VDC indicates that North American and European COTS (commercial, off the shelf) merchant board, system, OS and SW development tools shipments comprised over $2.3 billion in 2003, with a projected Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.27% over the period 2003-2008. Shipments of COTS merchant computer boards to these markets were over US$ 670 million in 2003 This is expected to grow to US$ 835 million in 2008. Shipments of COTS integrated systems/subsystems accounted for just over US$ 1.6 billion in revenues in 2003, and are projected to grow to almost US$ 2.2 billion in 2008. Shipments of embedded OSs/RTOSs and software development tools, combined, comprised over US$ 120 million in shipments to the COTS market in 2003. This is expected to increase to over US$ 217 million in 2008.