what is "embedded development" in 2015? (was: poking around for opportunities)

[roger.levasseur at comcast.net]

> From: "Joshua Judson Rosen" <rozzin at hackerposse.com>
> 
> There _is_ something somewhat distinct that we can talk about as "deep 
> embedded" or "bare metal" programming, which is what's not Linux.
> When I look at that, the big difference that I see is how much code you 
> need to write and maintain yourself because you the (lack of) platform
> means that you don't have a big set of libraries available to you
> like you would on Linux.

Ah, an application that also serves as it's own operating system.
A running task would switch over to another task at specific control
points; no preemption a la Unix or Linux. It's what you did when you
had limited RAM, ROM and/or flash storage space.  I recall that there
were development packages available to use as a foundation upon which
to build your application.

But to get deeper, I think it comes down to describing what these
embedded uses are.  Things like the control panel on a microwave
oven, or fed with sensor inputs, engine controllers, anti lock brakes,
etc.  Those embedded uses are very very specific and dedicated.

Who remembers the Z80 from back in the heyday of early PCs?
[raises my hand]
Would it suprise you if I said that my 486 computer back in the 90s
had a Z80 in it?
Yup.
It was embedded in the Adaptec 1542C SCSI controller.  

For a time in the 1990s over 2 Billion Z80s (and derivatives)
per _year_ were manufactured and sold for embedded purposes - I
believe that many of those went into automobiles.

Given how cheap decent hardware has become (Raspberry Pi $35; I'd
imagine that a bulk industrial customer can get the equivalent SoC
hardware at a better price point than that), it seems trivial to
put those kinds of smarts into things and run a real OS and the
flexibility that comes with it.

And no need to pay out a royalty when using Linux.

     -roger