Issues and challenges in developing embedded software for information appliances and telecommunication terminals

Information appliances are emerging in the consumer electronics market with the convergence of disparate technologies including internet access, wirel ess connectivity, digital audio/video support, and platform independent med dleware services. This presents a great deal of new challenges to developer s in the consumer electronics industry due to extremely diverse hardware co mponents and increased software complexity. This presentation will raise a variety of technical issues we have encounte red during the development of various commercial products such as digital T Vs, web video phones, wireless handsets, and CDMA terminals. We will discus s in detail about proliferation of the types-of consumer devices, diversity in hardware and component software technologies, and newly emerging data s torage technologies for embedded systems. We will also touch upon other ess ential issues for embedded systems development such as quality assurance, f ault isolation, power management, and optimal system design based on functi onal partitioning.