More than 60% of Embedded Linux Developers Rate Their Toolsets "Not Very Good" or only "Adequate"

SANTA CRUZ, CA, March 3, 2003 - Military/Defense applications development tops the list of target industries in Evans Data’s new Embedded Systems Development Survey conducted in January 2003. Developers are targeting Military/Defense industry embedded applications 26% more than in the July 2002 survey.

"This new survey shows that there has been a renewed emphasis on embedded development by government contracted development shops," said Tom Williams, Evans' embedded systems analyst. "Another surprising development is serial switched fabric interconnects which have tripled since the last survey and, although the number of adopters of this new technology is small, this growth might indicate a big future for embedded development."

Embedded Linux continues to find converts as over 50% of respondents are targeting the OS in their current or next project, up 5% from the previous survey. However, the new survey found that fewer than 20% of developers rated Embedded Linux toolsets "good" and only 5% rated them "excellent". More than 60% indicated that their toolsets are “not very good” or "adequate" thus showing a need for better tools.

Other findings from the survey of more than 400 embedded systems developers:

• Top difficulties developers face when migrating from an In-House OS to an Off-the-Shelf OS were licensing costs being too expensive at 24% and no compelling reason to change at 17%.
• The most important consideration in selecting an embedded operating system was real-time capabilities of the OS, 33%, twice the next closest, royalty-free licensing, 15%.
• The most critical hardware design issues are: performance, 27% and cost, 25%.

Evans Data Corporation provides regularly updated IT industry market intelligence based on in-depth surveys of the global developer population. Evans' syndicated research includes surveys focused on developers in a wide variety of subjects.

Copyright 2007 Evans Data Corporation. All other company names, products and services mentioned in this document are the trademarks and property of their respective owners.

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