How embedded systems work: the hidden computers in everyday things, and how engineers build them
What is an embedded system? The hidden computers in your home
You may think you own two or three computers: a laptop, a phone, maybe a tablet. Your kitchen alone probably hides more than that, and none of them has a screen you would call a computer. Meet the embedded system.
-
1
Miva's new cat flap can tell two cats apart. It opens for her own cat, and it stays shut for the big grey cat from next door, who used to come in and eat her cat's food every night.
-
2
Her cat has a tiny microchip under its skin, a tag with its own number, like many cats and dogs. The flap opens only for a tag it knows, and Rono, a friend who builds small devices for a living, laughs at your surprise: there is a computer in the flap.
-
3
Rono shows you more. The washing machine, the microwave and the thermostat each hide a small computer too, and the car outside holds dozens. Each one is built into a thing to do that one job, and a computer like that is called an embedded system.
-
4
Embedded systems are by far the most common computers. Each year, the world makes about 30 billion of these small computers, nearly twenty times the number of new phones and PCs.
-
5
Rono takes the cover off the flap. Inside, there is no screen, no keyboard and no fan. So where is the computer?
-
Go further
A car, a pet's tag and one old word.