Embedded Systems Design - June 2008 - (Page 50)

guest editor plorer 7 running on Windows XP run- cial interest. Some of these efforts have proverbial Internet-enabled Coke machine and plenty of other embedning on an Intel Core 2 Duo processor been more successful than others, but ded systems now sport full- or partall of them erode the independence isn’t the same as the PDF reader for Safari running on Mac OS running on and client-agnosticism that was inher- time Internet connections for monitoring, feedback, or content delivery. ent in the early Internet. The more a PowerPC chip, and so on. Just like Then there are the routers, packet bells and whistles we add, the more any other team of programmers, the inspectors, encryption appliances, locked-in we become. folks who develop these helper apps firewalls, and all the other embedmust look at the cost/beneﬁt. Is it ded-systems plumbing that makes MEET THE NEW BOSS worth the effort to port this program the network work. None of these We now have a situation where Web to Platform X if said platform acneeds a traditional browser or any content is developed for the PC ﬁrst, counts for only 5% of the market? Do helper applications. Coke machines with Macintosh, Linux, and other we really need to write, debug, and don’t need to render Flash animaclients coming later. In contrast, few support a RealAudio decoder for the tion (yet) and file servers don’t need Web sites are deliberately Mac-specifCommodore 64, Silicon Graphics Inan Acrobat reader. ic, even Apple’s. If your site doesn’t digo, or Cray Y-MP if hardly anybody So although these more deeply work on a PC running Windows and will ever use it? embedded systems greatly outnumMicrosoft’s latest browser, it’s effecA good example is Flash and the ber the PC-type clients, they have tively broken. The Intel/Microsoft iPhone. Millions of happy iPhone little effect on the actual Web conusers know that their favorite toy can’t hegemony rules the Internet just as it tent. Routers route data render Flash animation. regardless of content, There just isn’t a Flash This whole situation puts programmers for the most part. Unhelper application for less they’re sniffing iPhone and, until rein a strong negotiating position. Their packets for viruses or cently, no hope of gethelper applications are what make doing QoS massaging, ting one. Apple has the Web interesting. embedded network since released an boxes generally don’t iPhone software-develcare what the traffic is bearing. They does the desktop, and certainly not by opment kit, so Adobe will presumably don’t affect what is on the Web, only coincidence. be quick to ﬁll this gap in its product how it’s delivered. But what about mobile platforms, coverage. But in the meantime, no you say? Intel’s footprint is very small iFlash. DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN in handheld devices, where ARM is So browsers and their helper apps considered the hands-down winner. Is This whole situation puts programbehave just like any other software. the mobile Web going to be ARM-spe- mers in a strong negotiating posiThey must be ported and supported, tion. Their helper applications are ciﬁc? Quite probably. and that means the most popular what make the Web interesting. It’s fair to say that ARM-based processors and operating systems get chips are the most popular processors Without the full assortment of supported ﬁrst. The less-popular plathelper apps, new client hardware is for smart phone designs, just as Informs catch up later, if at all. Your nearly useless. Witness the dismal tel’s chips dominate the desktop/lapAmiga might be able to load Google’s failure of WebTV and other “nettop/server business. But ARM’s popbasic home page, but good luck getularity doesn’t make all smart phones work appliances.” Sure, they could ting YouTube to work. render basic HTML, but without all identical. A CPU instruction set does That’s the practical side. There’s a the extra content bells and whistles, not a standard make. The handheld commercial side at work, too. Mithey weren’t much fun. And isn’t crosoft, like any good software compa- software market is too fragmented to that what the Web is all about? consider it one platform. Programny, wants to protect and extend its Web content relies on speciﬁc mers working on mobile applications customer base. It has done this in part helper applications just like desktop must navigate through a forest of by encouraging a number of “nonPCs rely on productivity applications. choices. But regardless of operating standard” extensions to Web content. Without the full array of browser system and other software concerns, Active server pages (ASP), ActiveX, plug-ins, users are disappointed and we can guess what kind of compiler Exchange Server, and .NET are a few Web publishers aren’t happy. The they’ll use. examples of Microsoft’s contribution same commercial and technical issues to Web content cacophony. Oracle, that shaped the PC market have conBUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE Real Networks, and other companies spired to make the Web processorDeeply embedded systems are the have all done likewise, promoting exspeciﬁc. ■ tensions in which they had a commer- exceptions that prove the rule. The 50 JUNE 2008 | embedded systems design | www.embedded.com http://www.embedded.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Embedded Systems Design - June 2008

Embedded Systems Design - June 2008 Contents #Include Party Bit Programmer's Toolbox Cover Feature: Virtual Hardware Platforms for Embedded Software Validation Allocating Memory in MATLAB-to-C Code MDD and IDEs: Making the Twain Meet in Embedded Systems Design Avoid a Thrashing Guest Editor Advertising Index Break Points Marketplace

Embedded Systems Design - June 2008

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