VP of Advanced Applications Group, Tria (an Avnet Company), Jim Beneke, shortlists trends defining future embedded system development practices.

Most electronic products on the market today can be described as embedded systems. Their diversity in form and function brings challenges when looking at new developments. However, look a little closer and trends influencing product roadmaps emerge.
Trend and product form a virtuous circle. With momentum, trends become the new normal, redefining how future solutions are conceived and executed. Long term, trends may become normal practice—but short term they can present opportunities and threats.
The software focus is cybersecurity, with ever higher levels of abstraction to support this. At the deeply embedded level, abstraction layers like Matter for smart home devices can simplify the product landscape while baking in security. Fundamentally, this isn’t too different from Linux. With Europe’s Cyber Resilience Act about to come into force, I see growing support for similar legislation elsewhere. OEMs are looking for simple, reliable ways to increase security. Abstracting security away from the bare metal product, using Linux, can achieve this. I expect Linux to become more popular for this reason.
AI and machine learning is an obvious trend. Software is only part of the solution and is very different from a protocol abstraction layer. There is still fragmentation between suppliers. However, more silicon vendors are leaning into open-source models and building development environments that leverage these across platforms. The challenges are big, and more work is needed to simplify implementation to increase adoption.
Abstraction is also a trend within hardware. Industry has been migrating toward modular design for years and this will accelerate. Manufacturers can get to market fast with a modular approach. Often, modules require customization, which is where Tria excels.
Open-source hardware is an interesting area. At the transistor level, IP such as RISC-V blurs the line between hardware and software. The business case for using RISC-V over a more established and supported architecture like Arm isn’t always clear. I see the technology remaining niche for a while yet.
Chiplets could be a more immediate turning point in IC development. Chiplets are the hardware equivalent of soft IP; with a ‘plug-and-play’ approach to developing complex systems-on-a-chip (SoC). The SoC concept is over 20 years old, but I think the wider-scale availability of chiplets will see SoC design hitting an inflection point.
These observations reflect what I am seeing in the embedded domain. My product roadmap for the Advanced Applications Group is also influenced by these trends. However, the opportunities they present outweigh the potential threat of being late to adopt.
Tria is the new name for embedded compute boards, systems and associated design and manufacturing services at Avnet.