Cutting Edge Software for Embedded Systems

An embedded system is a special purpose computer system designed to perform one or a few dedicated tasks rather than be a general-purpose computer for multiple tasks. It is generally embedded as part of a device.

Embedded systems are becoming more and more important in today’s world as they control almost all of the communication, computing, display and any other electronic device that we can think of. Embedded systems span across all aspects of modern life whether it be education, entertainment, communication or science. Embedded systems are dedicated to specific tasks, so embedded design engineers need to optimize it, reducing the size and cost of the product, and increasing the reliability and performance.

Embedded systems range from portable devices such as digital watches and music players, to large devices and machineries like factory controllers and giant display boards that we see on airports.

Most of the consumer electronic items like personal digital assistants (PDAs), music players, mobile phones, gaming consoles, digital cameras, and DVD players use embedded systems. Many household appliances, such as microwave ovens, washing machines and dishwashers, too include embedded systems to provide efficiency and ease of use.

Embedded systems range from no user interface at all — dedicated only to one task — to full user interfaces similar to desktop operating systems in devices such as PDAs and mobile phones. If you have used any of the modern electronic devices then you must be familiar with the rich graphic displays that guide you or let you choose various options to control the operation of the device. The rich graphic display that you see is known as the Graphical User Interface or GUI of the device. The ease of use of a device depends on how good the interface is.

Designing a user friendly and enticing graphical interface is a difficult task knowing the implicit complexities associated with embedded application development. Because of this complexity in designing the user interface of the embedded devices, embedded application designers and developers feel the need of software for embedded systems that let them build rich interfaces quickly.

EmPresent is Portable GUI software which helps develop powerful GUI applications which can be ported virtually across all embedded development platforms. EmPresent’s embedded software solutions make your embedded environment more simple and easy to use.

Mike Nicholson