By now, you might have seen the November 2008 issue of Embedded Computing Design, and inside it a special feature highlighting some of the Editor’s Choice products selected in our publications during 2008. This feature is worth reading in detail to see more about why these products are important.

Each of the 17 products highlighted in this feature was shown with our original editor’s choice text from the publication, coupled with new commentary from the vendors on why these products exist - what trends they are seeing, why new technology is needed, and how customers view these new offerings. When the choices are strung together, a few interesting things emerge.

When I read through their comments, I see these common themes.

• Defense applications are looking for more density - more channels, more bandwidth, more ports - in the same space, but not giving up the ruggedness of the design.
• Applications delivering information in many verticals are looking to move processing closer to the edge, untether themselves from bigger systems, and create simpler ways to interface with the people using them.
• Many embedded applications are looking for more robustness, like multicore processing and Adobe Flash interfaces, without getting overly complex. And the need to test and validate increasingly complex systems quickly and easily is growing.
• Mobile applications in particular are drawing creative solutions for power, both in how to consume less during operation and how to manage it better including during and after a disruption.

And, perhaps most obviously, I see how embedded computing continues to impact more and more aspects of our lives, and how almost everything we touch has some type of embedded computer inside. But that trend isn’t news to our readers.

Congrats to all the 2008 Editor’s Choice recipients, especially these 17 who shared their thoughts with us. I think I speak for the entire staff here in saying it’s fun to look through the interesting developments that cross our desks. We look forward to helping you sort through all that and being your source of information for all things embedded in 2009 and beyond.