Author: Jack Ganssle for Embedded.com
“In 2008, embedded systems engineers still struggled with development issues. Welcome to the year 2028–life isn’t perfect, but it’s better.
Welcome to the 40th anniversary issue of Embedded Systems Design “magazine.” That last word is an anachronism only oldsters recognize. For three decades ESD produced a magazine, which, in its early years, was printed on “paper” (organic material formed into flat sheets that could be marked with symbols) and was actually moved physically from manufacturing facilities to engineers’ desks. At one point the “postal system” used over a quarter million vehicles to move materials, mostly junk mail, to peoples’ homes and offices.”
In ESD’s founding year of 1988, embedded technology was dominated by slow 8- and 16-bit CPUs; the highest-performance processors available used 1,500-nm technology and could not top 33 MHz. Those numbers were laughable by ESD’s 20th anniversary and are just the stuff of dim history today. Also history: even in 2008, most embedded systems were designed as a collection of separate integrated circuits connected by tracks on a printed-circuit board.
