The Hardware Nodes of an embedded system may be physically distant, and each may be considered as an embedded system, and interacting with the physical world.

Each Hardware Node:

• can be considered as a separate Embedded System;
• may be implemented on a single chip, or across several chips;
• may be composed of one or more Processors, DSPs, FPGAs, ASICs, peripherals, connected by a Bus or Network;
• may have software that is shared and coordinated across several Hardware Nodes via a Middleware software layer.

A typical example of a Hardware Node in the automotive sector is the Electronic Control Unit (ECU).