2008 promises to be an interesting year. With the impending elections, we are being bombarded with presidential and other political campaigns leading up to November. The war on terror is continuing to fill the headlines. And the world is finally realizing that something must be done about global warming.

What is all this going to mean to the embedded computing industry? Will we see the market grow, remain steady, or experience a decline? I’ve got to believe that embedded computing will play a role in possible scenarios for every one of these situations.

The Internet has changed the way we learn about candidates and their political parties. It has made information sharing instantaneous, allowing all of us with Internet access to become deeply informed and able to share our opinions with the world. Polling sites are becoming more dependent on electronic voting machines full of interconnected embedded electronics that demand secure data management.

Electronics play a major role in the hands of our fighting forces. Weapons, surveillance, transportation, communications, and medical support all have very heavy elements of embedded computing technology. More is demanded everyday. Research spending remains strong. New programs that utilize electronics continue to emerge.

New market reports from Forrester Research indicate that a green consumer market is emerging, with 12 percent of consumers willing to pay more for consumer electronics that use less energy or come from environmentally conscious companies. I have discussed in the past (October 2007 Embedded Computing Design) the role that embedded computing technology has in making our world more energy efficient. Embedded computing is having a very visible impact, both positive and negative, on our environment.

Nearly every industry you can name is transitioning from analog[] to digital, from mechanical to electrical, and from isolated to connected. Pick your favorite industry and you will see examples of this transition everywhere. These transitions will continue to create huge markets for embedded computing despite the events I mentioned. In fact, these highly visible events will continue to accelerate the transition to computer-based intelligence and embedded computing.

Embedded Computing Design is in transition as well. Our focus is sharpening on embedded computing technologies in consumer electronics. Our coverage on hardware, software, and processes will dig deeper into electronic devices we encounter every day.

We are expanding coverage in the field of test technology with our new Unit Under Test department. Testing is an integral part of the design, manufacturing, and support of embedded computing platforms. Testing occurs at all phases of a product’s life cycle. It consists of hardware in the form of various test instruments and software written by system designers and in commercially available software packages. Test automation and test tools are very hot topics as today’s designers try to improve their efficiency and quality of work. We have some interesting coverage lined up on these hot topics that should be of interest to designers and design team management.

We are incorporating additional columns that promise to provide more information to help you make strategic decisions related to embedded computing. Ingenuity @ Work features companies aiming to solve challenging industry problems. Consortia Perspective gives us a chance to hear from the organizations shaping the embedded computing industry’s technology standards and markets. And Market Highlights analyzes trends and issues facing a variety of market segments dependent on embedded computing technology.

Some of the hot topics on our calendar for 2008 include:

• Application-specific Systems-on-Chip (SoCs)
• Design for Energy Efficiency (DfEE)
• Electronic Design Automation (EDA[])
• Intellectual Property (IP)
• Multicore[]/Many-core processors
• Multimedia chipsets and software
• Security in embedded
• Virtual development tools
• Virtualization[]: Operating Systems and I/O

Embedded computing has become a major focus for many electronics suppliers, large and small. It is the place to be in 2008.Feel free to share your comments through e-mail or visit our blog (www.embedded-computing.com) to add your comments.