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A system is a way of working, organising or doing one or many tasks according to a fixed plan, program or set of
rules. A system is also an arrangement in which all its units assemble and work together according to the plan or
program.
Embedded System:
An embedded system is a system that has embedded software and computer-hardware, which makes it a system
dedicated for an application(s) or a specific part of an application or product or a part of a large system.
An embedded system is any device that includes a programmable computer but is not itself intended to be a
general-purpose computer.
Embedded systems are electronic systems that contain a microprocessor or microcontroller, but we do not think
of them as computers the computer is hidden or embedded in the system.
An embedded system is a system whose principal function is not computational, but which is controlled by a
computer embedded within it. The computer is likely to be a microprocessor or microcontroller. The word
embedded implies that it lies inside the overall system, hidden from view, forming an integral part of the greater
whole.
An embedded system is a microcontroller-based, software-driven, reliable, real-time control system; autonomous
or human- or network-interactive, operating on diverse physical variables and in diverse environments, and sold
into a competitive and cost-conscious market.
The processor is an important unit in the embedded system hardware. It is the heart of the embedded system.
Knowledge of basic concept of microprocessors and microcontrollers is must for an embedded system design.
Microprocessors:
Integrated circuit semiconductor chip that performs the bulk of the processing and control the parts of a system.
A device that can function as the central processing unit of the computer and consists of one or more integrated
circuits or chips.
Microcontrollers:
A control device which incorporates the microprocessor.
A processor has two essential units: program flow Control Unit (CU) and Execution Unit (EU).
The CU includes the fetch-unit for fetching instructions from the memory.
The EU has circuits that implement the instructions; pertaining to data transfer operations and data conversion
from one form to another. The EU includes the Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) and also the circuits that execute
instructions for a program control task; say halt, interrupt or jump to another set of instructions. It can also
execute instructions for a call or branch to another program and for a call to a function.
A processor runs the cycle of fetch-and-execute. The instructions, defined in the processor instruction set, are
executed in the sequence that they are fetched from the memory.
A processor is in the form of an IC chip; alternatively, it could be in core form in an Application Specific Integrated
Circuit (ASIC) or System on Chip (SoC). Core means a part of the functional circuit on the Very Large Scale
Integrated (VLSI) chip.
Microprocessor:
The microprocessor is a single VLSI chip that has a CPU and may also have some other units (e.g., caches, floating
point processing arithmetic units, pipelining and super-scaling units) that are additionally present and that result
in faster processing of instructions.
High-performance processors have pipeline and superscalar architecture, fast ALUs and floating point processing
units (FLPUs). [The pipeline architecture means that the instructions have between 3 and 9 stages. Different
instructions are at different stages of the pipeline at any given instance. A superscalar architecture refers to 2 or
more set of instructions executing in parallel pipelines.]
A microprocessor is used as a general-purpose processor when large embedded software has to be loaded in the
external memory chips.
Microcontroller:
A microcontroller is an integrated chip that has processor, memory and several other hardware units in it; these
form the microcomputer part of the embedded system. Just as a microprocessor is the most essential part of a
computing system, a microcontroller is the most essential component of a control or communication circuit. A
microcontroller is a single chip VLSI unit, which, though having limited computational capabilities; possesses
enhanced input output capabilities and a number of on-chip functional units. Microcontrollers are particularly
suited for use in the embedded systems for real-time control applications with on-chip program memory and
devices. A few of the latest microcontrollers also have dual core and high computational and superscalar
processing capabilities.
The microcontroller is used when a small or part of the embedded software is to be located in the internal
memory and when onchip functional units such as the interrupthandler, port, timer, and ADC, PWM and CAN
controller are required.
Power Source:
For processing units, a highly stable oscillator is required and the processor clockout signal provides the clock for
synchronising all the system units with the processor.
When a program executes the program counter increments or changes. An important circuit that associates a
system is its reset circuit that can change the program counter to a powerup default value. A program that is
reset and runs on a powerup can be one of the following:
1. A system program that executes from the beginning,
2. A system bootup program,
3. A system initialisation program.
The watchdog timer reset is a required feature in control applications.
Memory:
A system connects to external physical devices and systems through parallel or serial I/O ports. The demultiplexers and multiplexers facilitate communication of signals from multiple channels through a common path.
A system often networks to other devices and systems through an I/O bus: for example, I2C (Inter-Integrated
Circuit), CAN (controller area network), USB (Universal Serial Bus), ISA (Industry Standard Architecture), EISA
(Extended Industry Standard Architecture) and PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus.
ADC (Analog to Digital Conversion) using PCM (Pulse Code Modulation):
This requires a reduction of the potentiality infinite of values in an analog message so that they can be
represented as a digital stream with a minimum loss of information. Here, PCM is used. PCM is actually made up
of four separate processes: PAM, quantization, binary encoding, and digital-to-digital encoding. PAM (Pulse
Amplitude modulation) takes an analog signal, samples it, and generates a series of pulses of any amplitude based
on the results of the sampling. (The term sampling means measuring the amplitude of the signal at equal
intervals.) Next, quantization is done on the PAM pulses. (Quantization is a method of assigning integral values in
a specific range to sampled instances.) Values found from the quantization process are then translated into its nbit binary equivalent. The MSB (Most Significant Bit) of these bits may indicates the sign. The binary digits are
then transformed into a digital signal using one of the many available digital-to-digital encoding techniques.
The term duty cycle describes the proportion of 'on' time to the regular interval or 'period' of time; a low duty
cycle corresponds to low power, because the power is off for most of the time. Duty cycle is expressed in percent,
100% being fully on.
For automatic control and signal processing applications, the system provides necessary interfacing circuit and
software for the Digital to Analog Conversion (DAC) unit and Analog to Digital Conversion (ADC) unit. A DAC
operation is done with the help of a combination of a PWM unit in the microcontroller and an external integrator
chip. ADC operations are required for data acquisition, image processing, voice processing, video processing,
instrumentation and automatic control systems.
The system may need the necessary interfacing circuit and software for the output to the LCD display controller
and the LED interfacing ports or for the (I/O) s with the touchscreen.
For inputs, a keypad or board may interface to a system. The system provides necessary interfacing circuit and
software to receive inputs directly from the keys or through controller.
In communication system, a pulse dialler, modem or transceiver is used. The system provides the necessary
interfacing circuit and software for dialling and for the modern and transceiver, directly or through a controller.
Interrupt handler:
The system may possess a number of devices and the system processor has to control and handle the
requirements of each device by running an appropriate ISR (interrupt service routine) for each. An interrupts
handling mechanism must exist in each system to handle interrupts from various processes and for handling
multiple interrupts simultaneously pending for service.
The system provides an interrupt handling mechanism for executing the ISRs in case of the interrupts from
physical devices, systems, software instructions and software exceptions.
Final stage software is also called the ROM image. The final machine implementable software for a product
embeds in the once programmable flash or ROM (or PROM) as an image in a frame. Bytes at each address must be
defined to create the ROM image. By changing this image, the same hardware platform will work differently and
can be used for entirely different applications or for new upgrades of the same system.
Program Models for Software Designing:
(Clock Rate Reduction), (Voltage Reduction), (Wait, Stop and Cache Disable Instructions), (Process Deadlines),
(Flexibility and Upgrade ability), and (Reliability).
Classification of Embedded Systems: