10 Embedded Design Trends

Bluetooth, FreeRTOS, and multiprocressing are all on the rise in embedded systems, according to latest annual survey, released in at EE times!  FPGAs, 8-bit microcontrollers, and in-house custom operating systems are on the decline.

The following pages give a few snapshots of those and other top 10 trends in embedded systems designs.

The annual study takes a broad look at market and tech trends in embedded systems design. A total of 2,258 engineers responded to the latest survey, conducted online Jan. 18 to Feb. 21, giving a 2% confidence level for most questions.

Most respondents (55%) were from North America, with 22% in Europe and 14% in Asia. They came from a wide range of sectors including industrial (33%), consumer electronics (24%), communications (22%), automotive (18%), and medical (18%), among many others.

 

WiFi rules, but here comes Bluetooth

WiFi is twice as popular as the second most used wireless transport. But Bluetooth is catching up fast, particularly the 4.0/LE/Smart version. Surprisingly, cellular seems to be declining. Meanwhile, proprietary interfaces are declining, and 6WLoPan is not gaining traction yet.

 

 

Open-source takes over

For the first time in the survey's history, open-source operating systems outpaced commercial OSs. Use of open-source code now runs in 36% of systems, compared to 33% for commercial OSs.

 

 

Android, FreeRTOS lead the way

Asked to select all the open-source OSs they use, engineers said Android and FreeRTOS are their top choices. They are poised to exceed the in-house/custom OSs that have dominated use for years but have been in decline.

 

 

Show me the source

The most important factor in choosing an OS is availability of full source-code. According to our survey, engineers really want to fiddle with the bits. Of course, some tech support and no royalties are cool, too.

 

 

Multiprocessing goes mainstream

For the first time, half of survey respondents said they use more than one microprocessor in their current designs. In fact, the average number of micros is 2.4.

 

 

32-bit in, 8-bit out

Surveys have shown a slow but steady decline in use of 8-bit microcontrollers and a similar rise in 32-bits. The trend continues in 2014 when we asked about what MCU is used in your current design.

 

 

FPGAs trending down

FPGA use is trending steadily down from 45% six years ago (not shown) to 31% last year, rising very slightly this year to 32%. Stay tuned to see whether we have we hit the bottom or the decline continues.

 

 

Virtual doldrums in embedded

We started asking about use of virtualization in 2013 and found out it is pretty low among embedded systems designers. It dipped slightly in the latest designs, but we expect it eventually will gain traction

 

 

 

IoT on the map

Industrial controls has been the leading application among respondents for many years. This year the Internet of Things made a first, strong appearance on the list. Communications and computers are both trending down. Consumer electronics, automotive, medical, and electronic instruments all trend up.

 

 

Skeds are slipping

As we reported in March at EE Live!, respondents said their embedded design teams are getting a little smaller and slipping schedules more often. In 2014, 41% of all projects finished on schedule or ahead of schedule, and 59% finished late or were canceled.

LISA LIU
lisa@jaapson-pcb.com
www.jaapsonpcb.com
skype: jaapsoncircuits
Jaapson, HDI multi-layer PCB manufacturing for 10 years