Speed of execution gains – Sercel case study

80% gains on the execution speed of an embedded applications.

This is the result of an analysis performed on a part of the code of a product from Sercel, a world leader in the design and manufacture of innovative seismic equipment and reservoir monitoring instruments.

We could then measure the execution time on the reference code, considering the hardware target (STM32 microcontroller).

Optimization with and without quality compromise

Without any compromise on the output quality of the application, a first optimization allowed to reduce the execution time by 72%, despite the optimizations already made by the compiler!

Through this type of diagnosis, we can enable teams to:

• better understand the nature of the code that can be reworked for potential gains with metrics,
• assess and quantify gains,
• and optimize the concerned code.

Reveal unsuspected gains on existing products.

Easier said than done for many applications. And especially, as in this case, on existing, marketed products. The embedded software is operational and fulfills its mission very well in terms of functionality. However, it is possible to improve performance and efficiency.

In the end, this translates into concrete results for the product and for end customers: less energy consumption thanks to optimization = more battery autonomy = more efficient implementation in the field with less intervention to reassemble and recharge equipment.

This is what drives us, allowing development teams to make their products more sustainable, more efficient, longer autonomous and less energy consuming by integrating algorithmic optimization of embedded applications into their development process.

Thanks to Nicolas Carré, Clément Subtil, Thierry Adragna and Emeric Menanteau from Axandus for this first collaboration.

If you have any questions about the earning potential of your application, we can talk about it anytime.