I feel it necessary to point out that it is only due to the ill-informed impressions of product management (the king) that an embedded computer is called for. The electrical engineer wisely answers the king's question, rather than pointing out that the project could be accomplished with a quenchable-core transformer, thus the existence of toasters decades before the existence of embedded computing. I also feel it necessary to point out that the electrical engineer must feel lucky to be alive, as product management never opts for simplicity. That said, when I looked up "toaster schematic" it appears that experimenters these days are all fucking around with 555 timers, probably because you can breadboard them without fucking around with house current. Probably for the best.