Special issue: Real-Time and Embedded Computing Systems

Because of the technology convergence in computer, consumer electronics, and communication fields in the last decade, embedded computing has rapidly emerged as an important computing discipline. Currently, demands from a variety of embedded systems applications are continuously increasing and the interest in embedded computing technologies is growing very rapidly all over the world. Thus, embedded computing deserves separate and dedicated journals that can accommodate the many original technological contributions in this area. Embedded computing differs from general purpose computing in the sense that embedded systems possess unique constraints for hardware resources, electronic power consumption, and communication bandwidth that are not frequently found in general purpose computing. In spite of these constraints, their usage is extremely diversified ranging from small personal handheld devices to complex smart vehicles. Thus, embedded systems design often leads to complicated design analysis and optimization, and costly implementation tuning. This in turn poses a great deal of challenges to embedded system theory and practice. This inaugural special issue of the Journal of Embedded Computing was prompted by the importance of real-time and embedded systems design technologies. Eight outstanding papers were selected from the ninth International Conference on Real-Time and Embedded Computing Systems and Applications (RTCSA 2003) held in February, 2003 and one paper was invited. The papers in this issue cover a variety of subjects addressing different aspects of embedded computing. They can be categorized as follows. – Embedded software design methodologies and formal analysis – Schedulability-aware embedded system design – Low power and constraint-based system design – Ubiquitous computing – Embedded operating system architecture