Hi All,
I run a small software consulting business that builds desktop, server, web apps for our clients. Most of our clients are also small businesses, often without any in-house engineering resources.
Products like the Arduino have allowed me to begin to extend my services into basic hardware product development (with quite a bit of success). I had somewhat done this before by running Windows applications on small atom-based PCs (thus creating a hardware appliance running windows application without any hardware design required). Sure, the hardware and software was often overkill for the task at hand, but still cheaper and faster than building a custom piece of hardware.
I would like to advertise these services to potential clients, but I'm missing the terminology. Is there a term which describes the class of hardware devices which allow 'software guys' to make hardware things? Ideally, term would include embedded PCs. Something like 'Program and Deploy' hardware or 'Software Defined Appliances' or similar.
I'm hoping that one of you who have been in this space has heard a suitable term for these devices, or could give some input into coining a suitable term. Thank you!