JAPAN & TAIWAN: According to the Japan Embedded Systems Technology Association (JASA), over the following five years, the next powerful driver of growth in the embedded system industry will be automobile electronics rather than 3C products.

Auto products are now tending towards digitalization and this is increasing the R&D period for car products. For instance, the number of ECUs (Engine Control Units) used in cars has increased to more than a hundred, which makes for higher complexity in software design. Thus, auto electronics is expected to be the fastest growing field for the embedded system industry.

Embedded systems promote continuous growth
The embedded systems industry has promoted continuous growth in recent years owing to the concept of the digital home and a good perspective for auto electronics. For example, the production value of Japan's embedded system industry rocketed from JPY49.7 trillion in 2004 to JPY62.2 trillion in 2007, and continues to grow at the rate of more than 10 percent annually.

Auto electronics, 3C products, mobile phones, and industrial automation have been the main applications of Japan's embedded system industry.

Embedded systems for auto electronics still underdeveloped
However, in the auto electronics field, embedded systems are still underdeveloped, compared with other IT fields such as mobile phones. Systems for mobile phones have entered a stage of maturity, featuring cost-down, market share expansion, and application and modularization of existing technologies. On the other hand, systems for auto electronics are still in the early stages of development, with all kinds of new technologies waiting to be introduced.

Many problems have been raised during the development, the first being the complexity of embedded software for auto electronics. JASA has pointed out that the Lexus LS460 system consists of more than 17 million lines of code; even if GPS functions are not counted, the code still numbers more than 7 million lines.

A study has even predicted that by 2015, code for such systems may reach 0.1 billion lines. Major car manufacturers such as TOYOTA, NISSAN, and GM have all found this to be an irresistible trend. Thus, it is clearly in the interest of embedded system providers to invest more in auto electronics product development in order to meet demand.

The second problem is the lack of industry talent, which is a global situation. To solve this problem, the industry is tending to outsource development tasks and re-divide labor. According to JASA, Japanese embedded system providers currently outsource their tasks mostly to China (39.3 percent) and India (18.8 percent), followed by the USA and Taiwan.

Although China is taking the biggest piece of the pie in outsourcing business from Japan, JASA points out that many Japanese companies outsource only low-end products. The organization has therefore predicted that Taiwanese suppliers may have more opportunities to acquire outsourced businesses from Japan in the future.
 
The final problem is quality improvement. The importance of product quality is continually highlighted by the industry since quality is strongly related to the safety of car users. But quality control may be compromised if tasks are outsourced to countries who lack the competence to meet safety standards.
 
JASA underlines that while the industry is working hard on quality enhancement, many suppliers are also eyeing another potential field — the robot industry. "The use of home robots is becoming more popular. Many Japanese car manufacturers are trying hard to find out what they can do for this emerging market," the organization said.