An Interview with Uri Shaked (Wokwi.com)
Uri Shaked, founder of Wokwi.com, explains the architecture of his browser-based microcontroller simulator, which supports Arduino, ESP32, and Raspberry Pi Pico. He details the technical challenges of achieving cycle-accurate simulation, including reverse-engineering the ESP32’s proprietary Wi-Fi stack and implementing complex peripheral behaviors like PWM and FastLED timing. Shaked also discusses the engineering trade-offs of running heavy toolchains in the browser via WebAssembly and Go-based gateways, and his strategy for prioritizing features through community voting.