Unit I -Introduction To Embedded Systems

Contents:Definition and classification Overview of processors and hardware units in an embedded system Software embedded into the system Exemplary embedded systems Embedded systems on a chip (SOC) and the use of VLSI designed circuits. 1. Definitions: Embedded System 1. An embedded system is a system that has software embedded into computer-hardware, which makes a system dedicated for an application(s) or specific part of an application or product or part of a larger system. 2. An embedded system is one that has dedicated purpose software embedded in computer hardware. Present Book 3. It is a dedicated computer based system for an application(s) or product. It may be an independent system or a part of large system. Its software usually embeds into a ROM (Read Only Memory) or flash. 4. It is any device that includes a programmable computer but is not itself intended to be a general purpose computer. Wayne Wolf 5. Embedded Systems are the electronic systems that contain a microprocessor or a microcontroller, but we do not think of them as computers the computer is hidden or embedded in the system. Todd D. Morton. Embedded systems three main components are 1. Embeds hardware to give computer like functionalities 2. Embeds main application software generally into flash or ROM. The application software which performs concurrently the number of tasks. 3. Embeds a real time operating system (RTOS), which supervises the application software tasks running on the hardware and organizes the accesses to system resources according to priorities and timing constraints of tasks in the system.

2. Classification of embedded system 1. Small scale embedded system Single 8/16 bit microcontroller with little hardware and software complexities Board level design, Battery operated Main programming tools: editor, assembler and cross assembler specific to uc/ processor C is usually used. Codes are compiled and executable codes are then appropriately located in the system memory. 2. Medium scale embedded system Single or few 16/32 bit microcontrollers/DSPs/ RISCs High hardware and software complexities Main programming tools: RTOS, Source code engineering tool, Simulator, Debugger and IDE. C is usually used. 3. Sophisticated embedded system Scalable processors/ configurable processors/ programmable logic arrays Enormous hardware and software complexities Part of the system functions is designed in hardware and remaining design in software Development tools used depend on the processor used (Compiler or retargetable compiler is developed) Embedded C / HDL 3. Overview of Processors A processor has essentially 2 parts. Program Flow and data path Control Unit (CU) includes a fetch unit for fetching instructions from the memory Execution Unit (EU) includes circuits for arithmetic and logical unit (ALU), and for instructions for a program control task, say, data transfer instructions, halt, interrupt, or jump to another set of instructions or call to another routine or sleep or reset. For an embedded system while choosing the processor the various factors to be considered are as following: Processor Instructions in the Instruction set Processor ability to solve the complex algorithms used in meeting the deadlines for their processing Maximum bits in operand (8 or 16 or 32) in a single arithmetic or logical operation Internal and External bus-widths in the data-path Clock frequency in MHz and processing speed (measured in MIPS or MFLOPS)

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

3.1. Types of Processors used in Embedded System 1. 2. 3. 4. General purpose microprocessor (GPP) Application Specific Instruction Set Processor (ASIP) Single purpose processors as additional processors GPP or ASIP cores integrated into either an ASIC or VLSI circuit or FPGA core integrated with processor units in a VLSI chip 5. Application Specific System Processor (ASSP) 6. Mutlicore processors or multiprocessors 1. General purpose microprocessor (GPP) GPP is general purpose processor with instruction set designed not for specific applications. GPP may be a a. Microprocessor b. Embedded processor 2. Application Specific Instruction Set Processor (ASIP) ASIP is a processor with instruction set designed for specific applications on a VLSI chip. ASIP may be a a. Microcontroller b. Embedded processor c. Digital signal processor d. Media processor a. Microprocessor: A microprocessor is a single VLSI chip that has a CPU and may also have some other additional units that aid in faster processing of instructions.

Note: a microprocessor is used when large embedded software is to be located in the external memory chips. RISC core microprocessor is used when intensive computations are to be performed.

b. Microcontroller

c. Embedded Processor For fast, precise and intensive calculations and for complex real time applications, the microprocessor and microcontrollers are not sufficient. A microcontroller or microprocessor which is specially designed to have the following capabilities then it is called as Embedded processor. 1. Fast context switching resulting in lower latencies of the tasks in complex real time applications 2. Atomic ALU operations and thus no shared data problem 3. RISC core for fast, more precise and intensive calculations by the embedded software. Important embedded processor chips for embedded systems are shown below. Stream 1: ARM family 7 and ARM family 9 Stream 2: Intel family i960 Stream 3: AMD family 29050

Figure 1.3 commonly used microcontrollers in small, medium and large scale embedded system d. Digital signal processor (DSP) The DSP as a GPP is a single chip VLSI unit. It possesses the computational capabilities of a micro processor and also has a MAC unit. A typical DSP unit has 16x32 MAC units. A DSP is an essential unit of an embedded system for a large number of applications needing processing of signals. Exemplary applications are in image processing, multimedia, audio, video, HDTV and DSP modem. A DSP has the following characteristics: Provides fast, discrete-time, signal processing instructions such as DCT/ IDCT VLIW processing capabilities Processes SIMD (single instruction multiple data) instructions faster

e. Media processor Processing signals for communication media (transport through media) Ex : TI DSP TMS320DM310 or Trimedia, Phillips Media Processor 1x00 series for Processing Streaming and Data Networks and Image, Video and Speech: PNX 1300, PNX 1500 (2002) 4. Single purpose processors as additional processors Single purpose processors used in embedded system for various applications. Some of them are given below. Co processor Graphics processor Pixel processor Encryption/ decryption engine DCT/IDCT processor Protocol Stack processor Network Processor Accelerator CODEC

5. GPP or ASIP cores GPP or ASIP cores integrated into either an ASIC or VLSI circuit or FPGA core integrated with processor units in a VLSI chip 6. ASSPs in embedded systems Typically a set top box processor or mpeg video-processor or network application processor or mobile application processor. 7. Multiprocessor or Multi-core processors Multiprocessor system for Real time performance in a video-conference system Embedded firewall cum router High-end cell phone

4. Hardware units in an Embedded System Different hardware units used to built an embedded system include power source unit, clocking unit, RTC and Timers, Memories, IO devices, buses and IO interfaces, Interrupt Handlers, DAC and ADC, LED and LCD, Keypad/ Keyboard, pulse dialer/modem/Transceiver, GBIP link, linking and interfacing buses and units. 5. Software embedded into the system The software is the most important aspect, the brain of the ES. The various software types that may be embedded in the system are given below. i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. Final machine implementable software for a product Coding of software in machine codes Software in processor specific assembly language Software in the high level language Software for device drivers and device management using an OS Software design for scheduling multiple tasks and devices using an RTOS Software tools in designing of an embedded system 6. Exemplary embedded systems Embedded systems have very diversified applications. A few select application areas of ES are Telecom, Smart Cards, Missiles and Satellites, Computer Networking, Digital Consumer electronics and Automotive. A. A few examples of small scale embedded system applications are as follows: Mobile phone, Digital camera, Robots, Point of sales terminals, Automatic Chocolate Vending Machine, Stepper motor controllers for a robotics system, Washing or cooking system, Multitasking Toys, Microcontroller- based single or multi-display digital panel meter for voltage, current, resistance and frequency, Keyboard controller, Serial port cards, CD drive or Hard Disk drive controller, Peripheral controllers,, a CRT display controller, a keyboard controller, a DRAM controller, a DMA controller, a printer-controller, a laser printer-controller, a LAN controller, a disk drive controller, Fax or photocopy or printer or scanner machine, Remote (controller) of TV, Telephone with memory, display and other sophisticated features, Motor controls Systems - for examples, an accurate control of speed and position of d.c. motor, robot, and CNC machine, the automotive applications like such as a close loop engine control, a dynamic ride control, and an anti-lock braking system monitor, Electronic data acquisition and supervisory control system, Spectrum analyzer, Bio-medical systems - for example, an ECG LCD display-cum-recorder, a blood- cell recorder cum analyzer, and a patient monitor system service. B.A few examples of medium scale embedded system applications are as follows: Computer networking systems ,- for examples, router, front-end processor in a server, switch, bridge, hub, and gateway ,For Internet appliances, there are numerous application systems- (i) Intelligent operation, administration and maintenance router (IOAMR) in a distributed network,

and (ii) Mail Client card to store e-mail and personal addresses and to smartly connect to a modem or server ,Banking systems - for examples, Bank ATM and Credit card transactions Signal Tracking Systems - for examples, an automatic signal tracker and a target tracker, Communication systems, for examples, such as for a mobile-communication a SIM card, a numeric pager, a cellular phone, a cable TV terminal, and a FAX transceiver with or without a graphic accelerator, Image Filtering, Image Processing, Pattern Recognizer, Speech Processing and Video Processing, Entertainment systems - such as video game, music system and Video Games, A system that connects a pocket PC to the automobile driver mobile phone and a wireless receiver. The system then connects to a remote server for Internet or e-mail or to remote computer at an ASP (application Service Provider), A personal information manager using frame buffers in hand- held devices, Thin Client to provide the disk-less nodes with the remote boot capability,[Application of thin- clients is accesses to a data center from a number of nodes; or in an Internet Laboratory accesses to the Internet leased line through a remote Server],Embedded Firewall / Router using ARM7/multi-processor with two Ethernet interfaces and interfaces support to for PPP, TCP/IP and UDP protocols C.A few examples of medium scale embedded system applications are as follows: Mobile Smart Phones and Computing systems, Mobile computer, Embedded systems for wireless LAN and convergent technology devices, Embedded systems for Video, Interactive video, broadband IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) Internet and other products, real time video and speech or multimedia processing systems, Embedded Interface and Networking systems using high speed (400 MHz plus) and ultra high speed (10 Gbps) and large bandwidth: - Routers, LANs, switches and gateways, SANs (Storage Area Networks), WANs (Wide Area Networks), Security products and High-speed Network security. - Gigabit rate encryption rate products

7. Embedded systems on a chip (SOC) and the use of VLSI designed circuits Recently ES are being designed on a single silicon chip called as SOC. SoC is a system on a VLSI chip that has all needed analog as well as digital circuits, processors and software, for example, single-chip mobile phone. SOC Embeds: Multiple processors, memories, multiple standard source solutions (IP Cores), Logic and analog units

Use of VLSI Designed circuits i. Embedding a Microprocessor General Purpose Processor (GPP) microprocessor can be embedded on a VSLI chip. Embedding an ASIP Processor with instruction set designed for specific application on a VLSI chip For example, microcontroller, DSP, IO, media, network or other domain specific processor Embedding a Multi-processor or Dual Core using General Purpose Processors (GPP) A GPP can be embedded on a VLSI chip. Examples are ARM7 and ARM9. ARM provides CISC functionality with RISC architecture at the core. Exemplary ARM9 applications are setup boxes, cable modems and wireless devices such as mobile handsets. IPs in SoC IP a standard source solution for synthesizing a higher-level component by configuring a core of VLSI circuit or FPGA core available as an Intellectual Property called (IP).

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High Level Components with gate level sophistication circuit much above level of counters and registers. Designer or designing company holds the copyright for the synthesized design of a higher-level component for gate-level implementation of an IP. One might have to pay royalty for every chip shipped. An embedded system may incorporate several IPs. v. An IP may provide a design for adaptive filtering of a signal. full design for implementing Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to transmit a web page or file on Internet. USB port controller, Bluetooth, GPS interface, Wireless 802.11or 802.16 interfaces FPGA Core Each cell has several inputs and outputs. All cells interconnect like an array (matrix). Each interconnection is programmable through the associated memory RAM in a FPGA programming tool. A concept is using FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) core along with single or multiple processors. Example is XC2VP125 system. It is an FPGA with 125136 Logic Cells along with the Four IBM PowerPC processors [Exemplary Application: System with a Data Encryption Engine at 1.5 Gbps]