By Ann Steffora Mutschler
Senior Correspondent, New Tech Press

With engineers clamoring for all things Android  and open-source, the RTOS market is experiencing some major changes – although that depends on whom you ask.

A new entrant to the market, FreeRTOS, garnered the top spot UBM’s 2011 Embedded Market Study.  However, Dr. Jerry Krasner of Embedded Market Forecasters has taken issue with these results.

According to his blog, Krasner pointed out, “In EMF’s 2011 Annual Survey of Embedded Developers…developers reported using an in-house RTOS (20.1%), Android (19.3%), XPE (16.5%) and Windows CE (15.9%). FreeRTOS was used by 0.9% of …

New Tech Press Managing Editor Joe Basques interviews Jean Labrosse on the RTOS company’s new relationship with Newark/Element14, and Micrium’s climbing status among engineers, according to the UBM/EETimes Embedded Market Survey.

Sponsored by Element14.…

By Lou Covey
Editorial Director, Footwasher Media

The recent collapse of a few high-profile solar energy companies, like Solyndra and Beacon Power, has caused even the most ardent fans of alternative energy to ask, “Can this industry survive?”  The answer is a resounding, yes and no.  It all depends on what government on all levels does.

Current public impressions of the health of any industry are colored by recent history.  The financial failings of companies and industries considered “to big to fail” are what most people think of when hearing news about solar.  But unlike the auto industry, with …

By Lou Covey
Editorial Director, Footwasher Media

The collapse of Solyndra has been the subject of both major news coverage and a foundational bit of political discourse recently.  A closer look at the facts reveals that the reality of Solyndra and the solar industry is far from the speculation, especially when viewed from a military perspective.

In the wider scope, industry analysts and observers wonder what all the kerfuffle is  about because everyone who knew the industry knew that Solyndra was not going to make it, especially in the current market.

“Solyndra’s CIGS solar panels were expensive,” according the Chirag Rathi of…

Running a business, large or small, has become fairly complicated in recent times, especially because in so many cases, you have to verify that the person you are dealing with is who they say they are.

One of the most difficult, annoying and controversial is dealing with identity theft and hiring documented workers.  Despite popular belief that hiring undocumented workers is rampant, most companies do comply with the law and check submitted documents according to established procedure.

However, that doesn’t stop lawsuits from parties fired for submitting false documents, as former California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman discovered.  It also doesn’t …