KC Prescott

When I started paying attention to the embedded systems world there were many factors that developers had to consider—physical form factor, I/O, how to shoehorn code into very limited on-board storage, and the like. Security was not, overall, something that made the list. Embedded systems were typically isolated and economically obscure, so they weren’t really worth the trouble to attack. Then came the Internet.

Today’s industrial factories stand in stark contrast to their predecessors. Past factories relied heavily on manual labor and simple machinery, characterized by repetitive tasks and limited automation. Modern factories, however, leverage advanced technologies such as industrial computers, robotics, and AI-driven systems for automation and process optimization.

Circuit Cellar | July 2025 The Brains of Modern Industry Modern factories have come a long way from the days of demanding dangerous jobs of manual riveting, welding, assembly, and many others. Today, precision robotics, sophisticated sensors, and data processing handle much of that work, powered by an ever-improving world of industrial computers. Today's industrial factories stand in stark contrast to their predecessors.