They Just Upgraded our Coffee Machine
They just upgraded our coffee machine in the office. When I came out into the kitchen to get another cup, a service technician was there with a laptop perched on the sink and a USB cable running into the innards of the coffee machine, into the back of its open front panel. When I asked what was going on, he said that he was updating the coffee machine. In particular, he was adding the feature of selecting the strength of the coffee being brewed.
A software update to add features to a coffee machine? It is a bit weird, but also a perfect illustration of how pervasive embedded software has become in all manners of systems.
It is not easy to explain to non-technical people just what an embedded system is and what software does when it is not running as an application on a PC (or smartphone or tablet or other familiar computing device). Our coffee machine upgrade does offer a nice illustration of what is going on, and how software and hardware combine to form cyberphysical systems.
Wind River Blog
The Wind River Blog is made up of a variety of voices: executives, technologists and industry enthusiasts. We hope to foster conversations and encourage the sharing of insights regarding the evolving landscape of intelligent, connected systems with our ecosystem of customers, partners and colleagues.
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