|
|
|
|
Rapid migration using state machine design |
Quanta, a Brazilian company, develops fleet management products for the transport sector. The products are continuously improved by introduction of new technologies and additional functionality from one product generation to another. Migration to a new microcontroller is often part of the strategy to maintain the competitive edge.
“The time consumption is the most important factor when migrating from one controller to another”, says Nilton Gomes Valente, Design Engineer Manager at Quanta in Sao Paulo. “Migration took us two months instead of six using IAR visualSTATE, one third of the time.” |
| |
 |
| Quanta Tecnologia Eletrônica in Sao Paulo, Brazil, has been developing fleet management products and car alarms since the company was founded in 1987. |
|
|
| |
| Fleet management is about the management of cars, vans, and trucks in commercial use. Quanta tracking systems use wireless technologies like CDMA, GSM and Satellite INMARSAT D+ for communication and the Global Positioning System, GPS, to position the vehicles. Car alarms and navigators are other products in the product range. |
Improving driver safety |
The purpose of the technology is to increase the efficiency in transportation. Fuel consumption and environmental impact are reduced by improving route planning and control. Driver safety is another important aspect. Alarm buttons and the continuous indication of the vehicle’s position are helpful in case of an accident, theft, or robbery.
The number one selling product line is the tracking systems and they are also the products migrated the most frequently. The engineers at Quanta have performed three migrations in the last four years.
Apart from migration of the application from one microcontroller to another, a considerable challenge is to develop multiple tracking systems in parallel. Quanta’s tracking systems are called Tetros. There are five different variations with some common functionality and others that differ.
The customers are found in the US, Europe, and South America. The domestic market is the bigger. 85% of the overall sales comes from Brazil.
|
| |
 |
| The picture shows some examples of Quanta’s product range targeting the transport sector. Tetros Maxi (upper left), Tetros Hibrido (upper right), and Tetros Mini (lower left) are three of the five different tracking systems from Quanta. The RD7100 (lower right) is a car alarm. |
|
|
| |
Introducing state chart design |
Quanta began using IAR visualSTATE in 2002. According to Gomes Valente it takes the same amount of time to learn to work with IAR visualSTATE and state charts as it takes to master the C programming language.
“It takes four months to learn C programming and four months to learn state charts, or rather, junior guys four months and senior guys six months”, says Gomes Valente with a cheerfulness that isn’t lost over the somewhat poor telephone connection between Sweden and Brazil.
Rapid migration of functionality and code to new microcontrollers is one advantage to Quanta using IAR visualSTATE. The graphical representation of state charts brought additional benefits.
“It made the communication among people inside the company very easy”, says Gomes Valente. |
Discussing design ideas |
The clarity in state charts proved advantageous in two ways. Firstly, newly employed software engineers or consultants benefited from learning the design rapidly. Secondly, discussions about ideas and functionality now could involve also non-technical personnel.
“State charts made it very easy for a larger number of professionals in the company to understand the application.”
Quanta uses PIC18, ARM7, and HCS12 microcontrollers in their products. IAR Embedded Workbench is used for compiling and debugging the code. There is no mistaking the confidence in IAR Embedded Workbench.
“If there is a bug, we look for it in our application, not in the compiler”, says Gomes Valente.
And IAR visualSTATE is at Quanta to stay.
“We plan to continue working with IAR visualSTATE, of course”, says Gomes Valente. “We are very satisfied with it.” |
| |
Organization: Quanta Tecnologia Eletrônica Ltda
Employees: 180 of which 26 engineers Objective: Migration of applications to new microcontrollers IAR Systems offering: IAR visualSTATE with support and update agreement
Benefits: State machine design independent of microcontroller shortens time to market
|
| |
| |
| Shortcut to this page: http://www.iar.com/quanta |
| |
| |
|
|
|
