Top 5 Videos from Embedded Linux Conference and OpenIoT Summit 2016

In 2017, The Linux Foundation’s Embedded Linux Conference marks its 12th year as the premier vendor-neutral technical conference for companies and developers using Linux in embedded products.

Now co-located with OpenIoT Summit, ELC promises to be the best place for embedded and application developers, product vendors, kernel and systems developers as well systems architects and firmware developers to learn, share and advance the technical work required for embedded Linux and IoT.

In anticipation of this year’s North America event, to be held Feb. 21-23 in Portland, Oregon, we rounded up the top videos from the 2017 ELC and OpenIoT Summit. Register now with the discount code, LINUXRD5, for 5% off the registration price. Save over $150 by registering before January 15, 2017.

1. Home Assistant: The Python Approach to Home Automation

Several home automation platforms support Python as an extension, but if you’re a real Python fiend, you’ll probably want Home Assistant, which places the programming language front and center. Paulus Schoutsen created Home Assistant in 2013 “as a simple script to turn on the lights when the sun was setting,” as he told attendees of his recent Embedded Linux Conference and OpenIoT Summit presentation, “Automating your Home with Home Assistant: Python’s Answer to the Internet of Things.”

Schoutsen, who works as a senior software engineer for AppFolio in San Diego, has attracted 20 active contributors to the project. Home Assistant is now fairly mature, with updates every two weeks and support for more than 240 different smart devices and services. The open source (MIT license) software runs on anything that can run Python 3 — from desktop PCs to a Raspberry Pi, and counts thousands of users around the world.

2. Linus Torvalds Talks IoT, Smart Devices, Security Concerns, and More

Linus Torvalds, the creator and lead overseer of the Linux kernel, and “the reason we are all here,” in the words of his interviewer, Intel Chief Linux and Open Source Technologist Dirk Hohndel, was upbeat about the state of Linux in embedded and Internet of Things applications. Torvalds’ very presence signaled that embedded Linux, which has often been overshadowed by Linux desktop, server, and cloud technologies, has come of age.

“Maybe you won’t see Linux at the IoT leaf nodes, but anytime you have a hub, you will need it,” Torvalds told Hohndel. “You need smart devices especially if you have 23 [IoT standards]. If you have all these stupid devices that don’t necessarily run Linux, and they all talk with slightly different standards, you will need a lot of smart devices. We will never have one completely open standard, one ring to rule them all, but you will have three of four major protocols, and then all these smart hubs that translate.”

3. Taming the Chaos of Modern Caches

It turns out that software — and computer education curricula — have not always kept up with new developments in hardware, ARM Ltd. kernel developer Mark Rutland said in his presentation “Stale Data, or How We (Mis-)manage Modern Caches.”

“Cache behavior is surprisingly complex, and caches behave in subtly different ways across SoCs,” Rutland told the ELC audience. “It’s very easy to misunderstand the rules of how caches work and be lulled into a false sense of security.”

4. IoTivity 2.0: What’s in Store?

Speaking shortly after the release of Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF)’s IoTivity 1.1, Vijay Kesavan, a Senior Member of Technical Staff in the Communication and Devices Group at Intel Corp, told the ELC audience about plans to support new platforms and IoT ecosystems in v2.0. He also explained how the OCF is exploring usage profiles beyond home automation in domains like automotive and industrial.

5. A Linux Kernel Wizard’s Adventures in Embedded Hardware

Sometimes the best tutorials come not from experts, but from proficient newcomers who are up to date on the latest entry-level technologies and can remember what it’s like to be a newbie. It also helps if, like Grant Likely, the teacher is a major figure in embedded Linux who understands how hardware is ignited by software.

At the Embedded Linux Conference, Likely — who is a Linux kernel engineer and maintainer of the Linux Device Tree subsystem used by many embedded systems — described his embedded hardware journey in a presentation called “Hardware Design for Linux Engineers” — or as he put it, “explaining stuff I only learned six months ago.”

Linux.com readers can register now with the discount code, LINUXRD5, for 5% off the registration price. Save over $150 by registering before January 15, 2017.

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