Best way to interface an embedded device to a host program?

[ElderUberGeek]

I have an embedded device that is going to talk to a host program on a
PC. Initially there will be one device but the design is for many (all
being identical). My question is, what is the best way to interface
this box(es) to the host application? I do not want to program sockets
directly (oh yah, it's over TCP) but to use a modular design with some
type of object. Is a DLL apropriate? A separate EXE? Something else?

Thanks

 

[Tim Shoppa]

I have an embedded device that is going to talk to a host program on a
PC. Initially there will be one device but the design is for many (all
being identical). My question is, what is the best way to interface
this box(es) to the host application? I do not want to program sockets
directly (oh yah, it's over TCP) but to use a modular design with some
type of object. Is a DLL apropriate? A separate EXE? Something else?

It depends on what your "embedded device" does. If you can break down
the communications into setting some parameters followed by
query/response cycles, then there are numerous TCP/IP protocols that
you can ride on (HTTP is very nice for a lot of things, in particular
folks who buy your device can interface to it with nothing more than a
web browser, this makes what is for some users a steep learning curve
into a much less steep one. And webserver TCP/IP code comes with almost
every embedded TCP/IP stack already.)

If your embedded device is much more heavy-duty and really needs to do
DMA and interrupts etc. to the host, then your model is gonna be a LOT
different.

Tim.

 

[Le Chaud Lapin]

I have an embedded device that is going to talk to a host program on a
PC. Initially

Hardware Design <<<<---------->>>> Software Design

Need to say more about your hardware before you can talk reasonably
about software interfaces.

-Le Chaud Lapin-