Let’s start with things we already know - complex projects are inherently hard to debug. The more complicated they are, the harder it is to debug them. The size of the project naturally defines complexity’s lower bounds, but even the smallest projects can become unnecessarily complex and messy if you don’t pay attention to how you structure them. Though we can’t eliminate complexity, we can manage it effectively with the right approach.

In this article, we will learn how memory usage patterns can affect the real-time performance of an embedded application, drawing from a recent experience tracing an audio DSP application running on an embedded Linux platform. First, I will introduce the product in question and the real-time audio software I developed for it. Then, I’ll describe the issues I encountered with audio callbacks and the strategy I followed to determine the cause of the issues, ending with my solution and lessons learned.

The advancements in GenAI technology are creating a significant impact across domains/sectors, and the Kubernetes ecosystem is no exception. Numerous interesting GenAI projects and products have emerged aimed at enhancing the efficiency of Kubernetes cluster creation and management. From simplifying application containerization for engineers to addressing complex Kubernetes-related queries or troubleshooting issues within a cluster, GenAI demonstrates immense potential.

The JTAG interface is an important tool for debugging and testing embedded systems, providing low-level access to the internal workings of microcontrollers and other integrated circuits. However, this powerful interface also presents significant security threats. In the sixth and final part of this Diving into JTAG article series, we will focus on security issues related to JTAG and the Debug Port.

Grafana Alloy 1.3 is here! First introduced earlier this year, Alloy is our open source distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector. It has native pipelines for OpenTelemetry and Prometheus telemetry formats, and it uses the same components, code, and concepts that were previously introduced in Grafana Agent Flow. This new release introduces live debugging, enhancing debugging capabilities across key components, which are the building blocks of Alloy.