I just wrote a post for an Infosec site, discussing some definitions of embedded systems. I survey some existing definitions, describe why I don’t feel they represent the current state of embedded systems, and offer another:
“It’s an embedded system if the end-user doesn’t control the code that it runs”.
Once an end user takes control of the code it changes from being an appliance and becomes a general purpose computer.
You used to be able to
read the whole post here: https://www.peerlyst.com/posts/what-is-an-embedded-system-martin-thompson but Peerlyst shut down and I didn’t archive my post :(