Overview
A schematic is the source of truth for what's on your board. Firmware that doesn't match it is firmware that doesn't boot. Schematic Ingestion is one of the evidence sources Embedder uses to anchor reasoning to your real hardware — alongside datasheets, reference manuals, errata, SVD device files, build output, and live signals from the board itself.
What this white paper covers
- The cost of schematic drift — why firmware and hardware lose sync.
- Where schematic data fits — one signal inside Embedder's evidence layer.
- What the agent does with it — pin checks, init generation, design-rule validation.
- Diffing across revisions.
- Getting started.
The drift problem
Hardware moves. A net gets re-routed, a pull-up changes, a footprint gets swapped. The schematic gets updated, the firmware doesn't. A week later someone wonders why GPIO 17 is floating. On most teams the only defense is institutional memory and PDF markups. Schematic ingestion makes the schematic queryable, so the mismatch between what's on the board and what the firmware assumes becomes a runtime question instead of a guess.
One signal in the evidence layer
Embedder is a verification platform, not a wrapper around a model. The differentiation is the evidence layer the agent reasons over:
- Reference manuals, datasheets, and errata — register definitions, electrical limits, timing.
- Schematics — components, nets, pin assignments, pull-ups, power topology.
- SVD device files — authoritative memory map and register layout.
- Codebase — existing drivers, HAL, project conventions, the call graph.
- Build output — compiler warnings, linker maps, generated artifacts.
- Live hardware — serial output, GDB state, logic analyzer captures, power traces.
The schematic graph is most useful when joined with the rest. “Is this GPIO actually wired to UART2's alternate function?” is a join across the schematic and the datasheet. “Why is this driver hanging?” is a join across the codebase, the schematic, and the live serial output.
Supported EDA tools
Embedder ingests schematics from the EDA suites your hardware team already uses. Altium and KiCad ship on the Professional plan; Eagle, PADS, and Xpedition are available on the Enterprise plan.
What the agent does with it
- Pin checks — does the GPIO your driver assumes match the schematic?
- Init generation — peripheral setup that respects pull-ups, alternate functions, and conflicts on the actual board.
- Bus topology reasoning — who's on this I²C bus, at what address, with what pull-up.
- Power-tree awareness — what rail supplies this chip, what enables it, when it's safe to talk to.
- Connector and external IO — what's exposed and how firmware should treat it.
Diffing revisions
Rev A to Rev B comparisons are usually a manual stare-at-two-PDFs exercise. With ingestion, the agent surfaces a structural diff: nets added or removed, pins reassigned, parts swapped, values changed. Your firmware team gets a list of what they actually need to touch.
Who it's for
- Firmware teams on hardware that moves fast — multiple board spins per quarter.
- Programs with strict traceability — when firmware decisions need to trace to a specific net on a specific revision.
- Teams maintaining multiple board variants — same firmware, slightly different schematics.
Getting started
Send us a schematic and a board. We'll show you how the graph joins with Datasheet Intelligence and Hardware Interaction against one of your real designs. Talk to an engineer.