IndEmbed 2023, the annual industrial embedded systems exhibition and conference, was held in San Diego from December 13-15, 2023. This year’s central themes were cybersecurity and energy efficiency, two key challenges for today’s industry transitioning to smart solutions and autonomous devices.
Scope and attendees:
- Venue: Hamill Tech Park Exhibition Center, San Diego;
- Attendees: 38 companies, including startups and major manufacturers;
- Speakers: 12 invited experts including engineers from Siemens, Texas Instruments, GreenCircuits and Nextronix Embedded.
Topics and areas of focus:
- Cybersecurity in industrial systems
Siemens experts presented a modular defense architecture at the microcontroller level, as well as techniques for protecting firmware and communication channels in the face of persistent threats.
- Energy-efficient architectures and autonomous nodes
Texas Instruments engineers talked about the use of ultra-low power chips in production and showed a prototype of a platform based on MSP430 and RTOS that can operate for up to 5 years without power replacement.
- RTOS vs Linux in a resource-constrained environment
The Nextronix Embedded case study showed a comparison of microsystems running RTOS (Zephyr, FreeRTOS) and minimized Linux, including live benchmarks on the show floor.
- FPGAs in the industry: safety and flexibility
GreenCircuits report showed how to use FPGAs to create secure data paths and real-time visualization.
Demonstrations and Exhibition:
- More than 20 booths with working mockups and debug boards;
- Working examples of embedded controllers, IIoT nodes, sensors;
- Intrusion simulators and defense scenarios to test firmware under “real-world” attacks.
Results:
- A key trend confirmed: security is not an option, but a necessity;
- Growing interest in low-power architectures and hibernation modes;
- A community was formed for joint development of open-source solutions in RTOS environment.
IndEmbed 2023 has become a true intersection of the IT and industrial worlds – with a focus on security, reliability and resource efficiency. In 2024, IndEmbed plans to expand with international partners and a hybrid format.