Who is an embedded developer?

that there is

one product

group, the bet

What bet, with whom ?

product in the

who do this if

If you want to get a handle on this, look at the IC vendors web sites, where they give :

## Number of development systems shipped [because this a bragging rights number, it includes downloads of free tools, and is often cumulative ]

## Number of customers

The former are tens, and sometimes, hundreds of thousands. The latter some thousands, or tens of thousands. Each customer ( of embedded type chips) should have at least one Embedded developer....

So no, the answer is not less than a hundred...

-jg

that there is

one product

group, the bet

product in the

who do this if

I am not sure if understood this correctly or not, are you suggesting only 100 embedded developers are using this newsgroup or that there are only hundreds of embedded developers in general?

that there is

one product

group, the bet

product in the

who do this if

Depending on how you define "embedded system"... Microchip alone claims to have shipped a cumulative total of 350,000+ "development systems", and 53,000 just during last year. Even allowing for 90% of them going to existing developers, students or sitting on dusty shelves around the world, it's clear that 100 is orders of magnitude too low.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

that there is

one product

group, the bet

product in the

who do this if

In my 4 years since leaving uni I have developed at lot more than 4 products. Some were brand new concepts, some were major redesigns or improvements on old products. We are a small company so I have a lot of flexibility in how I design things, and this usually leads to faster development times.

Ross

that there is

one product

group, the bet

product in the

who do this if

By your definition I am one. Who are the other 98 guys.

By any definition you are orders of magnitude off.

that there is

one product

group,

That's an understatement. I would guess that the fraction is somewhere between 1/20 and 1/1000. Of all the people that I know doing embedded development or programming in general, I am the only one that regularly posts to newsgroups. So check for the number of authors and multiply by your favorite (large) number.

this world.

You could use the same logic to determine the number of Santa's elves: count the number of toys Santa delivers, multiply by the average time to make a toy, divide by the number of elf working hours in a year. Poof

-- the number of elves!

(snip)

Either your philosophical discussion was *very* recent (ie. you're still well lubricated) or you're living a fantasy that you're part of an elite group of 'embedded developers'! ;)

I've probably met more than 100 'embedded developers' myself throughout my career - and I live on the unfashionable side of the globe!

Regards,

a conjecture was made that there is

actually create more that one product

Naa, considering an embedded system is a controller plus some hardware, I do one at least every two months.

Rene

that there is

one product

group, the bet

At my day job the procedures are so complex that there's more than one year of paperwork in every product. However I released one project last year and this year I expect I will release one more, maybe two (I have a lot of help).

Of course during those two years I've released several projects in real life. This year it looks like I'll be releasing four projects in my real life (not counting writing projects, which for me do include building embedded systems).

There are hundreds of companies who employ (tens of) thousands of programmers who create code for things that never see the light of day -- only the factory floor. But every one of these one-off systems is an embedded computer. Personally I think your conjecture is all wet. Norm

:))

I am working.. alone on no less than 5 products. Coding firmware, windows apps , layout PCBs and aquiring samples and parts for 3 of them.

I'll take that bet. Unless by 'world' you mean your block.

I was surprised to read that the circulation of Circuit Cellar a couple years ago was in the low 10Ks. I'm near Orlando and there is lots of electronics and simulation around here, but the embedded jobs seems well hidden. Certainly any place with a couple of EEs must slap a microcontroller on a board every now and then, but to have enough work to keep a full time programmer busy is the problem. I guess if you can live on short contract jobs, you can survive, but I'd like some insurance and vacation before I retire. Have any AVR c programming leads in Cen Fla send me an email.

that there is

one product

group, the bet

product in the

who do this if

Well, based on the responses so far, I can claim victory in the wager!

The reference to the count of the number of development systems and boards was evidence enough to get a concession on the point.

Thanks to all who responded.

Blakely

the bet

Why don't you go to the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose next month? There you can meet your other 99 compadres. Or at least get an idea of how far off your estimate is.

The vendors there will have a pretty good idea of the market (who, how many, how much).

JJS

that there is

one product

group, the bet

product in the

who do this if

evidence

So what have I won ? :)

-jg

I don't see how you can correlate the number of development systems and boards purchased with the number of systems being developed in any one year. After all, the development board may be used over several cycles of development or may not even be needed in some cases.

If the number of respondents here was low it may just mean that the developers were just too busy to read this newsgroup trying to create the next big whizz-bang kick-ass product for the eager public.

Was there a prize?

Less than a hundred embedded developers! Hikk....may be because embedded developers normally tend to maintain a low profile; they don't show off much and not make much noise like the Java, Windows..whatever fellows. As for the numbers, I once developed 4 embedded products in a year, and that includes 2 re-spins/re-designs. Ofcourse, I got the incentive for only one. Any more prizes?

VG

No contest. Go to 8052.com. home of the most popular microcontroller in the universe. Look at the membership list there, several hundred strong, each one of which is an embedded developer.

Ian