\section{Introduction}

Philips Research is exploring ways to increase the software productivity
for consumer appliances, see figure~\ref{fig:SWPresearchGoals} which
summarizes the research goals of the software productivity and component research.

\FigureImposeWidth{SWPresearchGoals}{Software productivity and components research goals}
{.8\textwidth}

The business rationale of this research is that creators of consumer appliances
are strugling with the exploding amount of software needed in these appliances.
As customers of semiconductor companies they are looking for ways to cope with the
software.  See section~\ref{sec:SSScustomersProblem} for a description of the customer
viewpoint.

One of the dominant solution directions is buying software from third
parties, such as the suppliers of the hardware. For semiconductor companies it
is no longer sufficient to sell hardware only, a system solution is being asked for.
See section~\ref{sec:SSSsemiconductorViewpoint}

