When it comes to choosing a microprocessor, Figure 10 shows that the hardware team has the most influence, but the software staff get their two cents in as well. But, oddly enough, teams that make a group decision are in decline by about 10%. Comparing these results to those of another question (not shown here, "Who has the most influence on the choice of operating system"), it appears that software developers have more say in the hardware than hardware developers do in the software. Go figure.

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Outsourcing
Then there's the dreaded "O" word--outsourcing. In lots of circles, this is a dirty word, because it's often closely related to laying people off and having someone in another part of the world do the same job for less money, oftentimes a lot less money. Whether that's true or not is certainly debatable, and we've run our share of articles on this topic in the past.

You'll see in Figure 11 that the number of project outsourced both inside and outside the U.S. is growing. But note that while more projects are going outside the U.S., the differential between those staying and those going is much smaller. The reason behind that is because the actual cost of development in countries like India, for example, is increasing.

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Another response that I have a tough time justifying is that developers this year consider the "chip itself" to be more important than the ecosystem surrounding the chip (such as software, tools, and support). I constantly harp on the processor vendors how important it is to have their ecosystem in place, and that's the only real road to success. System developers seem to think otherwise.

The number of developers that don't use programmable logic in their designs stands at 52%, a relatively (and surprisingly) high number. When we asked them why, the top answers were that programmable logic is too expensive, consumes too much power, and is too hard to use. The vendors I spoke to all refuted these claims, but it appears that that message is not getting out.

Finally, it looks as if a response I was surprised by last year was not a fluke--there's no loyalty toward analog vendors. In fact, there's even less loyalty this year than last. The number of developers who will employ whatever brand meets their requirements rose from 37% to 39%. The number that has no preconceptions about the brands and will consider them all rose from 26% to 31%. And the number that will always use the same trusted brand fell from 12% to 10%. Ouch.

Richard Nass is editor in chief of Embedded Systems Design magazine and editorial director of TechInsights' Embedded Group. He can be reached at rnass@techinsights.com.