As a natural outgrowth of the trend for more and more software content in products, software often leads the decision on which hardware to choose for an embedded applications design. For projects tightly coded in a small microcontroller, designers may be able forgo an Operating System (OS) altogether. But for most projects, an off-the-shelf OS offers benefits, most of which become stronger the larger the project gets. The right choice of an OS can make or break a project.