Three practical strategies for designing firmware architectures that avoid the common 'ball of mud' pitfall. First, let data dictate design by tracing how data flows through the system to identify necessary components. Second, treat hardware as just another data source by abstracting low-level hardware details away from application logic, enabling unit testing, CI/CD, and simulation. Third, design top-down by defining system responsibilities and data flow before writing any drivers or hardware bring-up code. Together these strategies produce scalable, testable, and maintainable firmware that reduces bugs, technical debt, and development costs.
Table of contents
What is a Software Architecture?Firmware Architecture Strategy #1 – Data Dictates DesignFirmware Architecture Strategy #2 – There is no hardware, only dataFirmware Architecture Strategy #3 – Design from the Top DownThe Bottom Line1 Impression