In embedded development, flexibility can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, access to multiple microcontroller architectures allows teams to choose the right hardware for each product. On the other hand, supporting diverse architectures can easily spiral into a fragmented, inefficient mess, especially when each platform demands its own tools, workflows, and skillsets.
The problem: Siloed development and vendor lock-in
Not long ago, I spoke with a consumer electronics company that was facing exactly this issue. Their product lines spanned AVR, Arm Cortex-M, and RL78, and each architecture came with its own development environment, debugger setup, and toolchain.
As a result:
- Teams were isolated in architecture-specific silos, making it hard to share knowledge or resources
- Code reuse was limited, forcing engineers to reinvent the wheel for every new project
- Progress slowed any time a key engineer with platform-specific experience wasn’t available
On top of that, the company felt boxed in by vendor lock-in, with little room to switch microcontrollers without major workflow overhauls. Every decision felt risky, and expensive.
The solution: A unified, architecture and device agnostic development platform
To address these challenges, the company migrated to IAR, a platform built from the ground up to support cross-architecture development under one roof.
With IAR, they were able to:
- Unify development workflows across more than 20 architectures, streamlining collaboration and tool maintenance
- Break free from vendor lock-in, allowing engineers to switch seamlessly between MCUs
- Reduce code size by 28%, enabling better performance and cost savings on hardware
The shift not only improved technical outcomes, it transformed how their teams worked together.
Why modular, scalable architecture matters
Jacob Beningo’s embedded modernization framework emphasizes the importance of designing modular and scalable software architectures that can adapt to a variety of platforms. But that vision is nearly impossible to achieve if every architecture requires its own isolated workflow.
IAR’s development environment supports this vision by removing friction between platforms and enabling true architectural flexibility.
The IAR advantage: One toolchain, limitless possibilities
Here’s how IAR helps teams modernize and scale across diverse platforms:
- One IDE and toolchain for AVR, Arm, RL78, RISC-V, and many more, eliminating tool fragmentation
- Cross-architecture debugging capabilities that help teams validate and troubleshoot consistently
- Highly efficient compilers that generate small, fast, and reliable code, critical for memory-constrained devices
This means engineers can work where they’re needed, not just where their platform expertise happens to lie. It also simplifies onboarding, improves reusability, and reduces development overhead.
The outcome: Flexibility, speed, and cost savings
For the consumer electronics company, the impact has been significant. They now have the flexibility to pivot between architectures, the ability to reuse code more effectively, and faster time-to-market thanks to streamlined development processes.
More importantly, their teams aren’t limited by toolchain complexity or locked into legacy workflows, they’re empowered to choose the best solution for each product, without compromise.
Ready to unify your embedded development?
If your team is juggling multiple toolchains, struggling with knowledge silos, or locked into rigid vendor ecosystems, it may be time to consider a more unified approach.
Join our upcoming webinar on April 15th, Breaking the CI/CD bottleneck: Scaling embedded DevSecOps with containers & automation (register to Americas session or Europe/Asia session), and discover how you can bring consistency, flexibility, and scalability to your embedded workflows—powered by IAR’s architecture-agnostic platform.
Working in a smaller team? You might find the webinar on April 16th Surviving without a DevOps team: CI/CD, debugging, and containers for embedded teams (register to Americas session or Europe/Asia session), a better fit for your needs.
