This week EmbeddedDIRT added a LinkedIn Group, EmbeddedDIRT.com as well as a new Facebook Page, also EmbeddedDIRT.com. 

The LinkedIn group enables people to connect one-on-one in a more professional environment. And the Facebook page makes it easier for members to post their observations and comments for all to see ... as well as to conduct informal polls of the embedded community.  If you are an engineer, manager or marketer involved in embedded computing, you are invited to join the EmbeddedDIRT.com LinkedIn Group and to "Like" the EmbeddedDIRT.com Facebook Page.  And you are also invited to follow EmbeddedDIRT on Twitter @EmbeddedDIRT.

CES 2012 is now underway and starting today Intel is giving away 10 Ultrabooks.  An Intel tweet invites you to stop by their booth at CES for a chance to win one.  I can't help but wonder if this new Ultrabook initiative from Intel will have any more impact than their now forgotten Mobile Internet Device (MID) initiative.  Remember when Intel announced a prototype MID at the Intel Developer Forum in Spring 2007 in Beijing?  No?  That's what I suspected; because, as far as I know, most of the mobile Internet devices in use today are powered by ARM processors.

I am not an Apple groupie.  And I actually admire Intel.  (I remember when the 4004 was introduced.  We were in awe pondering the possibilities.)   But it seems to me that now is the time for Intel to take a page or two from Apple's playbook and consider where the technology could take us in the future ... rather than concentrating on alternatives to today's hot products.

Microsoft is a marketing company.  A marketing company that is pulling out of the CES.  What should this tell you about your trade show plans?

I like trade shows, always have.  They are a great place to discuss real products, with real engineers, who are working on real projects.  But it has been my observation that for some time now trade shows in the embedded space are becoming more regional ... and smaller (in terms of "real" attendees as well as in terms of exhibitors).  Thus the number of "real" business leads generated by the trade show portion of the marketing budget has also been on the decline ... even if the trade show budget has not (been declining).

My point:  If a marketing company like Microsoft is questioning their trade show budget, what should you be doing (about your trade show budget)?  No easy answers here, just lots of questions.  As Frank Shaw, Corporate VP of Corporate Communications at Microsoft said in his recent press release, "Are we doing something because it’s the right thing to do, or because 'it’s the way we’ve always done it'?"

I submit that this is the question you should be asking your marketing department.

Smooth-Stone, a 2-year-old chip startup in Austin recently raised $48 million in first round financing. This money comes from a syndicate of three venture capital firms and three companies in the industry (including TI and ARM).  Analysts expect Smooth-Stone to deliver a line of ARM based energy-efficient processors geared toward the needs of server manufacturers.  Currently there are no ARM-based chips used in servers (although rumor has it that Marvell has a project in the works).  Thus to date Intel has a lock on much of the server market. 

But much to Intel's chagrin, despite their best efforts with the Atom, ARM based designs are carrying the day in the mobile market. Thus, even though they are huge and have enormous market share, things may get very interesting for Intel as the focus on power density in servers starts to heat up (pun intended).  My guess is that Smooth-Stone will also find manufacturers in the embedded space (as well as the server manufacturers they are targeting) very interested in their line of ARM based, server class processors.

Last week Freescale (formerly Motorola) announced an Intelligent Hospital Kiosk. I believe that the medical market offers significant opportunity for embedded computing manufacturers and integrators. But I find it hard to imagine that this will ever be a successful business for Freescale Semiconductor. Seems like Freescale would do better to spend their energies asking themselves how they can add value to the likes of Siemens, GE, Toshiba, Medtronic, etc. ... rather than how can they compete with them.

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