Introduction to Embedded Systems

Lectures 1_2

Jamshaid Sarwar Malik

[email protected]

Introduction to Embedded Systems 1

 Introduction

• Self
• Class

Introduction to Embedded Systems 2

 Course Prerequisites
• Students should have the basic knowledge
of:
– Assembly language e.g. 8051, 8086 etc
– High level programming language e.g. C/C++
– Computer Architectures
– Operating Systems

Introduction to Embedded Systems 3

 Course Description
• Aim
– The basic aim of this subject is for the students to have
an overview of design and implementation of embedded
system design
• Focus
– To use a microprocessor e.g. NIOSII/TMS DSP as a main
component for a complete embedded system
– Learn and realize complete environment of an
Embedded System including
• Analog components
• Sensors and actuators
• PCB design
• Hardware design techniques

Introduction to Embedded Systems 4

 Text / Reference Books
• Course Book
– Embedded Systems Design: A Unified
Hardware/Software Approach
• Frank Vahid & Tony Givargis
• Reference Books
– Computers as Components
• Wayne Wolf
– Embedded Systems Design
• Steve Heath

Introduction to Embedded Systems 5

 Course Staff
• Course Incharge
– Jamshaid Sarwar Malik
[email protected]

• Lab Incharge
– Saba Zia
• Lab Assistants
– Jameel Nawaz
– Mehwish Awan

Introduction to Embedded Systems 6

 Course Structure
• 32 Lectures
• 4-6 Quizzes (in first 10-15 minutes, no make up
provision)
• 2 OHTs (First in 7th and second in 14th Week)
• 10 Labs & an Embedded Systems Design Project
(Project Report & Presentation due within 6 weeks
from issue date)
• Students shall work together in groups of 3-4
(depending on the no. of available boards) but
each student has to understand all lab tasks and
individually complete the preparation tasks

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 Course Structure

• Quizzes 10%
• Labs (Projects) 10%
• OHTs 30%
• Final Exam 50%

Important: 75% Attendance is mandatory in

order to be able to write final exam

Introduction to Embedded Systems 8

 Some basic ethics for my class
• DON’T play with your cell phones in the class.

• DON’T chatter in the class.

• You are welcome to leave and join back the class

any time without teacher’s permission.

• You can eat/drink in the class as long as it is

noiseless.

Introduction to Embedded Systems 9

 Tentative Lecture Breakdown
• Introduction
• Anatomy of Embedded Systems
– Processors
– Memory
– Cache
– Networks and Busses
– Processes and Operating Systems
– Peripherals
– DSPs
– Clocking
– Pipelining
– Transducers
– ADCs and DACs
• Special Topics
– High Speed PCB Design
– Hardware Design Techniques

Introduction to Embedded Systems 10

Introduction to Embedded
Systems

Introduction to Embedded Systems 11

 A Typical Embedded System Today
Alix.1C board with AMD Geode LX 800 (500 MHz) by PC Engines
(ref. wikipedia)
12
 Definitions
• An embedded system is a processor based system that
is NOT a general purpose computer.

• An embedded system is a computer system designed to

perform one or a few dedicated functions often with real-
time computing constraints.

• An Embedded System is usually dedicated for a single

purpose
– It can be highly optimized
– All extra features are a disadvantage as they cost extra money
and use extra power

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 Some Facts
• Embedded Systems are everywhere.
• Often the user of the embedded systems is not
even aware that a computer is present.
• Embedded : desktop = 100 : 1
• 99% of all processors are for the embedded
systems market.
• Today, average number of embedded processors
in a typical home is estimated at 50-60.
• A Typical modern automobile has more than 50
processors

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 A Short List of Embedded Systems

Home Appliances Dishwashers, microwave ovens, VCRs, televisions,

stereos, fire/security alarm systems, lawn sprinkler
controls, thermostats, cameras, clock radios, answering
machines.

Computers Printers, scanners, keyboards, displays, modems, hard

disk drives, CD-ROM drives

Laboratories Data collection, oscilloscopes, signal generators, signal

analyzers, power supplies.

Offices FAX machines, copiers, telephones, and cash Registers,

Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), pagers, cell phones

Medicine Imaging systems (e.g., XRAY, MRI, and ultrasound),

patient monitors, and heart pacers.

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 A Short List of Embedded Systems

Aerospace Navigation systems, automatic landing systems, flight

controls, engine controls, space exploration (e.g., the
Mars Pathfinder).

Communications Mobile phones, Digital Exchanges, Satellites, network

routers, switches, hubs

Automobile Fuel injection control, passenger environmental

controls, anti-lock braking, air bag controls,
GPS mapping.

Miscellaneous Wristwatches, video games, portable MP3 players, GPS

Industry Most of the modern production systems have one or

more embedded system

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 Common Characteristics of Embedded
Systems

• Single Function
– Usually execute a single task over and over
• Tightly Constrained
– Low power, low cost, small size, fast etc
• Reactive
– Continually react to the changes in systems’
environment
• Real-Time
– Must compute certain results in real-time
without delay

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 Real-Time System Definition

• Real-time system is one whose correctness

is dependent upon time. It can be:
– Hard Real-Time System
• Failure to meet response time constraints results in
complete failure
– Soft Real-Time System
• Failure to meet response time constraints results in
degraded performance.

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 A typical Embedded System – A Digital
Camera

Digital camera chip

CCD

CCD preprocessor Pixel coprocessor D2A

A2D

lens

JPEG codec Microcontroller Multiplier/Accum

DMA controller Display ctrl

Memory controller ISA bus interface UART LCD ctrl

• Single Functioned – Always a digital Camera

• Tightly Constrained – Low cost, Low Power, Small and
fast.
• Reactive and Real-time – to
Introduction a small
to Embedded extent
Systems 19
 Progress in Electronics

• Advances in electronics has made possible

the integration of more and more
functionality on a single chip

Introduction to Embedded Systems 20

 Progress in Electronics

• If automobile speed had increased similarly

over the same period, we could now drive
from San Francisco to New York in about 13
seconds (Intel)

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Growing Design – Productivity Gap

Introduction to Embedded Systems 22

 Emerging Architectures

• A system-on-chip architecture integrates several

heterogeneous components on a single chip
• Increasingly powerful applications are possible
• An efficient implementation requires many low-
level details

Introduction to Embedded Systems 23

 Embedded System Design:
A Challenging Task
• How much hardware is required?
– How big CPU and Memory?
• How to meet deadlines?
– Faster Hardware or Clever Software?
• How to minimize power consumption?
– Switch off unnecessary logic or reduce memory
accesses?

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 Design Metric Competition
• Successful implementation of the desired functionality
along with optimization of various design metrics
• Common Design Metrics
– Unit Cost and NRE Cost
– Size
– Performance: Execution time/throughput
– Power
– Flexibility: Possibility of reuse
– Time to prototype
– Time to market
– Maintainability
– Correctness, safety, etc
Improving one metric may worsen others
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 Time to market – A driving factor
• Time required to develop a product to the point it can be
sold to customers
• Market window
– Period during which the product would have highest sales
• Average time-to-market constraint is about 8 months

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 Delayed Market Entry is costly

• Simplified revenue model

– Product life = 2W, peak at W
Peak revenue
– Time of market entry defines
Peak revenue from

Revenues ($)
a triangle, representing On-time
delayed entry

market penetration Market rise Market fall

– Triangle area equals revenue Delayed

• Loss
– The difference between the D W 2W
On-time Delayed Time
on-time and delayed triangle entry entry
areas

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 Abstraction levels
• It is important to
work on the right
SYSTEM
level of abstraction
• The higher the level CHIP

of abstraction, the REGISTER

shorter the design
time GATE

• The lower the level CIRCUIT

of abstraction, the SILICON
more details can be
fine tuned

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Abstraction Levels

Introduction to Embedded Systems 29

Abstraction Levels

Introduction to Embedded Systems 30

Abstraction Levels

Introduction to Embedded Systems 31

 Future Embedded System Design

• Design productivity increases with the level

of abstraction
• Functional verification is very difficult at low
abstraction levels
• Efficient implementations require to exploit
the low-level features of the target
architecture

Introduction to Embedded Systems 32

 Embedded System Technologies
• Processor Technology
– General Purpose
– Single Purpose
– Application Specific
• IC Technology
– Full Custom/VLSI
– Semi Custom ASIC (Standard Cell)
– Programmable Logic (Gate Array)
• Design Technology
– Separate Hardware/Software Parts
– Hardware/Software Co-Design

Introduction to Embedded Systems 33

 Independence of processor and IC
technologies
• Basic tradeoff
– General vs. custom
– With respect to processor technology or IC technology
– The two technologies are independent

General- Single-
purpose ASIP purpose
General, processor processor Customized,
providing improved: providing improved:

Flexibility Power efficiency

Maintainability Performance
NRE cost Size
Time- to-prototype Cost (high volume)
Time-to-market
Cost (low volume)

PLD Semi-custom Full-custom

Introduction to Embedded Systems 34

 Microprocessors for Embedded Systems
• Microprocessors are
– flexible and easy to program
– Cheap
– Optimized
– come in several variations
• 4-bit, 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit
• general purpose or DSP
• But!!!!
• Include overhead in form of instruction decoding
• And memory access
• Thus!!!!!
• Microprocessors are used
– As key components in an embedded design
• Programmable Logic and ASICs are used
– For critical parts in a design
• An objective for an embedded system designer is to find the cheapest
solution that meets the requirements

Introduction to Embedded Systems 35

 Summary
• Embedded System are all around us
• Key Challenge is to optimize various design
metrics that compete with one another
• A unified hardware software view is
necessary to improve productivity
• Various design methodologies exist to help
us mange this challenging task
Don’t use a Core i7 to control the
airbag of a car

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