The tasks of Embedded Engineer - Part 1

Here are small list of tasks and priorities of embedded Engineer in the industry

Everyone among us as embedded engineers and especially the entry engineers in this field would love to know the major factors that could be important in designing an embedded system. Here is a list of few of them.

• Embedded Designer should always be worried about application in which the embedded system he is designing is used. A similar system designed for different applications demand different design approach.
• One of the major decisions is the type of Processor/Microcontroller to be used. There are microcontrollers/processors/FPGAs available from different vendors. Again there are some which are application specific and choosing correct one at the design stage is very important.
• Many applications can be managed with a simple application code. But some systems require Operating systems like Linux, windows CE. Also, there are small foot print variants of operating systems called the RTOS.
• Designer need to analyze the Memory requirements of the system beforehand. Constraints on memories lead to a failure of the product at a later stage.
• Power consumption is the major challenge in the industry right now. Especially, for  low power applications and battery powered systems, power consumption should be reduced.
• Working in real-time critical scenarios is one of the major challenges of the embedded designer. One needs to understand the scenarios, come up with solutions to tackle the issues associated. 
• Some of the designed products have to work in harsh environments, like for example high temperature, vibration, high altitudes.
• Any product available with good features and less cost is very popular in the market. So, designers need to design their systems with lesser cost and higher quality.
• With the rapid prototyping the norm of the industry today, embedded engineers have very less time to come up with a quality product. Time to market, we say in other words is very crucial to a technology company performance. In this aspect, embedded engineers are always under the pump with strict timelines and delivery timelines.
• Embedded engineer may come up with a prototype design today but the same has to be manufactured in bulk in future. Manufacturability is one of the major checks that need to be done during the design phase before going for manufacturing.
• There are several domains available in the embedded system like Automotive, Medical, Military, commercial, aerospace, etc. Each domain have their own compliance requirements and these are must to be met before the embedded product can be sold in the market. Here is what EMI/EMC comes into picture. EMI/EMC is a big stream and needs lot of understanding and application
• Sometimes designers work in isolation and to say in other words, they work on a small section of a system. If a designer doesn’t understand the complete system and works on his own, it would be a disaster at the end of the design completion. Interoperability is what is to considered at every aspect in the design.
• An embedded engineer during his experience works on various projects, there might be legacy systems which might have to be re-designed to meet the latest system demands. There might sometimes be a need for designing the same system for different application. Designer has to understand the application specific customization required for this.
• Whenever designer design a embedded product, he has to use various components from different vendors.  Apart from cost, good product and component level support should always be considered before selecting a component from specific vendor. 
• A system designed by embedded engineer should always have a low failure rate. There are several analysis done like MTBF to understand and estimate the failure rates. 
• Strong domain background is always necessary for embedded engineer.
• Embedded engineer always requires a clear understanding of the various process involved in designing the system and must have a review system implemented at each phase of the design to come up with a flawless design.