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Systems such as aircraft and consumer electronics have included embedded computers in their designs for several decades now. In these systems, software was usually treated as a component inside a box much the same way you would treat a circuit card assembly or a power supply. Requirements would flow down to the box specification and the box specification would then flow down to the components inside the box. But recently, several trends are changing the relationship between embedded software and the system as a whole. Many embedded computer systems now use network protocols and infrastructures similar to information systems deployed on commodity hardware. Systems with embedded computers now have expectations and requirements for extensibility similar to those of information systems where methodologies for extensibility are well established. But unlike information systems, systems with embedded software often have complex non-software elements and the software is not loosely coupled with the hardware. These systems require a synthesis of approaches.