Mobile phones, refrigerators, stoves, dishwashers, microwave ovens, washers, driers—all of these consumer products are controlled by embedded computers.

Take cell phones for example. We don't think of the phone as being controlled by a computer, but we can configure the phone's functions, send messages to our friends, and play computer games with the phone's touch pad and screen.

With this in mind, "An embedded computer is a computer used for a specific purpose, such as controlling or monitoring a larger machine or device."

In addition, embedded computers must be able to respond in real time. Embedded computers are programmed by the manufacturer of the machine or device, whereas the user of the device configures the device, and uses its various functions.

The term "embedded computer" refers more to embedding the computing power into a device, instead of embedding the computer physically in the device. The computer in a cell phone is an example of an embedded computer that is an embeddable module, but other applications use standalone embedded computers.

The embedded computer family of embedded computers offered by Moxa is one example of standalone embedded computers.