Embedded systems design breaks with traditional system design as it must jointly take into account extra-functional conflicting requirements such as performance, low energy consumption, autonomy, dependability and a short time-to-market. It raises important research challenges including modelling the interaction between a system and its physical environment, component-based construction from heterogeneous components, resource-aware compilation, adaptive QoS management, automatic code generation and deployment. This special issue, organized by the ArtistDesign European Network of Excellence, focuses on design approaches guaranteeing essential system properties and allowing to determine trade-offs between conflicting design requirements. It seeks original contributions to theory, methods and tools advancing the state-of-the-art on rigorous embedded system design.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
•Domain-specific languages and programming models
•Model-based design
•Frameworks for component-based design
•Performance and timing analysis
•Power and thermal optimization and management
•Compiler technology for resource awareness
•Tools, techniques, and algorithms for architectural exploration
•Rigorous implementation techniques for MPSoC and NoCs
•OS and middleware support for embedded applications
•Applications and/or industrial experiences