The future of embedded devices will be built on software and data management fundamentals. Embedded edge data management enables device applications to process and manage data locally, near the source, within embedded systems or edge devices. This approach offers benefits like reduced latency, improved real-time decision-making, and enhanced security. This edge computing revolution enables devices to unlock actionable insights and deliver stunning intelligence. How do you benefit from data management at the edge with STM32 devices?

Many underestimate the complexity of STM32 devices with data activities, the great value of embedding data management software available to start right away and after deployment demand for updates and upgrades. Instead, they attempt to build a one-off in-house solution or select open-source software which may not be the right fit.

Licensing embedded software, in general, has various advantages over building it in-house, including cost savings, much shorter development times, and access to specialist expertise. Licensing enables manufacturers to use pre-built, tested, and frequently optimized code, freeing up resources for critical initiatives and focusing on their own application. Furthermore, licensing allows for a greater range of functionalities and features without requiring costly internal development.

Microcontrollers use their internal memory (RAM and ROM) to store and manage the data activities that they receive and process. They also use I/O peripherals for communication, sending and receiving data to interact with other parts of a system. For more complex data management, especially in IoT and AI edge computing applications, a specialized embedded database, ITTIA DB Lite, will add significant value to manage real-time data streaming, storage, and analytics.

The STM32 family of 32-bit microcontrollers are based on the Arm Cortex®-M processor. STMicroelectronics offers products combining high performance, real-time capabilities, digital signal processing, etc. STM32 devices now benefit from ITTIA DB Lite for data management and real-time data analytics which are specifically built for microcontrollers.

For the past few years, a select team at ITTIA that has been working on new innovations for microcontrollers data computing has created ITTIA DB Lite, a modern data management and analytics technology. If you are interested in our comprehensive examples demonstrating how ITTIA DB Lite and STM32 devices will add value to your new design, contact ITTIA and ask for STM32 examples. Let’s look at one of the examples among the many others available to download from ITTIA.

STM32H7 series is based on the 32-bit Arm Cortex®-M7 core, running at up to 600 MHz. Available in both single-core and heterogeneous dual-core, STM32H7 supports execution from internal and external memories. ITTIA DB Lite examples for STM32H7 take advantage of both the Cortex-M7 data cache and direct memory access (DMA) to access flash storage media with high performance and low overhead. This streamlines real-time data for data management, data processing, improving data quality, security, and accessibility, ultimately enabling devices for better decision-making.

ITTIA DB Lite enables you to rapidly develop code for STM32H7 and other STM32 microcontrollers to store any kind of data, from timestamped sensor readings and other key-value pairs to complex schemas with multiple indexes and data relationships. Multiple example projects show how you can easily insert, update, delete, and search rows of data stored on local flash media through type-safe API functions and data structures generated for each example’s unique data model. ITTIA DB Lite handles the details of reliability, performance, and wear leveling. Optimized algorithms for data serialization, indexing, and multi-version concurrency (MVCC) in ITTIA DB Lite are designed from the ground up to minimize MCU overhead with a low memory footprint.

Our goal is to present the fundamentals of data management that encompasses the practices of collecting, organizing, storing, and maintaining data inside the device. In our next blog post, we will look at how ITTIA DB Lite can not only query data stored on flash media but also query live sensor data within memory stream processing to clean data before it is stored or transmitted.

ITTIA DB Lite is available for evaluation for various STM32 devices.