Having delivered embedded software to the industry now for over 30 years, I did not, and I don't think anyone could have, anticipated the prominence software would come to hold in embedded systems, nor the fact that software costs would far exceed hardware costs. Chips are now fully application-centric (as opposed to the old, generic chips), due in large part to the advances in embedded software to support the increased performance and complexity of modern processors. The shift to processors as a commodity with software determining their functionality, applications, and performance, grew out of the development of software standards.

See more at: http://www.embedded.com/design/operating-systems/4008150/2028-Open-source-is-out-app-centric-chips-are-in