Computing platforms that are embedded within larger systems they control, called embedded systems, are inherently very complex as they are responsible for controlling and regulating multiple system functionalities. Often embedded systems are also safety-critical requiring high degree of reliability and fault tolerance. Examples
include distributed microprocessors controlling the modern cars or aircrafts and airport baggage handling system that track and trace unsafe baggage. To address this growing need for safety and reliability, formal techniques are increasingly being adapted to suit embedded platforms. There has been widespread use of synchronous languages such
as Esterel for the design of automotive and flight control software that requires stronger guarantees. Languages like Esterel not only provide nice features for high-level specification but also enable model checking-based verification due to their formal semantics. Other semiformal notations are also being proposed as standards to specify industrial embedded systems using, for example, the newly developed IEC61499 standard for process control. This standard primarily focuses on component-oriented description of embedded control systems. The goal of this special issue is to bring together a set of high-quality research articles looking at different applications of formal or semiformal techniques in specification, verification, and synthesis of
embedded systems.

Topics of interest are (but not limited to):

* Verification of system-level languages
* Verification of embedded processors
* Models of computation and verification
* Models of computation for heterogeneous embedded systems
* IP verification issues
* Open system verification techniques such as module checking and applications of module checking
* Formal techniques for protocol matching and interface process generation
* Applications of DES control theory in open system verification
* Adaptive techniques for open system verification
* Verification techniques for automatic debugging of embedded systems
* Formal approaches for secure embedded systems
* Hardware-software coverification of embedded systems
* Compositional approaches for SOC verification
* Verification of distributed embedded system

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's
Author Guidelines, which are located at
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/es/guidelines.html. Authors should
follow the EURASIP Journal on Embedded Systems manuscript format
described at the journal's site
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/es/. Prospective authors should submit
an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal's
Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/, according to the
following timetable:

Manuscript Due August 1, 2008
First Round of Reviews November 1, 2008
Publication Date February 1, 2009