The work presented in this book targets nomadic battery operated embedded systems. In this context, a large amount of related work exists. The goal of this chapter is to present a structured overview of the relevant related work in the design of embedded systems, which forms the broad context. The presented ordering will cover both the architectural as well as the related mapping aspects. An overview will be presented of the state of the art for the different components that form an embedded system. Specific related work and comparisons the individual contributions of this book will be presented in the respective chapters.