Production intent rapid prototyping

A new generation of high-performance microcontrollers (MCUs) are being used for many embedded applications, including automotive powertrain. With it comes a number of difficulties for the rapid prototyping community, including on-chip memory and peripherals. However, this can be viewed as an opportunity to upgrade the development process to include production reality during the early development phases. Neglecting execution speed, code size, interrupt latency, and other target MCU constraints during rapid prototyping may delay production deadlines or degrade product performance. A production-intent prototyping approach is one way to solve this problem and upgrade development processes as we strive to meet deadlines for improved emissions and fuel economy. Identification of challenges faced, and opportunities provided for rapid prototyping of embedded controllers with next-generation processors are discussed