Our diverse team has provided contract development and consulting services in a variety of fields including software design, embedded hardware design and other areas including ergonomics.
Software Design
Software is our strength. We've been doing it longer, and better, than most of our competitors, and we have way more fun than they do!
We are fundamentally agile in our approach to software. While quite familiar with the more conventional approaches, we generally find it doesn't serve our customers well. Most of our customers come to us with visions, not detailed requirements specs, and most of them rapidly revise their plans after consulting with us. We help them discover which of their goals will provide the real value to them, and which are perhaps merely good ideas that can be postponed until they have a product in the market, generating revenue.
While we're extremely versatile in software, having used over a dozen different languages in past projects, for general-purpose use we find the Python programming language stands above all others. (A few other little-known companies feel the same way.)
We try to use a few select tools as broadly as possible. Some call it having a hammer and seeing everything as a nail; we call it an efficient use of your money and a risk management technique. By limiting the number of technologies involved in developing your project, we reduce complexity, we reduce your dependence on one supplier and the possibly obscure or highly proprietary technologies they've saddled you with, and we increase our ability to get you to your goals on time and under budget.
In additon to the open-source Python language, we use C and, rarely, assembly language for our embedded development work, and we use Javascript (along with XHTML and CSS of course) for our web-based projects. We like the flexible and robust CAN fieldbus for networking, and our own hardened microkernel (RTK) for realtime control. For embedded systems needing more horsepower we prefer Linux or BSD, as the proprietary operating systems never seem to live up to their vendor's promises.
Hardware Design
We have a fifteen-year background in digital hardware development, and contract the services of one of our excellent electrical engineering partners where analogue approaches are required.
We focus on the use of either Freescale or Atmel microcontrollers but have experience in many others (e.g. Motorola/Freescale's 68000 family, Microchip's PIC, MOS Tech's 6502, National's HPC, Intel's 8096, and of course the PC-compatible x86 family). Don't see your project's CPU listed? Not a problem: we learn extremely fast and are comfortable and experienced at taking over projects mid-stream when others have let you down!
Other Services
Our consultants have training and experience in many additional fields, including Project Management and Human Factors engineering (ergonomics).
In the past we've worked on such projects as, among others:
- custom user interface (graphical LCD screen and associated inputs) for an industrial motor drive
- training in Agile development practices, tools, and techniques
- guidance in preparation of technology startup business plans