Review on Embedded Systems and the Internet of Things: Comparative Study

Nowadays, thanks to the explosion of the Internet of Things or IoT, any object for public or industrial use can be connected to the Internet and become connected. Which requires companies to follow this explosion and to make improvements on their products to meet the evolving needs of human society. Going back before the explosion of the IoT, the business life was based on the embedded system concept. The latter is the combination of software and hardware, with fixed or programmable capabilities and it is specifically designed for a type of a particular application. This article presents a definition and a comparative study of a set of microcontrollers, boards, and operating systems the most used in IoT projects. Additionally, this comparative study helps us focus on the transition from embedded to IoT, by discussing the evolution of embedded systems.