Hardware Podcasts

524: This Isn't a Movie

Embedded.fm · 16 Apr 2026 · 1h 14m · Episode 524

What this episode covers

Nathan Jones, a former US Army instructor and current embedded systems educator writing for DigiKey and EmbeddedRelated, discusses the trade-offs between superloops and RTOSs, arguing that superloops avoid the race conditions inherent in pre-emptive scheduling. He details his work on hardware security, explaining how differential power analysis can extract AES keys using the ChipWhisperer tool, and highlights the impact of the EU Cyber Resilience Act on product design. The conversation also covers his upcoming workshops at the Embedded Online Conference and CppCon, as well as his reflections on writing, teaching, and managing the mental load of consultancy.

Most relevant to

established companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
DigiKey, EmbeddedRelated, NewAE Tech, MITRE
Products
FreeRTOS, ThreadX, Zephyr, ChipWhisperer-Nano, The Hardware Hacking Handbook, Pragmatic Programmer
Tools
ChipWhisperer, ChatGPT, Claude, Wireshark
Also
Colin O'Flynn, Jasper van Woudenberg, Embedded Online Conference, CppCon, Hardwear.io, West Point

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