SPOTLIGHT ON INDIAN ELECTRONICS Spotlight on Indian Electronics | Page 188

HIGH PRIORITY MARKET- EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
Embedded Systems Opportunity: Powering Indian IT up the Value Chain
The report indicates that while the current Embedded
and pervasive and touching virtually all aspects of daily life.
Software market size is relatively small, there is a huge
From mobile telephones to automobiles, and Industrial
opportunity that remains untapped in this segment. It also
equipment to high end medical devices, embedded
highlights some of the challenges that the industry needs
systems now form part of a wide range of devices.
to overcome in order to effectively address this opportunity.
Embedded software now sits at the intersection of
As the industry continues to look at new areas of interest
technology and the automotive, telecommunication,
where there is high propensity to innovate, embedded
aerospace, energy, high technology, and the broader
systems has emerged as a significant growth opportunity.
Industrial manufacturing sectors.
Embedded Systems are now becoming more ubiquitous
Embedded Systems – Prospects & Future in India
The digital revolution now has reached to a stage where we
already owns at least one piece of equipment, which
cannot conduct our normal modern daily lives without this
contains a processor; whether it is a phone, a television, an
technology. Indeed, it is reasonable to say that everyone
automatic washing machine, an MP3 player, microwave
already owns at least one piece of equipment, which
oven or anything such.
contains a processor or microcontroller in it. If embedded
The colossal growth of processing and controlling power in
systems are to become a serious discipline to contribute in
small packages has fuelled this digital revolution by boon
progression of the Indian economy and global demand in
of embedded systems.
general, it is imperative that our proven expertise in IT software should play a crucial role in developing talent with the required skills.
Embedded systems are basically computer based control systems designed to perform specifically dedicated functions within a set of larger system. These are fixed or
The digital revolution now has reached to a stage where we
embedded as a part of the complete bigger system, hence
cannot conduct our normal modern daily lives without this
the name – Embedded Systems.
technology. Indeed, it is reasonable to say that everyone
Early Developments & Now
Development of embedded systems began in early 1960s
Today these systems span across many aspects of our daily
and since then it has grown exponentially in terms of
life, ranging from consumer electronics devices to medical
power as well as functionality. Due to large scale
equipments, telecom instruments, automobiles and many
proliferation of integrated chips and other related parts,
others. Embedded systems have been touching and
costs of such systems have also come down drastically.
changing modern lives like never before.
Current Trends in India
Embedded system development in India started around
provide high level software designs and board level designs
early 2000. The market reached approximately $ 5 billion by
in a few cases. Not much work is carried out in terms of
2009 and now has reached triple in size by. According to
application design engineering, hardware design and
recently released NASSCOM report, the total addressable
innovation towards customized product development. This
embedded system R & D global opportunity is expected to
lack of domain expertise in industry is basic impediment for
reach approx. $ 89 billion by 2015 where India alone could
future growth. Leveraging and growing in these areas can
contribute approx. $ 15 billion in size. This means that
help Indian industry to have significant improvement in
Indian technology firms and engineering designers will
embedded systems space and a few companies already
have to drive actual product innovation and move towards
have started working towards this goal.
product ownership. Presently many Indian companies
Opportunities
Two core parts of any embedded systems are its hardware
This means software or firmware is now a key differentiator;
and firmware or software inside the core processing unit.
since any new feature or specification can be easily tackled
However, many hardware platforms have reached their
or added using software changes.
configuration potential and are saturated in terms of
Clearly, now the software has to play critical role of
adding new things that cannot be added using firmware.
differentiation, innovation and future enhancements in
Additionally at the advent of open source hardware
embedded systems. The ratio of contribution by firmware
platforms and quick prototyping and building blocks of
and hardware, which was 30-70( 30 % firmware & 70 %
hardware systems not much differentiation can be made by
hardware) earlier has now become almost 50-50 and is
just the hardware system.
expected to grow further as hardware reaches its
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