Distributors target embedded designs

Steve Clark, Arrow's director of engineering and marketing in Northern Europe, says the role of embedded systems in modern electronics has never been more important.

"Traditionally many distributors have managed linecards that offer the various semiconductor components on which to base an embedded design. However, today's customers expect much more than simple availability of product," says Clark.

Time and resource pressures on OEMs and ODMs mean that distributors are expected to offer advice and guidance on component selection, technical support for the design-in of those components and trained engineering specialists who can work closely with in-house engineering teams to bring together all aspects of the hardware and software in the shortest time possible.

"The ability to continually reduce time-to-market by relying increasingly on external support has been helped greatly by the availability and ease of use of tools such as development kits and reference designs. Historically such tools have been based around supplier-specific kits that aid evaluation of a particular company's technology," says Clark.

However, as designs become more sophisticated, requiring the integration of sophisticated semiconductors, multiple interfaces, and advanced software, customers have started to demand more.

"This is why today's distributors need to augment access to conventional reference designs and starter kits by offering a multi-layer development and support environment that can be quickly and easily customised to the needs of a given customer and applications," says Clark.

Embedded Live 2010 is now taking delegate registrations for the UK exhibition which takes place at Earls Court, London 20-21 October 2010.

Confirmed exhibitors include: NXP Semiconductor, RS, ARM, Tektronix, Nokia - Qt Software, XJTAG, Pebble Bay Consulting and Pico Technology.

To register please visit the Embedded Live website registrations page.