The concept of physical computing that encompasses writing code for physical gadgets like running motors or lighting LEDs is now and almost normal practice in modern programming and not a new concept.
The early 2000’s will be viewed as the start of the age of physical computing as it became more accessible through Arduino and the ability to port favorite programming languages to microcontroller platforms which in turn helped to blur the lines between big and micro computers.
It has been suggested that we are getting past the point of even distinguishing between hardware and software with physical computing being the natural evolution and culmination of this and the buzzword of the early 2000’s.
Arduino came in around 2005 making hardware hacking more accessible and cheaper but the PICAXE in the 90s also had a similar concept to Arduino with a bootloader that let you program it using a computer serial port.
