Many products on the market require options or accessories that are important to the customer, but not are not similar technically to the primary product. A cable set top box remote<\/a> is a good example.\u00a0 Customers expect a cable set-top box to have a remote, but the low power microcontroller embedded in the remote is likely to be completely different from the high power processor and OS driving the set-top box functions.\u00a0 Similarly, Industrial or commercial equipment may have optional modules to provide additional functionality like a cellular modem.\u00a0\u00a0 These optional modules have independent processors and embedded software which is unrelated to the primary product software.<\/p>\n In these cases, software companies will choose to focus their development resources on the primary product, recognizing that it is more cost effective to outsource the software development for the ancillary embedded products to a company that is familiar with embedded microcontrollers and the constraints that come with low power operation. If that company can design the hardware and perform SMT assembly too, it becomes an even better value.<\/p>\n The software is deeply embedded and invisible to the user<\/strong><\/p>\n Successful software companies are highly focused on the customer experience with their product. They are constantly refining the look and feel of the industrial design and user interface to make the product more attractive, and easier to use.\u00a0 But what if the product doesn\u2019t have a user interface?\u00a0\u00a0 What if it is a router or a motor controller? <\/a>\u00a0Products like these need a simple interface for initial configuration, but they typically operate in the background, invisible to the customer.\u00a0 In this case the goal is to optimize for cost and performance rather than user experience.\u00a0 Deeply embedded applications without a sophisticated customer facing interface\u00a0 are ideal to outsource to a company like PNC because the product requirements are centered on the embedded functionality – there is no need to maintain the same look and feel as the company\u2019s customer facing products.<\/p>\n The application requires specialized expertise<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>Sometimes a software company needs embedded expertise that it just doesn\u2019t have in-house.\u00a0 For example, they may need a Zigbee or Bluetooth RF stack, or expertise with digital signal processing on low power Digital Signal Processors DSP. <\/a>\u00a0In some challenging embedded applications, a company may need a partner with the expertise to\u00a0 iterate the design of both the hardware and software simultaneously to arrive at an optimized embedded solution.\u00a0 In that case you need a full service provider like PNC.<\/p>\n PNC offers the full solution to developing embedded products<\/strong><\/p>\n When it comes to product development, PNC is not just a PCB manufacturer.\u00a0 The engineers at PNC can work with you to design and manufacture the product hardware, and then develop the embedded software to run on that hardware.\u00a0\u00a0 If you have a challenging embedded software or hardware project, contact PNC today and find out how they can help.<\/p>\n![\"Embedded](\"https:\/\/www.pnconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Embedded-software-development-along-with-PCB-Assembly-1-300x169.jpg\")
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