Define Embedded Systems

Small (?) Application Specific Computer Systems

Typical Characteristics

Real time Small sized Low power Cost effective

Heterogeneous HW/SW Implementations of Embedded Systems

Cost
Only SW, Low cost and Low performance. Only HW, High cost and High performance. Mixed HW-SW, Medium cost and performance.

Performance

Additionally, flexibility and tight time to market requirements favour SW implementations.

System-on-Chip Design

Current day embedded systems utilize customized embedded processors Embedded processors have System-on-Chip (SoC) architectures SoC incorporate several different discrete cores on the same die. SoC design methodology strongly mirror boardlevel design. Hence, system-level hardware-software co-design has also been utilized for SoC design. This course will utilize platform FPGAs as a vehicle for SoC design.

Control Intensive versus Computation intensive

Control intensive application offer less opportunities for parallelism as opposed to computation intensive applications. Examples ???

Hence, control intensive applications are more amenable for micro-controller implementation.
Computation intensive applications are more amenable to custom-hardware (ASIC) or FPGA implementation.

Define Hardware-Software Codesign

It is the concurrent and co-operative design of hardware and software components of an embedded system.

HW Design Abstraction
Processor-Memory Level RT Level Logic Gates Transistors Polygons of Silicon

Levels of Design Abstraction

Digital System Design

Translation or Design Specification

Verification by Simulation

Traditional System-level Design Flow

Informal Specification, Constraints

System model

Architecture design

HW/SW implementation Fail Test Success Prototype

Implementation

Traditional System-level Design Flow

Lack of system-level performance evaluation HW/SW specification implemented before performance/energy/cost verification Long system-level design times Expensive under performance/energy/cost failures Over-design is common

System-level HW-SW Co-Design

Informal Specification, Constraints Component profiling

System model Performance evaluation HW/SW implementation Fail Test Success Prototype

Architecture design

Implementation

System-level HW-SW Co-design IDEA

Specification Components (HW,SW) HW behavior and components Memory hierarchy and mapping Constraints

System-level HW-SW Co-design Interconnect and buses SW behavior, RTOS, schedule policy and processors

Issues in System-level HW-SW Co-design

Specification of functionality and constraints. Simulation of functionality. Components as building blocks SW processors: DSP and Micro-controllers HW co-processors: ASICs, FPGA Storage elements: Cache, Scratchpad, SRAM, DRAM Interconnection elements: Buses and arbiters Interface and I/O units: DMA, UART, D/A, A/D, Wireless communication Software platform: RTOS and scheduling

Issues in System-level HW-SW Co-design

Performance analysis (timing, power, area)
Design and optimization (timing, power, area) Architecture selection: processing elements, memory units and inter-connect. RTOS and schedule scheme.

Attributes of Embedded computing

Real-time Operation. Sensing & Control. Low cost. Low power consumption. Dependable. Autonomous.

Where Embedded Systems are Used..? [1]

Current Accomplishments
Current Products: Automotive Control: Improved fuel efficiency. Avionics: Navigation, Collision avoidance. Medical Monitoring Systems. Smart Homes.(washing machines, Clocks etc.).

Future Uses:
Intelligent Highways. Chemical and Biological Sensors etc.

An Embedded Control System Designers View

A Customer View

Specification

A more precise description of the system:

should not imply a particular architecture; provides input to the architecture design process.

May include functional and non-functional elements. May be executable or may be in mathematical form for proofs.

GPS specification

Should include:
What is received from GPS; map data; user interface; operations required to satisfy user requests; background operations needed to keep the system running.

Architecture design

What major components go satisfying the specification? Hardware components:

CPUs, peripherals, etc.

Software components:
major programs and their operations.

Must take into account functional and nonfunctional specifications.

GPS moving map block diagram

GPS receiver

search engine

renderer

display

database

user interface

GPS moving map hardware architecture

display

frame buffer

CPU GPS receiver

memory

panel I/O

Processor Selection

Processor selection

Scope of Codesign

Steps

Steps Refined

Map between behaviour and architecture