Twenty Years of Embedded Systems Design
It's hard to believe, but industry magazine Embedded Systems Design, which I edited for five years from 1999 to 2004, is this year celebrating its twentieth continuous year in print.
The popular magazine, which was titled Embedded Systems Programming for about the first 16 years, started its run in 1988, at a time when the widespread use of assembly language was challenged by some engineers as inefficent compared with coding in raw hex. There were then dozens of dialects of the C language, which few embedded developers used, but a committee at ANSI was actively working on the standard that would ultimately win.
The passing of this event brings two interesting thoughts to my mind. One about the past, the other about the future.
Looking backward, I wonder just how much the embedded developer community owes to Ted Bahr and Tyler Sperry (the founding publisher and editor-in-chief, respectively) for giving us the name "Embedded Systems". Although the concept of embedding microcontrollers into products dates back 17 years earlier (to the introduction of the 4004 single-chip micro by Intel in 1971), the name embedded systems was made popular by the success of the magazine and associated Embedded Systems Conference.
Looking forward, though, I wonder just how much longer the print magazine is for the world. Tremendous changes have rocked the universe of print media--even just in the four years since I left the editor-in-chief role at Embedded Systems Programming. Both the number of subscribers and the number of pages in the print magazine peaked during my tenure, at about 70,000 and over 120, respectively. Today, the circulation is down considerably and the typical number of pages is around a third of that peak. Online advertising has changed the game for most technology companies, who no longer find the unmeasurable and expensive investment in print ads their only option.
What do you think?
The popular magazine, which was titled Embedded Systems Programming for about the first 16 years, started its run in 1988, at a time when the widespread use of assembly language was challenged by some engineers as inefficent compared with coding in raw hex. There were then dozens of dialects of the C language, which few embedded developers used, but a committee at ANSI was actively working on the standard that would ultimately win.
The passing of this event brings two interesting thoughts to my mind. One about the past, the other about the future.
Looking backward, I wonder just how much the embedded developer community owes to Ted Bahr and Tyler Sperry (the founding publisher and editor-in-chief, respectively) for giving us the name "Embedded Systems". Although the concept of embedding microcontrollers into products dates back 17 years earlier (to the introduction of the 4004 single-chip micro by Intel in 1971), the name embedded systems was made popular by the success of the magazine and associated Embedded Systems Conference.
Looking forward, though, I wonder just how much longer the print magazine is for the world. Tremendous changes have rocked the universe of print media--even just in the four years since I left the editor-in-chief role at Embedded Systems Programming. Both the number of subscribers and the number of pages in the print magazine peaked during my tenure, at about 70,000 and over 120, respectively. Today, the circulation is down considerably and the typical number of pages is around a third of that peak. Online advertising has changed the game for most technology companies, who no longer find the unmeasurable and expensive investment in print ads their only option.
What do you think?
posted by Michael Barr at
11:16 AM
3 Comments:
If you're interested in more history of the industry over the past twenty years, there is a nice retrospective piece by Jack Ganssle at http://embedded.com/columns/breakpoint/205203787.
By
Michael Barr, at 1/29/2008 11:40 AM
I *know* this has always been the case to some degree, but it seems more and more, the articles in the magazine are written by shills for vendors. Look, I have consulting business, I know all about exposure, getting your name out there, etc.... but at some point you feel that the magazine is a mouthpiece for vendors. If any developer happens to learn something, so be it, but let's get that propaganda out there.
Articles like "Use UML to Model 3G Phone Performance on Memory Constrained Systems" (I made that one up) are so blatantly plugging a toolset vendor's niche product. An article like that appeals to 35 of the readers, but if even *one* of them buys the $25K "solution" being peddled (indirectly) by the author, hey it's a win!
Sorry if this sounds cynical. Ganssle, Crenshaw... these guys always have objective, useful, interesting articles. Saks' column hasn't been enlightening or useful to me in years. There was a 9-article series recently by a former professor of mine that quite honestly was so elementary and un-enlightening, I felt bad for the trees which died to support that print.
Granted I've been doing this for a while, but the magazine is clearly struggling. Notice the broadening of the scope (Programming -> Design) which I don't necessarily think is a bad thing, but it demonstrates the need to find subjects.
With journals like Circuit Cellar Ink, Nuts & Volts, Servo, etc... I think ESP/ESD is less relevant than ever. Granted they're not free trade rags, but sometimes "you get what you pay for."
Sorry if this sounds like a tirade against the magazine, I didn't set out with that intention. But I've received every issue since finishing school 17 years ago, and I've witnessed the decline of a journal that used to be the highlight of the month for me - professionally speaking - year after year.
Oh well, back to helping customers....
By
Dan, at 1/29/2008 2:20 PM
I agree with you, Dan, about the content quality slide. As editor I fought against the kind of vendor articles you write of--and like to think with some noticeable quality effect.
A PR professional I later became friends with tried to get me fired early on over some deemed disrespect. Then publisher Miller Freeman, Inc. stood up for editors and kept a firewall between our team and ad sales. That may or may not still be the case at CMP.
In my opinion (I was not involved), the name change from Programming to Design was aimed at advertisers more than readers. It may also be that the resulting overflow full-page chip ads from big EETimes advertisers has kept the rag in print the last few years.
By
Michael Barr, at 1/29/2008 2:46 PM
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