Overview of the GRiSP Project for Real-Time Elixir and Erlang Development

The presentation by Peer Stritzinger dives into GRiSP, a platform designed for embedded software and hardware development using Elixir and Erlang. GRiSP provides a dedicated environment for working with the BEAM (Erlang VM) on bare metal hardware, meaning there is no traditional operating system intervening between the VM and the hardware. Stritzinger, the founder of Peer Stritzinger GmbH and a board member of the Erlang Ecosystem Foundation, discusses how the platform has evolved over three years, integrating mix and rebar3 tooling. He showcases GRiSP's capabilities with real-time applications, mentioning his own experiences and the advantages of using Erlang in industrial and automotive applications. Stritzinger goes into the technical details of implementing GRiSP, incorporating the different hardware and software components, and demonstrates its efficiency with examples like a magenta blinking light demo. He also talks about the planned improvements, including reducing boot time and supporting Nerves project infrastructure. The future directions of GRiSP indicate an ambition to bring Erlang VM into space technology. Throughout the presentation, Stritzinger emphasizes the robustness of the platform and its ecosystem, noting its ease of use and the productivity gains for developers, especially when it comes to real-time systems. GRiSP, as a melding of hardware and software, embodies the groundbreaking potential for Erlang and Elixir in scarcely chartered domains like embedded systems.