Embedded Software Development
The software layer that turns a working board into a product people can use: embedded Linux platforms, application software, touch interfaces, industrial and medical protocols, cloud and mobile connectivity, and the security and verification around them. Built by a team that also designs the hardware and firmware underneath, so nothing falls between the layers.
What We Deliver
What does embedded software development cover, and where does firmware end?
Firmware is the code that talks to silicon: drivers, real-time control, power states. Embedded software is everything a product needs above that: the operating system platform, the application logic, the user interface, the protocol stacks, the link to the cloud or the phone, and the security that holds it together. We deliver both, and we draw the line between them deliberately in the architecture, because most integration failures live at that line.
How the work runs
- Software architecture agreed and signed before coding starts: the split between firmware and application, the interfaces between them, the data model and the security model
- Platform first: board support package, bootloader and operating system image built and reproducible before application work begins
- Application, interface and connectivity developed in parallel against a shared interface document, on target hardware as soon as it exists
- Continuous integration from the first week: every commit builds the image and runs the unit tests, so the release is never a surprise
- Integration and system testing on real hardware, with every defect logged, owned and closed
- Release engineering and handover: a versioned image, a build environment you can reproduce, and the documentation to maintain it
What you receive
- Full source with commit history, yours from the first day, in a repository you control
- A reproducible build: platform layers, toolchain and image recipes, so the product can be rebuilt in five years
- A signed software architecture and interface document, with the acceptance criteria for every gate
- Test results and a defect log you can read, with an owner and a closure against every finding
- A software bill of materials listing every third-party component and its licence
- Release notes and a maintenance plan for security patches and platform updates after launch
What We Build
Which kinds of embedded software do you build?
Software for products that live in the field for years and cannot be rebooted by a support desk. Most of it falls into three groups, and a single product often needs all three.
Embedded Linux and other platforms
Yocto-based images, board support packages and bootloaders for application processors and system-on-modules. Hardened, reproducible and updatable, with the kernel and userspace you need and nothing you do not.
- A Linux build you own and can rebuild, for the exact board you are shipping
- Secure boot and update-ready images
- Applications packaged so one can be updated on its own, without reflashing the device
Human interfaces and applications
Touch interfaces and application software that operators and clinicians use all day. Built in Qt and modern embedded toolkits, designed with the workflow in mind, and tested against usability requirements as well as functional ones.
- Qt and embedded HMI development
- Panel PC and operator interface software, on Linux or embedded Windows
- Application logic and data handling on the device
Connectivity, protocols and more
The stacks that let a device speak to a factory, a hospital network or a phone: industrial fieldbus and Ethernet protocols, medical and IoT messaging, and the mobile and cloud services on the other end of the link. Always future ready.
- Modbus, OPC UA, CAN and industrial Ethernet
- MQTT, BLE and cloud service integration
- Companion mobile and web applications
The environment varies: Yocto-built embedded Linux, FreeRTOS or bare-metal firmware on a microcontroller, embedded Windows on a panel PC, or a CODESYS runtime on an industrial controller. If yours is not named, describe what the product does. The method does not change; the stack does.
De-Risking
How do you keep an embedded software project from running late?
By making the architecture, not the schedule, the first deliverable. Late embedded software projects are almost never late because someone typed slowly. They are late because the interface between the firmware and the application was never written down, the platform was built by hand and could not be rebuilt, or the hardware arrived and the software had never met it. Each of those is a decision we take in the first weeks, in writing, with your signature on it.
The second discipline is building against real hardware as early as it exists and against reference hardware before that. Platform, application and connectivity work run in parallel against a shared interface document, and continuous integration builds the whole image on every commit, so integration is a daily event rather than a phase at the end.
What we settle before application coding starts
- The split between firmware and application, and the interface between them, in a signed document
- The security model: secure boot, signed updates, credential storage, and the threat model they answer
- The data model and the protocol choices, checked against the systems the product must talk to
- A build any engineer can repeat from source on a clean machine, five years from now
- The verification plan: what is unit tested, what is tested on hardware, and what the acceptance criteria are
- Third-party components listed with their licences, so nothing arrives at release that legal cannot approve
Scope changes are written and signed by both parties, so a change to the application cannot quietly imply a change to the firmware that nobody budgeted for.
Hardware and Software
Why buy embedded software from a team that also builds hardware?
Because the most expensive defects in an embedded product sit between the layers, not inside them: a timing assumption the application makes that the driver does not honour, a power state the interface never expected, a protocol field the firmware fills differently from what the cloud reads. When the same team owns the schematic, the firmware and the application, those seams have one owner and one defect log.
It also changes what you can buy. You can commission the software alone, on hardware you already have, and we will start with a documented review of that hardware and its firmware. Or you can commission the whole product. Either way the software is designed knowing what the board can and cannot do, because the people who designed the board are in the same room. More on our firmware development services page.
Taking over existing software
- A documented review of the existing codebase, build system and defect history before anything is changed
- The build made reproducible first, so every later change can be traced and reversed
- Proven code carried forward between programmes rather than rewritten, when the review says it is sound
- Sustaining engineering and platform updates on a plan, with security patches on a schedule rather than in a panic
Quality
How do you know the software is actually finished?
Because finished has a written definition before work starts. Every phase ends in a formal review with acceptance criteria taken from your requirement document, and you sign it. Nobody moves to the next phase on a verbal nod.
Architecture signed first
The software architecture and the firmware-to-application interface are written, reviewed and signed before application coding begins.
Built on every commit
Continuous integration builds the full image and runs the unit tests on every change, so a broken build is found the same day, not at release.
Tested on the target
System and integration testing runs on real hardware against your requirement, with every defect logged, owned and closed before release.
Reproducible and documented
You receive a build anyone can reproduce, a software bill of materials, release notes and the record of your sign-off at every gate.
Why Pinetics
How do you verify an embedded software development company can deliver?
100,000+ engineering hours delivered and counting.
Every hour is booked to a named task, so you can see what a sprint bought rather than reading a monthly invoice. Our platform work spans Yocto-based Linux on application processors, Qt interfaces on panel hardware, and industrial runtimes on controllers, all delivered inside the same gated plan and the same defect discipline as our hardware and firmware programmes. The software is built by the team that understands the board it runs on.
What we bring
- Embedded Linux, application, interface and connectivity engineers under one accountable programme manager, alongside the hardware and firmware team
- Founder-led engineering, with the same people reviewing the architecture for the life of the programme
- Fixed-price or time-and-materials terms, with third-party licences and services at actuals and only with your prior approval
- Commercial terms settled before engineering starts: scope, acceptance criteria, the escalation path, and who owns the code
Expertise
Founder-led engineering. Our leadership carries 20+ years across electronics, firmware and embedded software and reviews the architecture of every programme personally.
Technology
Yocto and embedded Linux, FreeRTOS and bare-metal firmware, Qt and embedded HMI toolkits, embedded Windows, CODESYS on industrial controllers, industrial and medical protocol stacks, cloud and mobile integration. Chosen for the product's lifetime.
Transparency
Named tasks, tracked defects, signed gates and a repository you own from the first commit. Nothing in your software programme is invisible to you.
Common Questions
What should you ask before choosing an embedded software partner?
Three checks tell you whether a software partner is disciplined or merely busy. Can they rebuild from source on a clean machine, or does it only build on one engineer’s laptop? Is the interface between firmware and application written down and signed, or discovered in integration? And at handover, do you get the repository, the build environment and the bill of materials, or an image and a promise? We treat all three as deliverables, and they are written into the contract.
Firmware is the code closest to the silicon: drivers, real-time control loops, power management and the boot sequence, usually on a microcontroller with a real-time operating system or none at all. Embedded software is the layer above: the operating system platform, application logic, user interface, protocol stacks and the connection to cloud and mobile services, usually on an application processor running Linux. We deliver both and, more importantly, we design the interface between them. Our firmware development services page covers the lower layer.
Yes, and the answer a reviewer wants is about the mechanism, not the feature. Updates are signed, the device verifies the signature before it applies anything, and there is a defined way back if an update fails, so a bad release cannot strand a product in the field. Secure boot, credential storage and the threat model behind them are settled and signed at the architecture gate rather than added later, and the third-party components in the image are listed in a software bill of materials your reviewer can read.
You commit to the architecture phase, not to the whole programme. It produces a signed architecture, a verification plan and effort estimates for every later phase, so the number you agree to is built from a design. We work on fixed-price or time-and-materials terms; third-party licences, cloud services and laboratory fees are billed at actuals and only with your prior written approval.
Yes, from the first commit, in a repository you control. You also receive the build environment, so the software can be rebuilt without us, and a software bill of materials listing every third-party component and its licence. Ownership is settled in the statement of work, before anyone writes a line of it.
Yes. The work starts with a documented review of the hardware, the firmware and the existing software, including its build system and defect history. The first engineering task is usually to make the build reproducible, because nothing else can be safely changed until it is. After that, sound code is carried forward and only what the review flags is rewritten.
Yes. Yocto-based images, board support packages, bootloaders and secure, update-ready platforms for application processors and system-on-modules are a core part of our work, alongside the Qt interfaces and connectivity stacks that run on them.
Yes. A connected product is only finished when the phone and the cloud agree with the device, and we scope the companion mobile application and the cloud service integration as phases of the same programme, against the same interface document, so the three ends of the link are tested together.
As an architecture decision, not a feature bolted on at the end. Secure boot, signed updates, credential storage and the threat model they answer are settled and signed before application coding starts. Third-party components are tracked in a software bill of materials, and a maintenance plan for security patches after launch is part of the handover.
The gates do not move. What changes is the evidence each one has to produce, and the fact that it has to be produced as you go rather than assembled afterwards. Medical software runs inside your quality system, with the IEC 62304 lifecycle and ISO 14971 risk management sitting on the same architecture, build and verification gates described above. Our medical device software development page sets out each artefact.
Through one named programme manager for the whole engagement and one written escalation path, both set out in the statement of work rather than agreed informally. Reviews sit on a dated schedule. Our leadership sits across India, the USA and Europe, so a review never waits a day for a timezone, and every decision is recorded in writing rather than left in a call.
Yes, and most first conversations start that way. Send yours or ask for ours.