SSI Embedded Systems Programming - B & B Electronics Case Study

Fact: Over 50% of SSI Staff has 8 or More Years Experience

"You can count on the work being done right and on time." ~ SSI Client

Fact: 30% of SSI staff has twelve or more years experience

"The people blended in and became part of the design team."

Fact: Experienced Team Lead manages all projects

"I was impressed with the quality of SSI's work throughout this contract. I appreciated their ability to work with minimal guidance, and minimal design details. And I greatly appreciated their suggestions and alternate design proposals. Their willingness to work overtime when necessary to meet deadlines was greatly appreciated." ~ SSI Client

Fact: All SSI staff is trained on the Quality Development Process

"Work is spectacular. More exceptional than I thought it would be. Sensors work great. They can detect the slightest pressure accurately. It is WAY beyond my expectations." ~ SSI Client

Fact: Long term staff retention rate at SSI is > 95%

Fact: SSI's Internal Software process operates as CMM Level 3

"The experience was a good one" ~ SSI Client

Fact: SSI has been in business 16+ years

"The best thing about working with SSI is that the people genuinely care about the success of the overall project. Typical contractors stop when they have merely met the letter of the contract that they are bound to; where as, SSI is willing to go above and beyond to drive a project to completion and ultimately success." ~ SSI Client

Fact: Over half of SSI Business is from returning clients

"I would use SSI again" ~ SSI Client

Fact: SSI client relationships last several years

"The best thing about working with SSI is that the people genuinely care about the success of the overall project. Typical contractors stop when they have merely met the letter of the contract that they are bound to; where as, SSI is willing to go above and beyond to drive a project to completion and ultimately success." ~ SSI Client

Fact: SSI's Customers report a consistent 4.5 out of 5 rating for satisfaction

"Keep finding people who can get to the root of the issue and resolve it as specified. [Your Engineer] is golden!." ~ SSI Client

Fact: 100% of clients surveyed said they would recommend SSI to others

"SSI will deliver what is promised on a timely basis." ~ SSI Client

Fact: SSI Supports Continual Employee Training

"Consistent high quality engineers who perform very well. SSI is the only company -- contracting or consulting -- who consistently provides the best talent who are not only technically accomplished but have excellent verbal and personal skills. I have not seen anything like it before." ~ SSI Client

The Customer

B&B Electronics Manufacturing Company designs and manufactures data communications products for commercial and industrial applications.

The Problem

B&B Electronics employed a Windows-based application to configure their wireless serial servers. The wireless serial servers were configurable from a centralized machine that ran the application. B&B Electronics approached SSI when they needed to develop a web-based configuration application that used the same C Application Programming Interface ("API") as the Windows-based application.

The SSI Solution

SSI's experience in both web-based application design and network configuration facilitated the development of a logical web-based application that felt very similar to the current Windows-based application. The web-based application comprised multiple Common Gateway Interface ("CGI") scripts that communicated to with the C API to send and receive configuration values for the wireless serial server. The configuration values were then displayed to the user for verification and/or adjustment. The web-based application generated the screens based on the type of device it was running on, enabling B&B Electronics to deploy a single version of the web-based application that worked with all models of their wireless serial servers.

In order to couple CGI scripts with C functions, engineers at SSI evaluated two tools: External Subroutine ("XS") and Simplified Wrapper and Interface Generator ("SWIG"). In the end, the engineers at SSI chose SWIG for its ease of deployment. SWIG converts interface files (or C header files) into wrapper code for a multitude of languages, for example, Perl. The wrapper code is then integrated into the file system for the target device. Finally, the CGI scripts incorporate the wrapper code that enable communication with the C API.