Out Of Hiding At Last

You may, from time to time, have found yourself at a family gathering trying to explain embedded systems to a shirttail cousin. You may have even tried to explain them to your mother. Those days of embedded ignorance may be about to end: embedded systems could be reaching the consciousness of mainstream America. As evidence, take a look at David Kline's article on embedded systems called "The Embedded Internet" published last October in Wired magazine. Those of you who misplaced or failed to purchase that issue can find the article at
http://www.hotwired.com/wired/4.10/es_embedded.html.
Long the hidden computers, embedded systems have been outed.

A lot of you probably toiled for years developing software for embedded systems without ever having heard the term yourselves. Nowadays it's hard to avoid it. It seems as if every electronics trade magazine-and some software magazines as well-are covering embedded systems development. Trade shows are capitalizing on the newfound popularity too. The reason for all this interest is not hard to discover: as somebody once said about seeking out iniquity, "Just follow the money." The embedded market is huge. Kline discloses that "Ninety percent of the world's microprocessors are used not in PCs, but are hidden inside common household or electronics products." And while embedded processors don't command the high prices of Pentiums, their sheer volume, plus all the specialized development tools you need, makes them big business.

Now that embedded systems are basking in their 15 minutes of fame, do you care? Of course it doesn't hurt to see a little mainstream publicity that doesn't focus on software bugs in airport baggage-handling systems. But beyond that perk, the folderol just highlights the phenomenal growth this market has seen over the past few years. (How many embedded systems do you have in your home? How many did you have 10 years ago? Twenty years ago?) More importantly, Kline points out that we are entering an age of networked appliances. Last month I railed against Web TV-not because it's an intrinsically bad idea, but because slow access times are liable to alienate the potential buyers. The infrastructure needs some buttressing first. When high-speed Internet connections are ubiquitous, the Net will encroach on everyone's life. Kline paints a glorious picture of universal connectivity. In a fit of hyperbole, he writes, "Here, at last, is an Internet finally set free from its PC-centric straitjacket-a cyberspace transformed from just another platform into an omnipresent glue that binds the whole of society, with all its trillions of daily social and economic interactions, into a truly connected civilization.

The fact that we talk about embedded systems and consumer magazines publish articles about them is itself proof that the mainstreaming of embedded systems is still a fait that has not yet been accompli'd, as Kline acknowledges. We'll stop talking about that train when it rolls into the station. For example, electric motors, once a technological marvel on which everyone focused, are rarely mentioned anymore, even though we probably own more of them than microcontrollers.

If embedded systems have not yet reached everyone's consciousness, the Wired article will at least help assure that you don't have to explain what you do to people who don't know an RTOS from a handsaw. Once everyone is finally familiar with them, they'll really disappear.