Software for Embedded Systems: Opportunities and Challenges

One of the most pervasive applications of computing is information processing tightly integrated with physical processes. Embedded information processing rapidly takes over the role of being a universal integrator for physical systems. This trend is based on a fundamental technical reason: information processing is uniquely suitable for controlling and implementing complex interactions among physical system components. From the point of view of the surrounding physical processes, an embedded information system is "just another physical process" with physical characteristics such as dynamics, noise, fault behavior, reliability, size, power, etc. The embedded software provides the method for customizing a "programmable physical device" so as to satisfy the required physical characteristics. The talk will address the primary challenges facing designers of embedded software and systems: (1) the lack of composability for physical characteristics, (2) the difficulty of adapting embedded software to changes in the physical environments and (3) the lack of technology for designing networked embedded system applications with rapidly changing structure.