1.What is aBSPEngineer?
BSP, short for Board Support Package, refers to the software that provides support for a specific hardware platform. A BSP engineer is a technical professional responsible for the development, debugging, and maintenance of the board support package, which is a subfield of embedded software engineering.So, what is a board support package? It is a layer between the mainboard hardware and the operating system that typically belongs to the operating system. Its main function is to support the operating system and provide a function package for the upper-level drivers to access hardware device registers, enabling better operation on the hardware mainboard.
1. Industry Driving Factors
² Internet of Things (IoT) and Edge Computing：Embedded systems are at the core of IoT devices. With the proliferation of 5G/6G and AIoT, fields such as smart homes, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and smart cities will require more BSP engineers for low-level driver development and hardware adaptation.
² Automotive Electronics and Autonomous Driving：New energy vehicles and autonomous driving technologies rely on high-performance ECUs (Electronic Control Units) and SoCs (such as Qualcomm and NXP chips). BSP engineers need to customize the operating systems (like QNX and Linux Auto) for these platforms.
² AI Hardware Acceleration：The integration of AI chips (such as NPUs and GPUs) requires BSP engineers to optimize the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) to ensure efficient operation of AI frameworks (TensorFlow Lite, ONNX).
² Rise of the RISC-V Ecosystem：The popularity of the open-source RISC-V architecture will create new BSP demands, requiring engineers to adapt RTOS or Linux to customized RISC-V chips.
2. Technical Skill Requirements
Core Competencies:
² Proficient inC/C++ and assembly language (ARM/RTOS scenarios).
² Familiar with Linux kernel driver development, Device Tree, and U-Boot porting.
² Knowledgeable in hardware debugging tools (JTAG, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers).
Bonus Skills:
² Experience with real-time operating systems (FreeRTOS, Zephyr, VxWorks).
² Low power optimization (for battery-operated devices) and security (Secure Boot, TrustZone).
² Understanding of heterogeneous computing (such as CPU+GPU+NPU collaborative scheduling).
3. Job Market Trends
Growing Job Areas:：
² Semi-conductor Companies (such as NVIDIA, TI, Renesas): require BSP teams to support reference designs for their chips.
² Consumer Electronics / Automotive Tier 1 (Huawei, DJI, Bosch): rapid hardware product iterations, stable BSP demand.
² Startups：Small companies in fields like AIoT and robotics tend to prefer full-stack embedded talent.
² Salary Competitiveness：According to 2023 data, the annual salary for mid-level BSP engineers in first-tier cities is around 250,000 to 500,000 RMB, while senior experts (such as Linux kernel contributors) can earn over 800,000 RMB, with potential further increases by 2026.
4. Skill Requirements
² To become a BSP engineer, one needs to master the following skills:
² Familiarity with computer principles, Linux operating systems, processor architectures, and other foundational knowledge.
² Proficiency in C language and some assembly language.
² Ability to read and understand hardware schematics, modifying reference code based on schematics.
² Familiarity with kernel porting, trimming, and other techniques.
² Mastery of common interface protocols, such asI2C, SPI, UART, USB, etc.
5. Potential Challenges
² Impact of Automation Tools:
Some low-level development may be assisted by AI code generation tools (like GitHub Copilot), but complex hardware adaptation still requires manual debugging.
² High Industry Barriers:
Requires knowledge of both hardware (circuit principles, timing analysis) and software (operating system principles), with talent supply growth potentially lagging behind demand.
² Fragmented Technology Stack:
Different manufacturers’ chips (such as STM32 vs. Allwinner) and RTOS version differences may lead to high skill transfer costs.
6.BSP Engineer Job Analysis
l No experience required:
Salary situation: average around 20k
Knowledge to learn: C language, Linux, FreeRTOS, ARM development, common interface protocols, etc.
l 1-3 years of experience
Salary situation: average around 25k
Knowledge to learn: Linux, Android system-related knowledge (the two found here are both Android-oriented, indicating that combining Linux and Android knowledge will increase competitiveness).
l 3-5 years of experience
Salary situation: average around 30k
Knowledge to learn: Linux, Android, ARM, SoC, FreeRTOS, etc. (the two found here are more chip-oriented; students interested in the BSP chip direction can follow this path to learn).
l 5-10 years of experience
Salary situation: average around 35k
Knowledge to learn: C/C++, ARM, Linux, CAN/USB and various interface protocols, RTOS, etc.
l 10+ years of experience
Salary situation: average around 40k
Knowledge to learn: C/C++, Linux, Android, ARM, WIFI module debugging, etc.
From this chart, it can be seen that there is still a high demand for positions with over 10 years of experience, and the offered salaries are quite attractive, so there is no need to worry too much about the so-called 35-year crisis.
7. Conclusion
Career Development Suggestions
² Vertical Deepening: Choose high-value areas (such as automotive functional safety ISO 26262, industrial-grade Linux Yocto projects).
² Horizontal Expansion: Learn FPGA collaborative design (Xilinx Vitis), wireless protocol stacks (BLE/Wi-Fi 6) to enhance system-level capabilities.
² Community Participation: Contributing to open-source projects (like Zephyr OS, Linux kernel drivers) can enhance competitiveness.
Overall
1. The BSP engineer position generally requires a bachelor’s degree or higher, so choosing this direction with only an associate degree is relatively risky.
2. Salary levels are also proportional to experience growth, with salaries during the no-experience period already being quite considerable.
3. To engage in this position, it is crucial to focus on Linux, C language, ARM, and RTOS. Students interested in specific subfields, such as Android, should study Android system knowledge; those interested in chip directions should focus on ARM chips and SoC module-level knowledge; and those interested in automotive directions should study automotive electronics.
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