And while the materials that our processing engines are built on have continued to evolve, what made a great difference is that prior to rules-based programming, we offered configurable programmable functionality in RTL that could be implemented as hardware or rules on the processing engines.

Today's rules-based systems are vital for complex interoperable environments where people can't begin to contemplate and define all of the behaviors needed. With such a high abstraction layer, people don't know or care what is going on underneath. Today's systems go a long way toward controlling themselves.

The systems' IP vendor provides the flexible high-performance, low-power engine that enables the vast amount of computation in today's systems. The challenge is making all of the technology affordable and accessible enough so that the world's eight billion residents can take advantage of it in the next generation of embedded devices-devices to which they can teach/suggest rules, and that are incorporated into our daily lives. Who knows what is still to come?

John Derrick is chief operating officer of MIPS Technologies, with responsibility for both the Analog and Processor Business Groups. He joined the company in January 2008 as president and general manager of the company's Processor Business Group.