UML has been accepted by the mainstream software and systems design community as a de facto standard, but it is still meeting a lot of resistance from the embedded community. This is coming to a head as more complex systems are being rolled out with tighter design cycles and more stringent requirements. Case in point, the Toyota Prius has much more complex control software than usual in it�s famed power train, but apparently that software still has a bug or two in it. This is evidenced by the stalling problems that first surfaced on Edmunds.com and was subsequently reported on nationally by CNN at Prius hybrids dogged by software.

The question becomes when problems like this become serious enough to drive embedded developers to formal systems design methodologies. Granted, real-time software has it�s own set of problems that are often not well-addressed by standard design tools, but real-time extensions are available from a number of vendors that address this problem. There have been any number of tool companies that have attempted to survive selling design tools that assist embedded developers, and there is a graveyard of bodies for their efforts. When will this cycle finally end?