Max Maxfield at Eleectronic Engineering Journal talks to Percepio founder Dr. Johan Kraft and give us back a witty reflection:
“One question I’m often asked—and one I often ask myself—is, “How many people are currently involved in developing embedded systems?” Counting engineers is a slippery problem (especially mechanical engineers, because they are often dripping in oil). I’d hazard a guess that there are probably between 2 and 4 million embedded professionals globally (depending on how we define ‘embedded’ and ‘professionals’), including both hardware designers and software/firmware developers.
Furthermore, remember that the ‘hardware’ bucket includes PCB designers, FPGA engineers, ASIC designers, analog engineers, RF engineers, power engineers, and so on. This means that at the industry (macro) level, embedded software engineers likely outnumber hardware engineers by a ratio of perhaps 2:1. However, at the product-team (micro) level, particularly once hardware has stabilized, it’s not uncommon to see software outnumber hardware by 5:1 or more. This reflects the fact that hardware is largely front-loaded while software grows over time (product features keep expanding, and maintenance and updates persist long after hardware freezes).
I know I’ve used a lot of weaselly words here, but that makes it harder to argue I’m wrong, and we should always remember the old saying, “Eagles may soar, but weasels rarely get sucked into jet engines” (and it’s hard to argue with logic like that).
Now I have another question for you. How many embedded system development teams around the world are using the tools from Percepio? The answer to this one is easy: “Not as many as there should be!” Percepio is a relatively small player in the embedded tooling space, but among the engineers who use its tools, the enthusiasm borders on evangelical. For example, when I have questions about embedded software, my “go-to” source is Jacob Beningo, founder and chief executive of the Beningo Embedded Group. Suffice it to say that Jacob is constantly singing the praises of Percepio’s tools, and that’s more than good enough for me.”