Engineering Glossary

Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) — A custom silicon chip optimized for a single specific use case or application.

ATEX is the EU framework for equipment in explosive atmospheres — defining equipment groups and categories with corresponding Notified Body requirements.

A battery passport is the electronic record required by Article 77 of the EU Battery Regulation for specified battery categories.

BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) — Wireless protocol for ultra-low-power IoT devices, enabling years of battery life with data ranges up to 240 m.

BOM Management covers selecting, tracking, and maintaining every hardware component to manage obsolescence, supply chain risk, and RoHS/REACH compliance.

BSP (Board Support Package) — Hardware abstraction layer bridging PCB design to an RTOS, including startup code, drivers, and peripheral config.

CE marking is required only for products covered by EU legislation that specifically mandates it.

Conformity assessment is the process of demonstrating that a product meets applicable requirements.

The Cyber Resilience Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/2847) sets cybersecurity obligations for products with digital elements within its scope.

CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) is the global standard for identifying cybersecurity vulnerabilities, each assigned a unique CVE-ID.

The EU declaration of conformity is issued under the manufacturer's responsibility, including when a notified body participates.

Design for Manufacturing (DFM) and Design for Assembly (DFA) are engineering methodologies that ensure a hardware product can be mass-produced with high yields and assembled efficiently at the target cost.

Digital Product Passport (DPP) — Structured digital record of product identity, composition, and recycling info, introduced by the EU ESPR and required per product group.

Digital Twin — Real-time virtual replica of a physical device or system enabling simulation, monitoring, and predictive analytics.

DO-254 (RTCA DO-254 / EUROCAE ED-80) — International standard for design assurance of airborne electronic hardware including FPGAs and ASICs.

Edge AI (Artificial Intelligence at the Edge) — Processing AI algorithms locally on hardware devices for real-time inference without cloud dependency.

Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) is the ability of electronic equipment to function in its environment without emitting intolerable electromagnetic interference (EMI) to other devices while remaining immune to disturbances from its surroundings.

EN 18031 is a three-part 2024 series developed by CEN-CENELEC/JTC 13.

Harmonised standard for 2.4 GHz radio devices — Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, and spread-spectrum in the ISM band, cited under the Radio Equipment Directive.

EU harmonised standard for 5 GHz Wi-Fi devices — transmit power limits, DFS radar avoidance, and TPC requirements under the Radio Equipment Directive.

Foundational consumer IoT security standard — 13 provision groups on default passwords, software updates, vulnerability disclosure, and secure communications.

EU harmonised safety standard for AV and IT equipment under the Low Voltage Directive — replacing IEC 60950-1 and IEC 60065 with a hazard-based approach.

Standard for industrial automation cybersecurity (IACS) — defines security levels and OT requirements for industrial control systems and critical infrastructure.

ENISA — The EU Agency for Cybersecurity: it operates the CRA single reporting platform and supports certification schemes and policy.

EU-recognised body for harmonised telecoms standards — developing EN 300 328, EN 301 893 and EN 301 489 for RED CE marking, and the EN 303 645 IoT baseline.

EU AI Act — First comprehensive AI legal framework establishing risk-based rules for AI systems on the EU market, with edge AI hardware implications.

The EU Battery Regulation (2023/1542) establishes product and waste-battery requirements across the battery lifecycle, with category-specific obligations and phased application.

EU-established operator required by GPSR Article 16 — manufacturer, importer, mandated representative or fulfilment provider — responsible for defined tasks.

Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) — A reconfigurable semiconductor device that can be programmed after manufacturing for custom hardware logic.

GPSR (EU 2023/988) applies from 13 December 2024 to consumer products in the EU — for electronics, to risks sector law does not cover. It replaced the GPSD.

A Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) is a software subsystem that provides a standardized API to interact with underlying hardware, hiding device-specific registers so application code stays portable across different processor families.

A hardware root of trust anchors selected security functions in hardware-backed mechanisms whose integrity the system relies on.

Harmonised Standards are EU Official Journal-listed EN standards whose application gives a legal presumption of conformity with EU directive requirements.

Hardware Security Module (HSM) — Tamper-resistant device for cryptographic key management, digital signing, and encryption in secure environments.

Internet of Things (IoT) — Network of sensor-equipped devices exchanging data to enable intelligent automation and real-time monitoring.

JTAG and SWD are the primary hardware debug interfaces used by embedded engineers for boundary-scan testing, internal silicon debugging, and direct memory access to a processor's core, registers, and flash.

LoRaWAN — Low-power, long-range wireless protocol enabling IoT sensor networks spanning 5-15 km with multi-year battery life.

The Low Voltage Directive (LVD), Directive 2014/35/EU, is the EU regulatory framework ensuring that electrical equipment rated 50–1000 V AC or 75–1500 V DC provides a high level of safety before it can be CE marked and sold in the EEA.

Machinery Regulation 2023/1230 entered into force on 19 July 2023 and its main requirements apply from 20 January 2027, following the corrigendum.

EU system where national authorities verify CE marking compliance of products on the market via random testing, technical file reviews, and enforcement actions.

National authority investigation into CE-marked product compliance — covering technical file review, product testing, and enforcement including market withdrawal.

Matter — Universal smart home connectivity standard (CSA) enabling interoperability across Apple, Google, Amazon over Thread and Wi-Fi.

MCU vs. MPU vs. Crossover — the core embedded-architecture choice between Microcontroller Units (deterministic, on-chip memory, bare-metal/RTOS), Microprocessor Units (high-throughput, external RAM, MMU-based Linux), and Crossover processors that pair near-GHz speed with MCU-style real-time determinism.

MCUboot — Open-source secure bootloader for 32-bit MCUs with verified boot, encrypted OTA updates, and rollback protection.

The Medical Device Regulation (EU) 2017/745 applies according to a device's intended medical purpose and classification.

MISRA C — Coding guidelines for safe, reliable C software in embedded and safety-critical systems. 2023 edition supports C11/C18.

Module A is internal production control: the manufacturer assesses conformity under a legal route that permits it, without a notified body in that procedure.

NIS2 Directive (EU 2022/2555) — EU cybersecurity directive imposing strict security obligations on essential and important entities across 18 sectors.

EU cybersecurity law for essential and important entities across 18 sectors — imposing risk management, staged incident reporting from a 24-hour early warning, and management-body liability.

A Notified Body is a conformity assessment body notified by a Member State to the Commission — required where the law prescribes third-party assessment.

A Neural Processing Unit (NPU) is a specialized hardware accelerator built to run the massively parallel Multiply-Accumulate (MAC) operations of neural networks, enabling fast, energy-efficient AI inference at the edge.

EU publication where legislation acquires legal force — definitive source for harmonised standards conferring presumption of conformity with EU directives.

An over-the-air (OTA) update delivers software or firmware over a wireless connection.

PCB Design — Engineering discipline of designing multi-layer circuit boards interconnecting electronic components in hardware products.

Post-market Surveillance is mandatory EU monitoring after product launch — CRA adds vulnerability handling for the support period and SBOM requirements.

Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) — Next-gen cryptographic algorithms resistant to quantum computer attacks, essential for long-lived embedded systems.

A RAG Report classifies each applicable EU requirement as Green (met), Amber (at risk) or Red (non-compliant) — a common format for compliance gap analyses.

The Radio Equipment Directive (2014/53/EU, RED) governs radio equipment within its scope, including essential requirements, assessment, declarations and CE marking.

Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/30 activates RED cybersecurity requirements for specified categories of radio equipment.

RISC-V — An open-standard instruction set architecture (ISA) enabling royalty-free, customisable processor design and a key strategic technology for European semiconductor sovereignty.

RoHS restricts specific hazardous materials in electronic products, while REACH governs the registration, evaluation, authorisation, and restriction of chemical substances across all goods placed on the EU market.

Register-Transfer Level (RTL) Design — Hardware abstraction layer describing digital logic as data flow between registers and operations.

RTOS (Real-Time Operating System) — Specialized OS guaranteeing deterministic task execution within strict timing constraints for embedded devices.

EU rapid alert system for dangerous non-food products — EU and EEA authorities exchange alerts on measures taken and follow up in their own markets.

Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) — Machine-readable inventory of all software components and dependencies, required by the EU CRA for vulnerability tracking.

Secure boot authenticates boot software before allowing it to execute.

Secure Element (SE) — Tamper-resistant microchip providing hardware-level protection for cryptographic keys and device identity in IoT systems.

Manufacturer-led conformity assessment for CE marking, available only where the applicable EU product legislation permits assessment without a notified body.

Sensor Fusion is the algorithmic process of combining data from multiple distinct sensors to compute a unified output that is more accurate and stable than any single sensor could provide on its own.

SIL (Safety Integrity Level, from IEC 61508) and ASIL (Automotive Safety Integrity Level, from ISO 26262) are risk classification schemes that define how much engineering rigor a hardware or software function needs based on the harm its failure could cause.

System on Chip (SoC) — An integrated circuit that integrates all components of a computer or electronic system into a single chip.

Technical documentation is the evidence supporting product conformity; its contents, retention and assessment requirements depend on the applicable legislation.

TinyML — ML inference on microcontrollers consuming milliwatts, enabling on-device AI for anomaly detection and predictive maintenance.

V-Model — Systems engineering methodology pairing each development phase with a verification phase for safety-critical hardware validation.

VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) — The industry-standard language for designing and modeling digital circuits used in FPGA and ASIC development.

The WEEE Directive (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, Directive 2012/19/EU) governs how electronics are treated at end-of-life, making producers responsible for the financing, collection and recycling of their products.

Zephyr RTOS — Modular open-source RTOS from the Linux Foundation supporting 1,000+ boards with BLE/Thread/LoRaWAN and MCUboot secure boot.