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The growth in jobs related to embedded systems reflects the expanding role of technology not just as enablers but as essential components within virtually every industry. From software engineers specializing in real-time operating systems and low-level programming to hardware designers skilled in circuit board layout and microchip architecture, there’s a broad spectrum of roles that are expected to grow due to advancements in embedded technologies.
Moreover, the integration of AI and machine learning into these systems is forecasted to further augment their functionality and efficiency. This trend not only amplifies the need for specialized skills but also opens up new career paths for professionals with interdisciplinary expertise. In conclusion, as our world becomes more dependent on technology, so too will the demand for skilled embedded systems professionals continue to expand, driving innovation and economic growth in numerous industries.
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A Career in Embedded systems
With a solid understanding of embedded systems, you can explore diverse career paths across industries such as automotive electronics, industrial automation, consumer electronics, medical devices, aerospace, and beyond.
The demand for skilled embedded system engineers is consistently high across industries, making it an attractive career option with promising job prospects.
Embedded systems are at the heart of many exciting technological advancements, such as autonomous vehicles, smart home devices, and wearables. Learning embedded systems can give you access to projects that push the boundaries of innovation.
Embedded system development requires knowledge in programming languages (C, C++, etc.), microcontrollers, operating systems, communication protocols, and more. This diverse skillset can make you a valuable asset in various roles within an organization.
Due to the specialized nature of embedded system engineering, professionals in this field often enjoy competitive salaries compared to other technical careers.
Understanding how to design and implement solutions using microcontrollers and other embedded systems can be a significant asset if you ever decide to start your own product development or electronics-related business venture.
The field of embedded systems is constantly evolving, with new technologies and tools emerging regularly. This means that learning embedded systems opens up the opportunity for continuous professional growth and development.
Embedded system engineering has a global relevance, with companies from around the world adopting these technologies to develop innovative products. This can lead to career opportunities not just domestically but also internationally.
Embedded system development often involves working with physical prototypes and debugging hardware issues, which can make for a more engaging and hands-on learning experience compared to purely software-based projects.
Embedded systems require an understanding of both electronics (hardware) and computer science (software), making it easier to connect theoretical concepts from different disciplines. This interdisciplinary approach can foster a deeper understanding of how technologies work together.
With the growing trend of Internet of Things (IoT) applications, learning embedded systems provides a strong foundation in programming and device management that is directly applicable to careers involving IoT development and deployment.
Learning Embedded Systems
Here is how one can go about learning Embedded Systems Software Engineering.
You can learn Embedded Systems by following
The Five Essential ingredients
Any Embedded System Development will have at least three of - CPU, C/Assembly, Operating Systems, FPGAs and Build Tools! All one has to do is - know a little bit of each of these topics to be useful on a team. The mastery of each of these topics will come naturally with time.
And remember, lower level code is commonly written in
C and Assembly!
These are the work horses of the Embedded Software Design. The boot code, hardware initialisation and certain CPU specific features can only be controlled by writing functions in the assembly language. The higher level more portable system code is written primarily in the C language. This is again because C is very close to the hardware and developers can predict the assembly that will be generated by compiling the C code...
At the heart of every Embedded System is one or more
CPUs
In modern day systems, CPUs are used to drive the decision and shift the system from one state to another. Take an example of Washing Machine. Monitoring what program the user has selected, driving different parts of the machine (drum, pump, heater etc) to execute the selected program, etc is done by one or many CPUs. Almost always, there will be a CPU that needs to be programmed as part of an Embedded systems based solution. Learning how CPUs work (the generic theory) is extremely helpful and allows one to reason deeply about how the system works...
And as the hardware becomes more complex, the management is abstracted using
Operating Systems!
How can we get one CPU to execute code for multiple tasks in a round robin fashion? The answer is - Using a Scheduler. Such a layer of software that manages tasks and then by extension the hardware is referred to as the Operating System.
To understand hardware better, have some experience programming
The FPGAs!
Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) play a unique role in embedded systems development by providing a flexible and reconfigurable platform for implementing custom digital logic. Imagine, what happens when hardware is being developed, what will the software engineers be doing? They will typically be using some sort of emulator or FPGAs to deploy the RTL (hardware design) on it and develop the software in parallel and make it ready by the time the Silicon (actual) chip arrives. Having an idea about how the hardware design flow works and trying/deploying circuits on FPGAs go a long way in terms of reasoning about how the CPUs and Peripherals might be working.
Become the reliable engineer by mastering
Build Tools
Build tools are the utilities help automate and convert the code to the binary the CPUs/FPGAs can understand. Not only this but tools/utilities also help us debug, automate, convert etc the solutions we develop. These tools typically involve - compiler toolchain, make, shell scripting, gdb etc and are an absolute 'must know' for an embedded software engineer.
Testimonials from learners
"Hi team, I would like to thank you, the inPyjama team, for this. The concept which seemed to be somewhat difficult to grasp, I was able to learn a lot because of your simple and straight forward approach. I am really looking forward for more such contents from your end because I, for sure, will be attending each of them without fail. Once again Thankyou so much for this." - Vishnu Sankarankutty
"The cool thing about this course is that it teaches each and every concept by 'brain tattooing' a mental model, which makes understanding advanced concepts like a breeze. Thank you so much Piyush Itankar and inPyjama team for this outstanding course!" - Mayank Manohare
"This course gives you exactly what you need to know about pointers! And more importantly how to think about pointers this is really important, and every embedded engineer must know. Once again thanks a lot for this content creators. Expecting more courses from you in future." - Gnanesh Sureshchandrar
"As experienced C developer, I have learned interesting and efficiently approaches about using C pointers and also what happening behind the scene. To me to visualize the course for viewers was great idea. In the other hand , adding the subtitle to videos would be nice. Maybe in the future, thanks a lot." - SuleymanRubarKIZIL
"I enjoyed the entire course and the way concepts was explained(photographic diagram) was very understandable and good. Thankyou" - Vishnu
"I have never seen function pointers defined in such a clear and concise manner as you have, Piyush. Many thanks for it." - Vinay Shirol
"Awesome, within an hour, if an engineer learns the boot up process of arm - cortex-m, that is unbelievable, instructor is really apt at the matter. Thanks." - Vinod