Product Engineering
Embedded Systems Engineering
Firmware that works on a dev board is the easy part. Firmware that survives heat, interference, a flat battery and a botched update in the field is the job. We design firmware and hardware-software systems against real power and timing budgets, and plan OTA updates, factory provisioning and certification evidence from the first architecture review.
HOW IT RUNS
From architecture to the field
Budgets and standards are fixed before firmware starts, so testing verifies them rather than discovering them. Four phases, each with its own hand-over.
Requirements & Architecture
Timing, power and interfaces are defined against the device's real operating conditions. MCU, RTOS and connectivity are chosen here, and the standards the product must meet are identified.
DELIVERABLES
- System architecture document
- Hardware interface and pin-mapping specification
- RTOS or bare-metal decision with rationale
- Power and timing budget, broken down
- Applicable standards and evidence plan
- Board sample and datasheet checklist
What We Build
Firmware and systems work, shaped by the device's limits
Standalone firmware work, or part of a connected-product build, depending on how much of the hardware is already fixed. Firmware and co-design usually come first; the rest joins once the hardware stops moving.
Firmware & Embedded Software Development
Bare-metal, RTOS and embedded Linux firmware written against your board's real timing and memory budget, not a reference design.
Hardware-Software Co-Design
Component choices and firmware architecture decided together, so a sensor or MCU swap doesn't force a rewrite.
IoT & Edge Connectivity
BLE, Wi-Fi, LoRa or cellular chosen for range, power budget and data volume, with edge processing wherever a cloud round trip is too slow.
Low-Power & Real-Time Systems
Battery drain and deadline margins measured on real boards throughout development, never extrapolated from a spreadsheet.
Testing & Field Deployment
Hardware-in-the-loop rigs, automated on-target regression, and thermal, power and interference testing under real operating conditions.
OTA, Fleet & Lifecycle Support
Signed OTA updates with rollback and brick recovery, fleet diagnostics, and a plan for components reaching end of life.
Standards & Evidence
Certification planned at architecture, not discovered at submission
Test labs examine the device you built, not the one you meant to build. The standards your product must meet are identified during architecture, so they shape the layout and the firmware instead of forcing a respin. Certification itself is granted by the test lab or notified body; our part is designing for it and assembling the evidence.
01
FCC & CE
Radio and EMC rules for any device that transmits. Antenna placement and shielding are layout decisions, so they are settled early.
02
IEC 62304
The software lifecycle standard for medical devices. Requirements must trace to code and tests, which changes how firmware is organised from day one.
03
IEC 61508
For equipment that can hurt someone when it fails. Redundancy and safe-state behaviour have to be designed in, not added.
04
Evidence Pack
Requirements traceability, static-analysis reports, test records and an SBOM, assembled as the work happens rather than reconstructed before submission.
Our Methodology
Batteries and clock cycles don't negotiate
A feature list can be renegotiated. A battery's capacity and a control loop's deadline can't. Four rules hold on every build.
Constraints Modelled Early
Timing budgets come from real operating conditions and are verified in testing, not discovered under load.
Co-Design, Not Hand-Off
Component selection and firmware architecture move together, so a part change doesn't strand firmware work already done.
Standards as Design Inputs
The standards a product must meet shape the architecture, instead of blocking the launch at the final gate.
Field Conditions in the Test Plan
Heat, interference and real duty cycles are tested before submission, because a clean bench hides what the field reveals.
Field-Grade Practice
Firmware for the bench vs firmware for the field
Response times that look fine at room temperature drift at operating temperature, and battery life measured at idle rarely survives a real duty cycle.
These five close the gap.
Firmware Architecture
Layers that keep drivers apart from application logic, so swapping a sensor or radio touches one module.
Security by Design
Secure boot, signed updates, encrypted links and key injection at the factory, all scoped in the architecture.
Field Support
Crash dumps, counters and logs kept on the device, so a failure in the field can be replayed on the bench.
Power Management
Sleep states, duty cycling and power profiling built in during development, so battery figures reflect real usage.
Code Quality Standards
Peer review, static analysis and on-target tests as the code is written, so debugging a field failure isn't debugging blind.
Technology Stack
The embedded toolkit
No fixed MCU family or RTOS. Hardware, firmware and connectivity follow what the device has to do inside its power and timing budget.
C / C++ / Rust: Firmware languages
C and C++ where the vendor SDKs live; Rust for new code that must stay safe for years in the field.
C / C++ / RustBLE / Wi-Fi / LoRa / Cellular
Radios matched to distance, battery and payload size.
BLE / Wi-Fi / LoRa / CellularFreeRTOS / Zephyr / Bare-metal
RTOS choice matched to the device's complexity and deadlines.
FreeRTOS / Zephyr / Bare-metalAWS IoT / Azure IoT
Fleet backends for remote monitoring, OTA delivery and data aggregation.
IoT CloudTesting & Validation
Hardware-in-the-loop rigs, logic analysers, oscilloscopes, thermal chambers and RF interference testing.
Testing & ValidationChosen per device. Hardware, firmware and connectivity follow the device's requirements, not a platform we happen to prefer.
Firmware & RTOS
RustFreeRTOSZephyrBare-metalConnectivity & IoT Cloud
Testing & Validation
Where It Breaks
Why embedded projects overrun and miss certification
A hardware constraint that belonged in the architecture usually surfaces mid-build instead, when it is expensive to fix. Three ways it happens:
Firmware Written to a Datasheet
Code built against a spec sheet instead of the real part. Integration exposes timing or power mismatches that force a late redesign.
Standards Found at Submission
Requirements treated as a pre-launch checklist. The device fails, and the fix reaches into firmware everyone thought was finished.
No Plan for the Factory
Production test firmware, flashing and key injection get improvised at the line. Units ship inconsistent, and field failures follow.
Why Us
How we engineer embedded systems
Most firmware works at a desk. Whether it survives the field is decided in the architecture, before any firmware is written.
01
Budgets Before Firmware
Timing, power and certification paths are defined up front, so testing verifies them instead of discovering them under load.
02
Co-Design From Day One
Firmware and hardware decisions are made together, never handed across a wall from one team to the next.
03
Tested on Real Hardware
Hardware-in-the-loop rigs and field-condition testing, not a clean dev board that passes in the lab and fails outdoors.
04
Planned for the Factory and the Field
Production test firmware, provisioning, OTA rollback and end-of-life handling are part of the design, not afterthoughts.
Vertical Focus
Where a firmware bug costs more than a bad review
A crashing gadget gets a one-star review. A crashing infusion pump or brake controller gets an investigation. Rigour scales with the consequence.
Firmware for medical devices
- Patient-monitoring firmware with requirements traceability
- Encrypted data and consent controls on the device
- Real-time vital-sign processing on wearables
- Pairing and data feeds for remote monitoring
Secure firmware for payment hardware
- Tamper-resistant firmware for terminals
- Secure boot and encrypted key storage
- Real-time transaction processing on the device
- Firmware audit trails for review
Real-time firmware for vehicles
- Diagnostics and telemetry over CAN bus
- Sensor processing for driver-assist systems
- Infotainment and telematics firmware
- Fleet-wide OTA with staged rollback
Rugged firmware for the shop floor
- Machinery and robotics control firmware
- Sensor pipelines for predictive maintenance
- Modbus and OPC UA equipment integration
- Firmware hardened for heat, dust and vibration
Firmware for remote field hardware
- Low-power firmware for solar field sensors
- Offline-first sync over weak links
- Soil and crop sensor pipelines
- Outdoor-rated, rugged firmware design
Firmware for in-store hardware
- POS and self-checkout kiosk firmware
- BLE and Wi-Fi pairing for in-store devices
- Shelf and warehouse tracking sensors
- Low-power firmware for handheld scanners
FAQs
Embedded engineering, answered
Architecture, firmware and drivers, hardware-in-the-loop testing, certification support, OTA and factory hand-off, and field support. The architecture review sets the scope.
That depends on hardware maturity, board revisions and which standards apply. The architecture phase produces a phased plan; a board respin or late errata changes it, and the impact is re-planned in the open.
Our focus is firmware. We work alongside your hardware engineers on part choices, interfaces and budgets, and review schematics, while board layout stays with them.
We identify the applicable standards - FCC and CE for radios, IEC 62304 for medical software, IEC 61508 for functional safety - and design and document for them. Certification itself is granted by an accredited test lab or notified body, using the evidence pack we assemble.
Schematics, board samples by revision, datasheets including any under NDA, and regular access to your hardware team. Board availability usually sets the pace of the schedule.
Field diagnostics, signed OTA updates with rollback, and a watch on component end-of-life. Support after launch is scoped explicitly, so everyone knows what it covers.
Start with the board,
the battery and the deadline.
Tell us what the device must do, what powers it, where it lives and what it talks to. The first step is an architecture review: power and timing budgets, the standards it faces, and the board samples and datasheets we'll need.
Have a project in mind?
Start with an architecture review of power, timing and certification.