It is commonplace that not only the
embedded industry is subject to con-
tinuous change but the whole life
itself. But the change in the embedded
industry took place very fast. Let´s
have a look back in history! Do you
remember the first computers in the
1970? Huge rack systems with only
a little computing power compared
to mobile handsets nowadays. In the
1980s and 1990s the advent of the
Personal Computer took place and
these PCs became portable due to
the ongoing miniaturisation mani-
fested in Moore´s Law. But all these computer systems were more or
less stand-alone because computer networks were used only in very
special applications but not in general and the Internet was only in
its beginning for universal use. Around the year 2000 the increased
general application of the Internet and the Smartphones started. This
meant that the embedded industry needed server computing power
on one hand and also high performance computing power for the
mobile Smartphones. The merger of IT and embedded technologies
began. And in any of these stages of development different comput-
ing devices were needed - microprocessors and -controllers, DSPs,
computer architectures, housings, and entire embedded systems –
just to name a few.
And the development is going on. Today the Internet starts to free
itself from human interaction and work independently. This again
requires of course new computing devices to succeed in the new area
of the Internet of Things. An area in which anonymous Cloud com-
puters and fog servers as well as various networking technologies
the plethora of “things” interconnect and enable the data exchange
between all of these devices. This issue proves that the future has just
begun. Our cover story starting at page 6 introduces highly dense
motherboard series with integrated system on a chip which provide
scale and flexibility across low power and high performance for the
edge. It enables the suited computational workloads for data analysis
that span across storage, communication, and security systems. An
interesting inside in the future of next generation COMs gives the
interview starting at page 10. It also shows that standard bodies are
still playing a major roll in this future.
Will IoT create a beautiful new world in general? There are some
important preconditions to ensure the safe and secure operation of
the IoT. It is clear that the interconnected components whether they
are small devices like Smartphones or huge industrial plants have
to work 24/7 without any interruption. Many hard and software
companies work hard to ensure this safe operation. But I believe
more important is security because due to the fact that many of the
IoT connections are wireless they are prone to unauthorized access.
Also in security many companies are involved to reach the goal of
a secure IoT. But it shows also that not a single company can solve
the problems – there must be cooperation between players in the
embedded industry. We are just at the beginning of this new area
and future must tell whether IoT will be more curse or blessing.
Let´s hope blessing will prevail.
Yours Sincerely
Wolfgang Patelay
Editor
September 2016
3
V
iewpoint
Dear Readers,
