• Embedded systems are involved in almost every facet of modern life. All modern luxury equipments like Digital Cameras, Mobile Phones, GPS Devices, Cars, Bikes, Televisions, DVD Players, Video Games, Pagers, PDAs, Answering Machines, Microwave Ovens, Network Routers, Fax Machines,Music Synthesizers, Planes, Spacecraft, and Boats are some of the examples of Embedded Systems.

• Late model cars may contain as many as 65 embedded microprocessors, controlling such tasks as antilock braking, climate control, engine control, audio system control, airbag deployment etc.

• Logic analyzers and digital storage oscilloscopes utilize embedded processors to support real-time operation.

• Even PCs, which are designed around powerful CPUs such as the Intel Pentium 4, contain embedded systems. Floppy and hard disk drives, CD-RW and DVD-ROM drives, and external peripherals such as printers, scanners, and other SCSI, USB, or IEEE 1394 devices all contain embedded processors.

• In a particular year, microprocessor manufacturers sold on the order of 100 million processors for use as computer CPUs. In comparison, during the same time frame, microprocessor manufacturers sold more than 3 billion embedded processors, primarily consisting of 32-bit, 16-bit, 8-bit, and 4-bit devices.

• The tremendous number of applications for embedded computing has given rise to high demand for engineers with experience in designing and implementing embedded systems.