"Embedded Intelligence" was the name of the congress organized by Design&Elektronik in 1997. The program, which today comprises 16 pages of DIN A4, still fitted onto a double-page DIN A5. From today's perspective, it is hard to believe that 8-bit controllers were considered "intelligent" at the time. Intel had just introduced its 'Pentium MMX' with 133 to 233 MHz and the race for ever higher clock frequencies in PC processors was in full swing.

Today, "small" embedded controllers have more computing power than the PC behemoths of the time. The major processor and microcontroller manufacturers such as Intel, NXP, Renesas and ST have each announced their own software tools that can be used to run artificial intelligence on microcontrollers. While in the consumer industry, for example, the voice recognition systems Siri from Apple and Alexa from Amazon work by sending the data to the cloud and evaluating it there, the microcontroller manufacturers are concerned with enabling processing in the end device. This works by transferring trained neural networks to these devices. The manufacturers' software tools are responsible for converting the code.

Keynotes from Mathworks and ST

Mathworks Fellow Jim Tung will give the keynote speech on the first day. Title: "Developing Game-Changing Embedded Intelligence".

© Mathworks

The 2019 keynotes will provide an outlook on what is possible with this. On Tuesday, the first day of the trade fair, Mathworks Fellow Jim Tung will be speaking on the topic of "Developing Game-Changing Embedded Intelligence". When Jim Tung not only names the game changers, but also talks about development, he is also likely to address the challenges faced by developers. They have to make numerous decisions before a device becomes intelligent: Algorithms, processors, resource location, architecture allocation, communication and more.

Jean-Marc Chéry, CEO of STMicroelectronics, will give the keynote speech on the second day. His topic is: "Embedded Intelligence for the Next Wave of Smart Systems - Opportunities and Challenges on the Edge". His presentation will focus on end devices and how they will change in the future. He will probably also address the challenges posed by networking, data protection and security. All trade fair visitors have free admission to both keynotes.

AI needs a lot of know-how

With all the success stories, you could get the impression that all you have to do now is feed a neural network with enough data and it will optimize itself. It will undoubtedly do this, but there is a great danger that it will be trained incorrectly and learn things that were not intended. Experts point out that it takes a great deal of know-how to develop a truly intelligent system that makes decisions with a good hit rate. The embedded world conference is the meeting place for all experts to share and discuss this knowledge.

But it is not only AI that makes its mark on the embedded world Conference. The ever-increasing performance of processors and microcontrollers means that software projects are becoming ever larger and more complex. The number of seven half-day sessions on software engineering alone shows the challenges facing software developers - and that's not even including safety and security, which will be covered in their own sessions.
Another trend is taking place in image processing: bulky cameras are being replaced by powerful embedded vision systems that are either integrated directly into the camera or are located as a compact computer right next to the image sensor. Due to the progressive integration, image processing is finding more and more applications beyond its traditional use in industrial inspection: in assistance systems in cars, agriculture, medicine, buildings, security, sport, etc. On the first day of the conference, there will be one session on embedded vision in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Open source for the hardware

"Embedded Intelligence" was the title of the conference back in 1997. Back then, the program still fit on two DIN A5 pages.

© J. Kroll | Electronics

One hardware topic that has gained a lot of momentum is the RISC-V architecture. This open instruction set architecture is poised to become a serious alternative to ARM. The performance of RISC-V is certainly not comparable with full-blown ARM processors, but the first microcontrollers are already available in the low-end sector. What the future holds, what hardware and software is available and how RISC-V compares to ARM will be discussed in a variety of ways: on Tuesday in three RISC-V sessions and on Wednesday in a RISC-V workshop and a panel discussion in the trade fair forum in Hall 3A - moderated by Design&Elektronik editor-in-chief Frank Riemenschneider.

Start-up area: young companies, fresh ideas

In previous years, there was already an exhibition area with 'young innovative companies' sponsored by the BMWi. This area will continue to exist. It is now called 'Innovation made in Germany'. In the past, however, the companies represented there were not always "young" but in some cases already had several years behind them.

The trade fair has now also set up a dedicated 'Start-up Area' for the first time, which has apparently met with a good response. The Start-up Area is located in Hall 3A, where the trade fair forum is also located. The start-ups are given a slot at this forum and are allowed to give a presentation. The condition for participation was that the companies must not have been in existence for more than five years and have a maximum of 20 employees. In contrast to 'Innovation made in Germany', start-ups may also come from abroad, but must be new exhibitors.

More crowds, new halls

Hall 3A, which houses the Start-up Area and Exhibition Forum, is one of the most modern halls at Messe Nürnberg. Also new is the even larger Hall 3. Both halls are included in embedded world for the first time, creating more space for exhibitors and visitors. The new halls are also characterized by large, shadable glass fronts and plenty of daylight.

WEKA FACHMEDIEN will also be located in Hall 3A, where it will present the titles Electronics, Computer&Automation, Design&Electronics and Markt&Technik, among others.

New at the stand are the transparent editorial office of the trade fair daily newspaper, which is available daily at the entrances, at the WEKA stand and partner stands, as well as the VIP stage, where WEKA FACHMEDIEN editors discuss with representatives from science and industry.