What will system level design be when it grows up?

Abstract

We have seen a growing new interest in Electronic System Level (ESL) architectures, design methods, tools and implementation fabrics in the last few years. But the picture of what types and approaches to building embedded systems will become the most widely-accepted norms in the future remains fuzzy at best. Everyone want to know where systems and system design is going "when it grows up", if it ever "grows up". Some of the key questions that need to be answered include which applications will be key system drivers, what SW & HW architectures will suit best, how programmable and configurable will they be, will systems designers need to deal with physical implementation issues or will that be hidden behind fabric abstractions and programming models, and what will those abstractions and models be? Moreover, will these abstractions stabilize and be still useful as the underlying technology keeps developing at high speed?