The embedded systems were introduced in the 1960s and are predicted to have a great influence on the Internet of Things era. The future of embedded systems will see several major improvements in terms of concept, development, design, and quality standardization as well as in the marketing stages during their lifecycle.

Some of the trends in embedded systems development are increasing the use of open-source technologies, efficient security deployment, multiple connectivity options, and algorithms. Here are the 5 major technological advancements in embedded solutions and systems.

1. Defect Management:

Apart from the conventional debugging techniques, the processes that are used during the design and development are important in removing the defects from an embedded system. In the last few years, the developers have been making use of advances in technologies like

Continuous integration servers
Hardware in-loop testing
Unit testing
Automated testing

2. Cloud Connectivity:

Many of the traditional embedded systems would become disconnected systems if they have no access to the Internet. IoT has become a very big push for adding wired or wireless connectivity and also for the streaming of data up to the cloud for storage and processing. In order to be more familiar with cloud connectivity, the embedded system engineers must:

Set up a cloud service provider. For example Google cloud, Amazon web services, etc.
Create a device policy for the devices that are connected to the cloud service.
Set up private and public keys with a device certificate.
Connect an embedded system to the cloud service.
Transmit and receive information to/from the cloud.
Build a dashboard to examine the data in the cloud.

3. Security:

The major concern which the developers will face is security, considering that many devices are now connected to the cloud. Technologies can vary from using security processors, multi-core microcontrollers to secure and non-secure the application code. Software solutions have been expanding at a very rapid rate, meanwhile, there are many hardware technology sets available. Most of these technologies are relatively new and 2020 seems to be a great year to focus on mastering the security concepts and applying them to the embedded systems.

4. Machine Learning:

Machine learning has been an important aspect of cloud space. Further, the ability to move machine learning to micro-controller based systems will turn out to be a game-changer. It is doubtful whether the technology is mature enough or not, but without further ado, it's a technology that is coming very soon to the microcontroller-based system. So, the developers must be ready and trained when this technology is mature and ready for use.

5. Low power design:

In the past, embedded devices always had to suffice with battery-operated devices. But with IoT devices and sensor nodes gaining traction, low power design has become a very important design criterion. It has been predicted that this drastically affects the operating costs of a company. Some of the key areas on which the developers must focus are:

Wireless radio technologies
Monitoring software energy consumption
Monitoring hardware energy
Battery architectures
Power regulators

With the global embedded systems market valued at USD 214.39 billion by 2020, the innovations mentioned above could be crucial for the growth and revenue of companies associated with the design, manufacture, and development of embedded technology.