DEVICES TODAY, whether they be automobile brakes or washing machines or audio systems or mobile phones, are becoming increasingly "intelligent'' and autonomous. As a simple example, your automatic clothes washer will set and control the entire wash cycle and attendant parameters (water temperature, detergent feed, spin rate and timings) and even talk to you, based on the nature of the clothes (cotton or silk or polyester and the like) indicated by you through a setting switch

The intelligence of these devices resides in what are called embedded systems — combinations of hardware and software mounted on compact electronic circuit boards integrated into the devices. Since it has to deal with a dedicated purpose and the memory space is limited, the software in an embedded system is usually small — around 20 to 200 KB in size. There are, of course, exceptions, where the application is complex and the embedded software can go up to even 0.5 MB in size.

The availability of smaller, more powerful hardware such as system-on-chip and DSPs (digital signal processors), low cost, denser memory as well as the trend towards enhanced functionality and networking capability in devices is increasing the complexity and size of embedded software. The scope of embedded has now gone far beyond the traditional real time operating systems.

BANGALORE, INDIA: In 1976, the basic building block of an embedded system was a microcontroller such as the 8748. Today's embedded systems need high performance and developers are increasingly leaning towards multi-core embedded processors in their systems design. Similarly, a range of new applications demand low thermals in a small form factor setting.

In the past, chip manufacturers released faster single-core processors to meet increasing performance requirements. Recently, semiconductor manufacturers have recognized that the way forward is to build processors that run at somewhat lower frequencies and voltages, but to integrate two or more of these processing cores on a single chip. The overall performance increases because multiple processing cores (aka multicore) can perform two or more tasks at once.

Digital security and surveillance is one of the hottest new applications in the embedded arena benefiting from the multicore phenomena. Old surveillance systems requiring human monitoring are rapidly being replaced by sophisticated intelligent platforms. The latest security and surveillance solutions need to be able to capture and process security video in real time. For example, a surveillance system in an airport needs to be able to monitor unexpected human behavior or recognize unattended baggage and send information to security. All this requires heavy computational algorithms and compression technology. Dual and multi-core processors such as Intel Core2Duo family of products are often the foundation of such platforms.

A growing market segment in India is medical imaging. Developers in India are working on the latest ultrasound, MRI and diagnostic devices for both local and overseas markets. These devices require speed, high resolution imagery, reconstruction capability and high bandwidth. Reconstruction algorithms especially require a tremendous amount of processing power and dual-core embedded processors are widely adopted in this segment.

Another growing trend in embedded is the move to small form-factor designs. In-vehicle infotainment is a growing market in this arena. Digital content and services have extended to the car in the form of GPS navigation systems, location based services, digital radio, DVD video and MP3-based entertainment systems.

Today, automobile manufacturers want to deploy multi-media rich "Vehicle Infotainment" solution, factory-fitted and embedded in the dashboard as a standard feature. While luxury automakers have offered these platform capabilities in the past, consumers today desire these features in mid-range and even entry price cars.

The latest generation of in-vehicle infotainment systems fitted into the car dashboard serve as the central network hub to enable and control the vast array of on-board digital entertainment and productivity tools in the car. Developers look at the Intel Atom processor family for their new in-vehicle infotainment designs.