Challenges in Embedded Programming.

Compared to traditional computing plaforms, programming on embedded systems (IoT devices) has the following challenges.

• Small memory footprint (say, 16KB flash memory and 8KB SRAM for data)
• Simple UI (say, a few buttons, LEDs, a simple LCD display)
• Most applications have no file systems. Adding SD card interface requires SD card interface device driver. (Device driver and file system support software can be provided by micro-controller vendor and third party middle-ware provider.)
• "Bare-metal" devices with no OS. There is one application and maybe a number of interrupt-driven processes at your service.
• There could be RTOS with very small memory footprints and need very low processing overhead. Some might only be able to provide task scheduling and basic task management features.
• PC/MAC/workstation are still required for software development. Then you will need tools to transfer the developed program code to the micro-controllers (flash memory programming).