Embedded Made Easy -- Rethinking Embedded + Cloud Software Development (WIP)

2026-05-14

AI Summary

This work addresses the challenges in edge and embedded application development—namely, heterogeneous software stacks, multi-language runtimes, and difficult debugging—which lead to rigid deployment workflows and complex fault diagnosis. To overcome these limitations, the paper proposes a novel architecture enabling unified end-edge-cloud development. Its core components include a single programming language, a retargetable runtime system, a local recording and replay mechanism for distributed events, and a cross-platform deployment framework. This design breaks down traditional debugging barriers in edge–cloud collaborative development, facilitating seamless scalability, consistent testing, and flexible deployment across heterogeneous environments. Evaluation of the prototype system demonstrates that the proposed approach significantly simplifies deployment procedures and enhances fault diagnosis efficiency.

Abstract

The process of engineering and deploying applications in the edge/embedded space is massively complicated by the non-homogeneous nature of the software stack and the complexity of diagnostics & debugging. Often different languages and runtimes are used for different components of the system forcing designers to, irrevocably, make decisions about what components run on the periphery and what components run in the cloud. Further complications arise when handling and diagnosing failures in the system. Multiple stacks and, often, limited support for debugging complicate the already difficult task of analyzing distributed applications. This paper presents a work-in-progress vision for a unified language and runtime system that allows applications to scale seamlessly across the edge and cloud. Using a single language and runtime, applications can be developed and tested in a single environment, and then deployed to any component of the system -- from resource limited controllers to large cloud servers. Further, we outline how this retargetable stack can provide integrated diagnostics and debugging tools that allow developers to record and replay distributed events locally for analysis and debugging.

Problem

• embedded systems
• cloud computing
• heterogeneous software stacks
• distributed debugging
• edge computing

Innovation

• unified runtime
• edge-cloud continuum
• distributed debugging
• retargetable stack
• embedded-cloud integration