Many Bay Area companies and startups are at some point approached with attractive proposals for a joint venture. These typically come from foreign companies, and they frequently have disastrous results. This talk will cover the risks of joint ventures, list some of the danger flags, suggest practical ways to minimize the risks, and offer suggestions regarding exclusive licensee risks. IEEE-CNSV will have a booth on the Exhibit Floor at this event, allowing CNSV members with a great vehicle for publicizing their skills as well as the merits of our organization. CNSV members also receive special pricing for this conference, and two CNSV members will be awarded full conference admission as well. Many aspects of this event that are free, so register now on the conference website. This presentation will describe uses of System-on-Chip (SoC) technology in a wide variety of applications, and will include a demonstration of SoC visual embedded design tools. It will also describe how Cypress Semiconductor helps skilled consultants find clients through its CYPros program. This talk will discuss the unique requirements for a real-time operating system running on a system on a chip. In particular, it will go over the options of writing your own RTOS, purchasing an off-the-shelf RTOS, and using a software synthesis tool to automatically generate an RTOS. IEEE-CNSV will be in the IEEE Media booth #1445 on the Exhibit Floor of the San Jose Convention Center during the Embedded Systems Conference. The dates are Tue.-Thu., 3-5 April. Please stop by and see us. The history of the use of embedded UNIX variants will be presented, as well as how these have led to the current wide-spread use of embedded Linux. Learn the practical benefits of using a blog for project communication and a wiki for project coordination and collaboration, and how to use these tools to land new projects and create deliverables, Kris Vossough will present a technical primer on Nano and Micro Technology. He will also discuss his experiences in growing an R&D consulting firm specializing in this fast-growing arena. CNSV member Mike Silverman will discuss the process of changing his business model from a one-person consultancy to a consulting group. The Silicon Valley Business Journal just named Mike's firm as the 9th fastest growing private company in the Bay Area. How can you get more potential clients to visit your website? Learn how from CNSV member Nancy Blachman, whose Google Guide website now gets over half of its visitors directly from Google searches.