Every year VDC conducts an extensive worldwide survey of embedded engineers and their development projects to better understand engineering requirements, preferences, and trends. This information is available from VDC in unique cross tabbed reports to offer readers a detailed, in-depth, view of engineers in the development project trenches.
Engineers use numerous tool types in their development projects. Tools range from compilers, debuggers, editors and build tools to software and system lifecycle management tools such as automated test and verification, modeling, and virtual prototyping tools. Some of the factors most important in the selection of tools include price/cost, technical capabilities, ease of use, and past experience.
One of the areas of interest to suppliers of embedded software development tools is to make sure that they target their investments to the type of platforms engineers prefer to use for their development. Based on VDC’s 2011 survey, embedded engineers cite the use of Windows and Linux-based systems as their preferred development environments. Windows Vista has had minimal impact on PC’s used by engineers even looking back on VDC’s 2010 survey results, however, engineers expect development environments to migrate in significant numbers to Windows 7 from Windows XP over the next two years.
How does your development project stack up? Let us know through your feedback.
Our recently published report, Development Tools, from Track 2 of VDC's 2011 Embedded Software Market Intelligence Service provides additional statistical insight and analysis around this and other trends affecting embedded system development. Click here for additional information and access to a free executive brief highlighting other key findings from our research.
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