A book such as this is not the creation of a single
person, nor does it remain static over time. In fact hundreds of people
have contributed to the information that is in this book and this
is at least the third major update to some of the material contained
with these pages. As the industry moves on and evolves, definitions
change, new terms, models or complete new taxonomies may come into
existence. The last two sections of this book only became a part of
our industry just a few years ago. One of the editors is also working
on a complete new taxonomy to describe the Embedded System Design
landscape that is just beginning to emerge. The editors are completely
open to suggestions for changes in the definitions, additions of news
ones, deletion of terms that are no longer in active usage, or other
areas in which such a taxonomy would be of benefit to the industry.
We will try to do our best to ensure that everyone's views are heard
and incorporated on this site and in future versions of the book.