Embedded computers: software cost considerations

There is a special subset of the total set of electronic data processors that is growing in importance, especially to the Air Force. This class of computers possesses several unique features that cause software development to be very expensive with relation to the number of lines of code required to make them run. This paper describes some of these unique features and illustrates how they tend to drive software costs upwrard. Potential solutions to the high cost of software problem in this area are offered which, as the reader will find, are tentative at best since we have only recently begun to investigate in depth the intricacies of what we call "embedded computers."