KALLOWS Engineering

Kallows provides a broad spectrum of Engineering Services in a variety of technologies.

• Onsite Contract Engineering Services - We can provide experienced programmers with a range of experience designing, implementing, and debugging software for large or small contracts either in the U.S. or India.
  
  
• Outsourced Engineering Services - We can work offsite developing your product per your specification including documentation and proper software process control.
  
  
• Professional Consulting Services - We offer a range of professional consulting services including product research and development, software and firmware requirements development, and onsite training
  
  
• Software and Firmware Education Services (India Only) We will soon be offering classes for beginning Java Programming, Advanced Java Development for Mobiles, and Workshops in Embedded Systems.
  
  

Kallows and the Product Lifecycle

Kallows Engineering provides services in the entire software/firmware development life cycle specializing in embedded systems, digital signal processing, and embedded Linux. Here is an analysis of of the Software Development Life Cycle and how Kallows can serve your company's needs:

• Product Conceptualization and Feasibility: The Idea Phase - The product concept or product improvement is envisioned. The concept is analyzed for its potential profitability or other returns such as customer satisfaction. This usually involves looking at the costs involved for development (non-recurring hardware and software engineering or NRE) as well as any recurring costs of the finished product such as hardware costs. At this point consideration may be given for what the market may pay for the product or other potential benefits from a product improvement, the marketability or size of the market, and potential market competition. In addition, a revolutionary concept may require research into the feasibility of some emerging technology.
  
     Kallows can provide expert consulting services during the idea phase with Technical Research including emerging technology feasibility, Software Complexity Analysis and Hardware Pricing for cost projections, and Marketplace Analysis of potential competitors.
  
  
• System Requirements Phase - The requirements of the product (i.e. system requirements) are determined (specified). This is where the features of the system are defined in detail. Use cases may developed, or focus groups maybe be used to interview stakeholders and other users to determine what features need to be included in the system requirements. During this system requirements analysis, major hardware and software blocks or subsystems are usually defined to organize these features/requirements as well. These subsystems usually include data storage and management, human or other input/output interfaces and devices, multimedia subsystems, networking/communication subsystems, and data processing subsystems. Individual software and hardware requirements are then developed from the system requirements.
  
     Kallows can provide careful definition of your System Requirements Specification including Hardware and Software Subsystems and Interfaces, Processing and Data Storage Requirements, and Use Case Analysis based on your product concept and feature set definition.
  
  
• Software Design Phase - The broad software requirements are systematically and hierarchically broken down or analyzed. In this iterative process, software requirements may change or new software requirements may emerge based on trade offs between the software and hardware or because of overlooked complexities and complications. The detailed software design emerges from the software requirements analysis.
  
     Kallows can provide a complete high-quality Software Requirements Analysis and the resulting Detailed Software Design based upon your company's system requirements specification. In addition Kallows can work closely with your hardware team at this early stage to ensure that hardware capabilities support the software design and the software design properly integrates with the hardware.
  
  
• Software Implementation - Now your product is ready for the beginning of the implementation phase. This is the phase where the Software Coding begins. Initially, before the arrival of the first hardware, Low-Level Driver Functions which interface directly with the hardware are Coded and Tested using Hardware Simulation or a Hardware Prototype. These functions and methods will provide the framework for the the higher-level application code and are used as the basis of Board Bring Up Diagnostics to test the arriving hardware. Simultaneously, complete definition of the low-level functions and methods in the detailed software design allows High-level Application Coding to proceed in parallel. Careful planning for reuse at this stage is important to overall efficiency because diagnostics used for initial hardware bringup can be used for testing during manufacture and to diagnose field problems in the final product. Moreover, prototyping and testing using development kits and simulation in the absence of the final hardware speeds the software develpment cycle while hardware design and board manufacture are proceeding in parallel.
  
     Kallows provides a complete software solution for your company. By working closely with your hardware engineer's hardware specification Kallows can Code, Test, and Debug Low-Level Drivers and High-Level Applications at the earliest juncture in the product development through Hardware Simulation and utilizing off-the-shelf Development Kits. In addition, we can also provide complete Documentation of Detailed Coding as the project evolves.
  
  
• Software and Hardware Integration - Once the hardware arrives the integration phase begins. This is the phase where both the software low-level functions and diagnostics, and the new hardware are simultaneously tested during board bring up. The newly arrived hardware may be completely untested, or may be a well-validated module supplied by a 3rd party, or may have undergone some low-level board tests or diagnostics by the manufacturer. No matter the level of prior test of the hardware, the low level drivers and diagnostics must validate the functionality of the hardware while simultaneously verifying their own proper functioning. Confidence is built by successively working between hardware and software debugging until both the board and the low-level software are verified. Simultaneously, higher-level applications will be integrated by invoking tested lower-level functionality as the software integration proceeds.
  
     Kallows provides fast and complete integration of your new product's hardware and software. Low-level drivers and board bring up diagnostics that have previously been validated are quickly tested on your new hardware. We work side-by-side with your hardware engineers to quickly isolate and eliminate any hardware or software bugs. We provide crucial Hardware and Software Testing, Debugging, and Diagnostics during integration with an eye on diagnostics resuse for manufacturing and field support.
  
  
• Product Testing - Once confidence has been built during the integration phase and software and hardware appear to be properly integrated then the formal product testing or validation phase begins. Before any detailed product testing can commence Test Plans must be written. These test plans provide conscise step-by-step instructions for testing the product. In addition, automated test harnesses, equipment for stimulating inputs and measuring outputs may be built for use in validating and manufacturing the product. Also, more diagnostics may be created for use in manufacture or in the field and deployed as part of product testing.
  
     Kallows can Write and Implement Detailed Product Test Plans that provide maximum coverage to test product features. In addition we can provide various levels of Diagnostic Capabilities and work closely with your test and manufacturing teams to automate the usage of these diagnostics and leverage existing resources such as vendor supplied diagnostics.
  
  
• Product Release - The product release may be a full-fledged product deployment, or may be a trial release to a selected group of users or luminary customers to further validate the product in the field or to solicit further customer feedback for product improvement before the final release. At this stage User Documentation needs to be made available and hardware must be appropriately packaged. Test releases must supply a method of user feedback and any releases must have a method of reporting bugs from the field which requires Customer Support and provide detailed problem reports to the engineeers responsible. Software and hardware engineers involved in the problem fix must work quickly and diligently to analyze and fix the problem and provide the bug fix release as soon as possible. Itererative design improvements must be incorporated, tested, and deployed as well.
  
     Kallows can provide user documentation and analyze field problems to provide quick turnaround time for bug fixes. In addition, we can design and code incremental product improvement features as suggested by field test and user feedback.
  
  
• Product Maintenance - At this stage the mature product is deployed. Product planning, failures, complaints, or customer feedback may mandate either firmware fixes, or new releases of the improved product. Customer service at this phase is critical. Customer's perceptions of product quality and their continued loyalty to your company will depend on quick and effective fixes for their critical issues.
  
     Kallows can provide expertise to quickly Debug and Fix Difficult Field Problems that are critical to your customer base. We can work with your team's field support and customer service to help gather and interpret information on an issue as well.