Yep you guessed it, I got to experience a true Midwest thunderstorm. Born and raised in Southern California, I haven’t experienced many storms in my life. It was fascinating.  The roar in the sky, the shake of the earth, and the calm of the locals. But I wasn’t in the Midwest for the weather.

I was there for Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) Minneapolis. UBM always hosts a great event and this year was no exception. However it was quite different. This year the exhibit hall was combined with Medical Design & Manufacturing Minneapolis, MinnPack, Design & Manufacturing Minneapolis, ATX Minneapolis, and PLASTEC Minneapolis. Needless to say the exhibit hall was buzzing.

Personal electronics, household devices, and automobiles are not the only consumers of embedded devices. Medical devices and manufacturing include embedded devices and require testing just the same. With all these show combined – we were able to discuss and demonstrate the wide range of functions our family of products offers. From the Promira Serial Platform to the Komodo CAN interface.

	Figure 1: Promira Serial Platfrom	Figure 2: Komodo CAN Duo Interface

We have several customers who use the Promira Serial Platform to interface with DSP systems for medical audio devices, including hearing aids. We learned that the Promira platform is being used in hearing aids assembly to verify I2C controller development. It’s always interesting to learn about the wide range of applications that are using out tools. Hearing health is important and I am glad that Total Phase plays a role.

You probably already knew this - CAN was originally developed for the automotive industry and is one of the most reliable communication networks. It is CAN’s reliability along with the CiA’s introduction of standardized communication profile that has parlayed CAN into the medical devices industry.

Since MRI machines are physically large systems, they need a robust communication bus to connect the MRI sensors and motors to a central processing unit. So this is ideal for the CAN bus. Our Komodo Interface is being used in the development, debug and test of these types of medical systems that are using the CAN bus.

Next I am off to Houston, Texas for USB-IF and then onwards to Austin, Texas to meet with more interesting customers!

Your projects don't have to be stormy - ask how Total Phase tools and software can help you weather it out.  Have any questions?  Feel free to email us at sales@totalphase.com.