Three Trends Shaping the Future of Embedded Processing Technology

What's the future of embedded processing?

From a technology perspective, embedded systems will enable greater energy efficiency, thereby helping to conserve energy and enable more environmentally sustainable electronics. They will enable more immersive interactions with humans and integration into the surrounding environment, such as by more advanced autonomous robots to perform tasks and improve convenience. Such systems will be able to collect, analyze and respond to ever-increasing amounts of data. Equally important, ever-evolving technologies will be more accessible to more people, thus fully enjoying the benefits of technological advancement.

To realize this future, embedded processors need to evolve: they need to reduce power consumption while getting smarter. In addition, there is a need for affordability, more integrated components, and intuitive embedded software and tool support.

Based on our insights into the industry and what we hear from our customers, there are three trends (and important features) that all embedded processing product families share:

1. Integrate more sensing functions

There is a growing need to collect more data from everything around us and find innovative ways to use it.

Taking smart cities as an example, energy management systems can use data to monitor and control energy usage in buildings, which can help reduce energy waste and reduce usage costs. Public safety systems can add intelligence to detect and respond to emergencies, keeping cities safe. For smart homes, an ecosystem of connected devices can reduce energy consumption and improve comfort and safety for residents. Coupled with the need to upgrade grid infrastructure with more sustainable and renewable energy sources, the value of embedded intelligence that processes real-time data is only just beginning to be understood and appreciated.

Energy management and infrastructure are also among the many rapidly developing applications and possibilities that improve the quality and convenience of our lives, thanks to the increased sensing and processing capabilities of the electronics we use every day.

The ability to integrate sensing and embedded intelligence in these systems was a top priority when we developed our new microcontroller portfolio. Our aim is to provide a way for designers to enhance the sensing capabilities of their systems and integrate more analog functions to simplify the development of sensing circuits within the system, eliminating the need for additional components. An example of the benefits of this integration is the ability of the MSPM0 MCU to detect smoke faster and in a smaller form factor in a cavityless smoke detector.

2. Implement AI in every embedded system

Whether it's smart security cameras monitoring homes and offices in real time, or autonomous robots revolutionizing modern factory assembly lines, making every system intelligent has become the norm. As the need for automation grows in every field (smart automation in particular), design engineers are incorporating more features and capabilities into systems that allow them to handle ever-increasing amounts of data, make informed decisions, and respond quickly.

Edge intelligence will be at the heart of intelligent automation systems. This means data is computed close to the data acquisition sensor, enabling safer, faster and more reliable processing.

For example, suppose cameras throughout a factory continuously monitor equipment to detect and predict mechanical failures. Sending this data to the cloud outside of the local network for processing and analysis and then awaiting a decision to stop the assembly line could impact the quality and throughput of the assembly line while increasing overall costs. By implementing intelligence at the edge, the assembly process can be stopped in an instant if needed.

Previously, cost and power constraints limited the amount of edge intelligence designers were able to achieve. When developing the AM6xA family of vision processors, we aimed to help meet this challenge by providing efficient and cost-effective processing options supported by a common development environment.

These processors are suitable for embedded vision applications, such as equipping automated stores with smart cameras that can identify which items a consumer has purchased for a grab-and-go shopping experience.

3. Ease of use helps designs go to market faster

As customers are challenged to bring their new products and innovations to market as quickly as possible, the need to advance the development of embedded systems becomes more pressing. Our customers need to create differentiated features quickly and reliably, with the flexibility to respond to changing market conditions and customer preferences.

The embedded processing portfolio and its accompanying ecosystem must be easy to design in, yet provide enough support to help customers meet all their embedded needs, speed time to market, and free designers to spend more time innovating. Therefore, I strongly recommend that companies use industry-wide open source software, community development platforms, and a unified software development environment. These resources allow our clients to draw on the knowledge and experience of experts in the field, enabling them to design more efficiently and bring products to market with incredible speed. Through our innovations, engineers can more easily implement system intelligence, which will increase adoption and significantly increase our value to customers.

I am bullish on the future of embedded processing technologies and look forward to introducing new product families that incorporate these technologies and seeing our customers unlock new ways to create a better world.

(Source: Texas Instruments (TI))

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