Kunal Kandekar wrote:
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The first type is almost not "embedded" anymore, because the processors are 16 to 32 bit types, with plenty resources, and generally an OS to manage them. It is thus more abstracted from the hardware. Where's the fun in that?? :-))

...Unless you work within the OS/kernel level and below, down to the hardware. There's lots of fun to be had there! I have to flip back and forth between 8-bit and 32-bit realms within any given day. There are some employers/clients out there using the 32-bit systems that place value on the skills you'll develop designing lots of performance and functionality into small 8-bit systems.

When working within the OS level and below, I don't find the work to be that much different between 8 and 32-bit systems. They all have peripherals whose control bits need to be twiddled, status registers that need to be checked, etc. The thing I do find different is the scale of effort above the OS/hardware level. On a 32-bit system I can be a one-man-show at and below this level, but above it, there is usually a team of people implementing the application functionality. I like that layer insulating me from the feature frenzy!