learn more about our activities at Embedded World North America 2024.
Trending Embedded Software Topics in 2024 and Beyond
There is a lot of exciting new technology and emerging trends impacting embedded software, as well as more urgent need to comply with safety and security standards. Here’s what we heard on the ground this year:
Artificial Intelligence in DevOps. AI is transforming DevOps to deliver cleaner and more efficient code. Developers can use AI to automate and optimize the software development process by quickly analyzing existing code for errors and even write code and make suggestions for improvements. Alongside other automation approaches like static analysis, AI could be a powerful addition to a DevOps toolkit.
Increasing Use of Rust. While C and C++ are the primary languages used to develop embedded software, the Rust programming language is gaining traction as an interesting alternative or additional support option as the language matures. Among the features unique to Rust are its memory safety, correctness, ease of use, and other modern tools and techniques lacking in C.
Security Standards. Security is a rising concern among embedded developers – of particular interest this year is the ISO/SAE 21434 standard, which focuses on the cybersecurity risk in road vehicle electronic systems. Security standards such as ISO 21434 have specific requirements for software development, which means development teams need to enforce compliance using the recommended MISRA® and CERT C guidelines, as well as using a static code analyzer — like Helix QAC and Klocwork — to accelerate compliance.
Functional Safety Standards. Functional safety standards continue to be a staple in the embedded software development space, as more and more teams must meet compliance for safety. Strong interest continues in ISO 26262 for automotive functional safety, as well as the Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL) component of the standard, in which each level measures the risk of a specific system component. Applying a coding standard, such as MISRA and AUTOSAR, makes it easy to verify the code against the safety standard guidelines. Helix QAC’s compliance modules 100% cover the latest MISRA C:2023 and MISRA C++:2023 rules.
📕 Related Resource: MISRA C++:2023 Demo in Helix QAC
Back to topSpeaking Session: Iron Carbide: Safely Mixing Rust into C
As part of the MISRA track at the conference, Perforce Principal Software Engineer Alex Celeste explained a new approach to the Rust:C language boundary from a C perspective, but on the Rust side.
MISRA provides coding standards for developing safety-critical systems specific to C and C++ programming languages. As Rust is beginning to expand into the embedded and safety-critical worlds, Celeste presents a new set of guidelines that aim to help Rust code keep functional safety models built for C in mind, by providing a new set of rules build for Rust — but based on existing standards like MISRA.
Rust, Celeste proposes, is already well-suited to safe development due to its pared-down nature. At her talk, she showed some examples of how many of the originally important rules for C are no longer required for Rust.
Back to topBest in Show by Embedded Computing Design
Helix QAC and Klocwork won Best in Show for Security! The certificate was presented to the Perforce team at Embedded World North America by Embedded Computing Design, and proudly displayed at the Perforce booth.
All entries were judged for design excellence, relative performance, and market impact/disruption.
For the full list of winners, visit Embedded World North America: 2024 Best in Show Winners.
Back to topFun Times and Static Analysis Demos at the Perforce Booth
Embedded World North America attendees stopped by the Perforce booth to say howdy, grabbed a free drink at happy hour, won prizes, and talked shop.
Attendees were also among the first to take our 2025 State of Automotive Software Development Survey, which is now open to the wider automotive development community. Responses will contribute to the annual report, which helps industry leaders keep pace with emerging trends.
Take the 2025 Automotive Survey
At the booth, the Perforce team demonstrated Static Analysis solutions. Helix QAC ensures code is safe, reliable, and compliant to coding standards. Klocwork is able to perform static application security testing (SAST) and detects critical vulnerabilities across massive code bases.
Try our static analysis tools for free! Sign up for a 7-day trial.
For more about Embedded World North America and Perforce’s presence at the conference, visit our Embedded North America official page. You can even quickly book a meeting to learn more about our Static Analysis tools!
We hope to see you next year at EW Europe in Nuremberg, Germany in April 2025 and EW North America in Anaheim, California in November 2025!