What we've been reading in March (2025)

Here are the articles, videos, and tools that we’ve been excited about this March.

What have you been reading? Share in the comments or on the Interrupt Slack.

Articles & Learning

• Let’s code a TCP/IP stack, 1: Ethernet & ARP
  Fun series walking through how to build a TCP/IP stack from scratch. － Noah

• The End of Programming
  An interesting blog (rant) about programming and AI. I liked the comment, “Eventually much of what programmers do today may be as obsolete (for everyone but embedded system programmers) as the old skill of debugging with an oscilloscope.” － Niall Cooling, Interrupt Community Member

• Removing Jeff Bezos from My Bed
  Fun read on de-Amazoning your home network and the weird behavior you uncover along the way. — François

• Tunneling Zigbee with ser2net and SSH
  Clean way to remote into Zigbee adapters over SSH without extra tooling.

• ESP32 Wi-Fi Superstitions
  Breaks down what actually matters when trying to get stable Wi-Fi on ESP32; turns out most “tips” are just noise. — François

• Yocto, RockPi, and SBOMs: Building Modern Embedded Linux Images
  A look at building SBOM-compliant Linux images for RockPi using Yocto. — Tyler

• A Rustacean’s Guide to Embedded World 2025
  Published just before Embedded World (Mar 11–13), this guide from OneVariable’s James Munns highlights Rust-focused booths, tools, and sessions; still worth a read if you’re tracking where embedded Rust is gaining traction.

• Just Barely Fitting a Full Wi-Fi Stack on the nRF9151
  A hands-on deep dive into squeezing a full Wi-Fi stack onto Nordic’s nRF9151 (spoiler: not easy). — Tyler

• ESP32 Undocumented Bluetooth Commands: Clearing the Air
  Some very niche but interesting details about undocumented HCI commands on ESP32 chips.

• It’s Not As Simple As “Use A Memory Safe Language” Very balanced coverage of memory safety with a pragmatic comparison of Rust and Modern C++. Well worth a view. － Niall Cooling, Interrupt Community Member

• Security Through Transparency: RP2350 Hacking Challenge Results Are In
  RP2350 hacking challenge results. Very impressive work! — Noah

• Glowing Review of the RP2350
  Deep dive from Dmitry — he’s impressed by the silicon and you probably will be too. — Noah

• ESP32 Open MAC
  Open-source Wi-Fi MAC stack for ESP32 — early days, but could be a huge shift for devs tired of closed blobs. － Tyler

News & Announcements

• Version 9.0.0 Released | KiCad EDA
  KiCad 9.0 released 🥳 with tons of great stuff added! － Noah

• Zephyr RTOS 4.1 is Available
  Zephyr 4.1 is out! Major updates include device tree overlays and SMP enhancements.

• TI Introduces the World’s Smallest MCU
  A pretty small (physically) Cortex-M0+ from TI. — Noah

• Samsung Admits Its Bad Software Update Bricked a Lot of Soundbars
  Samsung bricked a bunch of their soundbars with a bad firmware update. — Tyler

• Firmware Update Bricks HP Printers, Makes Them Unable to Use HP Cartridges
  Title says it all. — Tyler

Interrupt Live

• Thursday, April 10 | Interrupt Live with James Munns
  On this episode of Interrupt Live, Tyler is joined by James Munns, Berlin-based software engineer specializing in Rust and embedded systems. Together they’ll walk through building a bare-metal Rust application from the ground up and what makes Rust uniquely suited for low-level systems programming. Join us on YouTube Live at 9AM PT | 12PM ET | 6PM CET.

Events

• April 15, 2025 - Coredump 06: Pebble’s Code is Free: Three Former Pebble Engineers Discuss Why It’s Important (Part 2)
  Back by popular demand! François Baldassari, Thomas Sarlandie, and Brad Murray continue their deep dive into Pebble OS’s technical innovations, debugging strategies, and lessons for modern embedded development. RSVP to get the recording sent to you.

• April 23-24, 2025 - Hardware Pioneers Max 2025 – Visit Memfault at Stand #C4
  Hardware Pioneers is the UK’s largest exhibition and conference dedicated to cutting-edge technologies for innovation-driven engineering teams. Memfault will be exhibiting from April 23-24 at Stand #C4. Use the promo code SPEX50 for a 50% discount on core tickets. Get your tickets.

• April 29, 2025 - Coredump 07: AI, Open Source, and the Future of Embedded Development
  Join Memfault’s François Baldassari and Thomas Sarlandie alongside Golioth’s CEO, Jonathan Beri, and CTO, Dan Mangum, for a conversation on how AI, open-source firmware stacks, and modern tooling are reshaping embedded development. Join the conversation on April 29th.

• May 13, 2025 - Coredump 08: Navigating the Changing IoT Security Landscape
  Memfault is joined by guest speaker Giovanni Alberto Falcione (CTO, Exein) to discuss new IoT security regulations like the EU’s Cyber Resilience Act, and share practical advice for building secure, compliant connected products. Register to attend live or get the recording after.

Gillian Minnehan is a firmware solutions architect at Memfault. Gillian previously worked on embedded software teams in space and defense.