Picking the right development tools is more than just matching the software to the processor. It means considering tool user expertise, experience and education as well as the kind of CPU environment, security, performance and degree of connectivity involved.

If you were stranded on a desert island and could only choose one, would you stick with (a) your current microprocessor; (b) your current operating system, or (c) your current development tools? Jim Turley knows the answer.

As the magazine that catered to embedded systems programmers closes, the future lies in less hands-on programming and more auto-generated code.

What is your favorite tool for embedded systems design?

Jack Ganssle's guide to doing software development in a disciplined way to reduce both errors and the time it takes to complete a project. Part 1: Any idiot can write code.

Although over two thirds of embedded systems developers are programming 32- and 64-bit processors, C is surprisingly still more commonly used than C++.

The emergence of cloud-mediated embedded applications that require the management of data flows between devices and enterprise servers means traditional assumptions that have shaped our thinking about software development have to change.

Niall Murphy provides some guidelines for the embedded developers who are transition from a job in which they worked alone to one in which he or she is a part of a larger software development team: what works and what doesn't. What's the same and what's different.

It's not a given that the quality of software will always be poor. The essential complexity of software is not some immutable universal law. Writing from inside the development trenches, this author redefines the problem and points to other industries that can offer solutions.

Automate everything. Especially brain-dead stuff – like standards checks.

In a three part series, Achim Nohl describes using the Synopsys Virtualizer Development Kit (VDK) to do early hardware/software co-development of handset hardware running the Android software platform.

This series of articles analyzes the benefits of virtual prototyping in embedded systems design with a particular focus on its usefulness after physical prototype is available for software, systems, and verification engineers. Part 1: The use cases for virtual prototyping.