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I recently attended the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) in Boston. It was nice to see ESC back on the East Coast after a hiatus of several years. The landscape of embedded systems has changed considerably over the last few years, at least from the perspective of this current ESC East, and my last experience of the conference a few years ago. Clearly, the focus was on IoT and more specifically, on the IIoT and manufacturing. This is not say that embedded systems are not a part of all industries and many consumer devices. Embedded systems have become an integral part of daily life. Be it a cell phone, a smartcard, a music player, a router, or the electronics in an automobile - these systems have been touching and changing modern lives like never before. An embedded system is a combination of computer hardware, software, and additional mechanical or other technical components, designed to perform a dedicated function. Most of the embedded systems need to meet real-time computing requirements. This capability has made embedded systems an integral component of industrial controls and automation for decades.
Clearly, the embedded systems sector involves a lot of areas, as portrayed by this graphic. However, what was equally clear was that the intelligence component of the IoT/IIoT is going to be enabled by a new generation of embedded systems focused on connecting every aspect of the IoT ecosystem on the edge (devices, sensors, machines, industrial controls, equipment, etc.), and provide access to a continuous stream of data/information with intelligent and actionable information.
In speaking with exhibitors and companies in attendance at the ESC, there appeared to be consensus that IoT and the entire notion of smart connected ecosystems was going to drive an industry revival for embedded systems. Moreover, in established areas like industrial controls and automation in factories and production systems, the trend toward IIoT and the extension of the smart connected factory into extended supply chains would mean the need for more embedded intelligence.
But the one area that embedded systems developers and suppliers saw immediate promise was in the area of predictive/prescriptive analytics. Embedded intelligence in the device, machine, or equipment would provide data that is more aggregated, organized, and can be more readily useable to analytics engines and algorithms. Moreover, as intelligence at the edge steadily increases with smarter embedded systems, analytics can be performed at the edge, rather than streamed real-time to off-line analytics applications. Embedded intelligence at the source will become the norm.
Machine to machine (M2M) communication, through both wired and wireless mechanisms is on the rise. While the technology for remote connectivity has been in use for a long time, what is changing now is the business scenario and newer use cases that remote connectivity can be and is being applied to. This is mostly being triggered by the widespread adoption and proliferation of mobile-based communications. The smart connected factory of the future as envisioned by IIoT and Industry 4.0 will be enabled by smart connected ecosystems of products: sensors, wireless devices, and all manner of intelligent interfaces. Embedded systems, the intelligence component in these connected ecosystems, will be critical to this vision.
Clearly, the embedded systems sector involves a lot of areas, as portrayed by this graphic. However, what was equally clear was that the intelligence component of the IoT/IIoT is going to be enabled by a new generation of embedded systems focused on connecting every aspect of the IoT ecosystem on the edge (devices, sensors, machines, industrial controls, equipment, etc.), and provide access to a continuous stream of data/information with intelligent and actionable information.
In speaking with exhibitors and companies in attendance at the ESC, there appeared to be consensus that IoT and the entire notion of smart connected ecosystems was going to drive an industry revival for embedded systems. Moreover, in established areas like industrial controls and automation in factories and production systems, the trend toward IIoT and the extension of the smart connected factory into extended supply chains would mean the need for more embedded intelligence.
But the one area that embedded systems developers and suppliers saw immediate promise was in the area of predictive/prescriptive analytics. Embedded intelligence in the device, machine, or equipment would provide data that is more aggregated, organized, and can be more readily useable to analytics engines and algorithms. Moreover, as intelligence at the edge steadily increases with smarter embedded systems, analytics can be performed at the edge, rather than streamed real-time to off-line analytics applications. Embedded intelligence at the source will become the norm.