Guest Editors' Introduction: Embedded Software Technologies and Trends

Our world and society are shaped and governed by embedded systems. Examples of embedded systems include pacemakers, implanted biosensors, RFID tags, cell phones, home appliances, satellites, train control systems, and automotive components. In this special-issue introduction, we provide a snapshot of the topic of embedded software. We show its similarities to general-purpose IT and highlight embedded systems' peculiarities. In addition to highlighting trends and topics worth thinking about, we relate hands-on experiences from industry projects from which all of us can learn, independent of which type of software and domain we deal with in our day-to-day engineering work.