Hardware Design Services
From schematic to a board that is ready to manufacture
Embedded Firmware Development
Firmware that holds up in the field, not just on the bench
We write the firmware layer that decides whether a product ships or stalls in validation. That means deterministic timing, predictable power behaviour and clean recovery from the failure modes real deployments produce — brownouts, dropped links, corrupted updates and sensors that lie.
We work across STM32, ARM Cortex-M and comparable microcontroller families, with or without an RTOS. Where a project already has firmware, we take it over, document it and stabilise it rather than insisting on a rewrite.
Discuss your project
What this covers
Bring-up and low-level drivers
Board bring-up, peripheral drivers and hardware abstraction layers written against the schematic, not a generic template.
RTOS integration
Task decomposition, priority and stack sizing, and timing analysis so real-time deadlines are met under worst-case load.
Communication protocols
CAN, UART, SPI, I2C, USB and TCP/IP stacks with resilient framing, retry and error-recovery behaviour.
Bootloaders and field update
Secure, power-fail-safe update paths with rollback, so a failed update in the field does not become a truck roll.
Power optimisation
Duty-cycle and sleep-state design for battery-powered and energy-harvesting devices, measured against a real budget.
Test and validation
Unit tests, hardware-in-the-loop checks and soak testing before firmware is called release-ready.
How we approach it
Timing and power budget first
Before any code, we agree what the product must guarantee: worst-case response times, interrupt latency, and the energy budget per operating mode. These become acceptance criteria rather than aspirations.
Architecture and task design
Task decomposition, priorities and stack sizing are decided up front and reviewed with you. Getting this wrong is the most expensive mistake in firmware, and the hardest to unpick later.
Incremental bring-up
Peripheral by peripheral, each one proven on real hardware before the next is started. You see working functionality throughout, not a large integration risk at the end.
Validation and handover
Timing measurement, power profiling and extended soak testing, followed by a walkthrough with your engineers so the code is genuinely maintainable by your team.
What you receive
- Commented source code in your repository, owned by you
- Reproducible build and flashing instructions verified on a clean machine
- Driver and hardware abstraction documentation mapped to the schematic
- Measured timing, power and soak test results against the agreed budget
- Bootloader and field-update procedure, including the rollback path
- Handover session with your engineering team
Platforms and standards
Industries we deliver this for
Common questions
Who owns the firmware and the IP?
You do. All source code, build scripts and documentation are delivered into your repository and the IP is assigned to you. We do not retain licence-back rights or embed proprietary blobs that would tie you to us.
Can you take over firmware someone else wrote?
Yes, and it is a common request. We start with a review of the existing code, document what it actually does, and stabilise it. We only recommend a rewrite when the existing base genuinely cannot carry the roadmap, and we will say so plainly with reasons.
Do you work with the microcontroller we have already chosen?
Almost always. We work across the major Cortex-M families and comparable architectures. If your chosen part has a real problem for the requirement — availability, peripheral limits, long-term supply — we will raise it early, but the decision stays yours.
How do you demonstrate the firmware is reliable?
With evidence rather than assertion: measured interrupt latency and task timing under worst-case load, power profiling against the budget, fault-injection for brownout and link loss, and extended soak runs. Results are delivered as part of the handover.
Talk to the engineers who will do the work
No account managers in the middle. Share your requirement and you will get a technical response, with an honest view of scope and timeline.
Start the conversationRelated services
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