Google Open-Sources Pigweed, a Collection of Embedded Libraries

Mar. 20, 2020

Googlefiled a trademarkfor a “computer operating software” named Pigweed last month. While most of us were guessing it could either be a new name forFuchsia OSor a brand-new operating system, Google has now shed some light into Pigweed – anopen-source collection of embedded libraries.

According to a recent post on Google Open Source Blog, Pigweed is just a collection of modules intended to enable faster and reliable development on 32-bit microcontrollers. To put it in simple words, Pigweed helps simplify the workflow of developers working on microcontrollers like STMicroelectronics STM32L452 or the Nordic nRF52832.

Pigweed modules are available across the entire development lifecycle. For instance, as detailed in the blog post, there is a module namedpw_env_setupthat’s responsible for setting up your development environment. The module fetches the necessary tools and sets it up in a virtual environment.Credits: Google

There is another module in Pigweed calledpw_watchthat effectively automates builds, runs specific tests upon changes in code. The best part? You don’t even have to leave your editor to perform all these. Pigweed offers apw_target_runnermodule to run parallel tests across multiple devices.Credits: Google

Apart from these three, there are several models in Pigweed such as pw_presubmit, pw_tokenizer, pw_string, pw_bloat, pw_unit_test,pw_kvs, pw_protobuf, and pw_cpu_exception_armv7m. You may go through the functionalities of all these modules in Google’sblog post.

Google has also addressed the strange name for the project.“Pigweed, also known as amaranth, is a nutritious grain and leafy salad green that is also a rapidly growing weed. When developing the project that eventually became Pigweed, we wanted to find a name that was fun, playful, and reflective of how we saw Pigweed growing. Teams would start out using one module that catches their eye, and after that goes well, they’d quickly start using more.”

Pigweed isaccessible nowunder the Apache 2.0 license. You can setup Pigweed by following theofficial set of instructions. Before you do that, do keep in mind that Pigweed is in its early stages of development and isnot suitable for production useright now.

Subin writes about consumer tech, software, and security. He secretly misses the headphone jack while pretending he’s better off with the wireless freedom.