Serious Power for Embedded Systems

Back in the old days most embedded processors were derived from Unix workstation processors. There was little ongoing development of microprocessor cores specifically for embedded systems—and most embedded systems used inexpensive microcontrollers anyway.

The rise of the Internet and of digital entertainment changed all that. Almost all today's embedded processors were designed specifically for embedded systems. No publication has done a better job of covering this revolution than MPR, and no industry conference has hosted more announcements of key products and technologies than our Embedded Processor Forum.

EPF 2004 takes place the week of May 17 at the luxurious Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, California. Our conference program includes 20 presentations of new products for the embedded-processor industry spread across five sessions—high-performance processors, software tools, embedded signal processing, video processing, and low-power processors. (Please visit www.mdronline.com/epf to see the complete program.)

The processors being announced at EPF span a wide range of power and performance characteristics, from ultralow-power cores for cellphone handsets to ultrapowerful chips created for high-end networking equipment. We're especially pleased this year to be able to offer a session on software tools, responding to an increasingly common request from Forum attendees. Every year, it becomes more difficult for system developers to take full advantage of new architectures and instruction-set extensions; at EPF04, you'll hear about new tools meant to solve this problem.

It's no secret that the past few years have been difficult ones for events and publications in the computer industry. We have worked hard to continue delivering the same high-quality content in every issue of MPR and at each of our conferences. You may have noticed that the February issue of MPR, at 68 pages, was the largest we've ever published. We're putting the same effort into EPF, with full-day seminars to deliver the latest information on the products and technologies in this market.

On the Monday before the conference, Tom Halfhill will present an updated version of his highly popular Microprocessors for Professionals seminar. This seminar can bring anyone up to speed on the fundamentals of microprocessor design. Thursday, after the conference, our own Max Baron and former MPR analyst Jim Turley will respectively examine all the most important low-power and high-performance embedded processors. These two seminars will cover the chips and cores announced at EPF, comparing them with competing products.

EPF04 has one of the best programs we've ever put together, but for it to be a great conference, we need your help. We hear that many companies have again freed up their travel and training budgets. EPF is a great way to get back up to speed on all the changes that have occurred in our industry over the past few years. If you can attend only one event this year, make it the Embedded Processor Forum.