Subject Name :Embedded Systems & RTOS

Prepared by,
Ambika Naik Y
• Module 1 :
INTRODUCTION TO EMBEDDED SYSTEMS:
An embedded system, Processor in the
system, Hardware units, Software
Embedded into a system, Exemplary
Embedded Systems, Embedded System - on
- chip (SOC) and in VLSI circuit.
 What is an Embedded System?
• An embedded system is a microprocessor or
microcontroller based system having computer
hardware and software as its main components.
• It is a dedicated computer based system for an
application or product. It may be an
independent system or part of a large system
Ex: MP3 players, mobile phones, video game consoles, digital
cameras, DVD players, and GPS. Household appliances, such
as microwave ovens, washing machines and dishwashers,
include embedded systems to provide flexibility and
efficiency.
 Embedded system

• Its software embeds in the ROM(read only memory).

• It does not need any secondary memories as in a
computer
 How does embedded system work?
1. Embedded systems are managed by MC or DSP,
application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field-
programmable gate arrays (FPGA), GPU(graphics
processing unit) technology, and gate arrays.
2. These processing systems are integrated with
components dedicated to handling electric and/or
mechanical interfacing.
3. Embedded systems firmware, are stored in ROM,
running with limited computer hardware resources.
4. Embedded systems connect with the outside world
through peripherals, linking input and output
devices.
 COMPONENTS OF AN EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

1.Its has hardware

~Processor, timers, interrupt controller, I/O devices,
memories, ports etc
2.Its has main application software
~Which may perform concurrently the series of tasks or
multiple tasks
3.It has RTOS
~RTOS defines the way the system works, which
supervise the application software.it sets the rules
during the execution of the application program. A small
scale embedded system may not need an RTOS
EMBEDDED SYSTEM HARDWARE
 EMBEDDED SYSTEM HARDWARE
1.Power supply
• It has a specific operation range
• ex:
– 5 V ± 0.5 V
– 1.8V to 3.3 V 
• The power supply should be smooth and should be efficient so
that continuous power supply can be provided to an embedded
system.
2.Reset circuit
• Processor starts the processing of instruction from a starting
address
3.Oscillator circuits
• To generate clock signal
• Clock controls & synchronizes all system unit with the processor
 EMBEDDED SYSTEM HARDWARE
4.Processor
• Heart of embedded system hardware
• There are two essential units of a processor:
i) program flow and data path control unit (CU)
Includes a fetch unit for fetching instructions from the
memory
ii) execution unit (EU)
Includes circuits for athematic and logical unit (ALU) and for
instructions for a program control task
i.e data transfer instructions, halt ,interrupt, call a subroutine,
reset etc
 EMBEDDED SYSTEM HARDWARE
5.Timer
• Configure in the clock system
• It is a real time clock (RTC)
6.Memory
• Program memory- RAM
• Data memory –ROM
7.Input devices interfacing/output
interfacing/driver circuits
8.Interrupt controller
Classification of Embedded System
Based on performance and microcontroller,
Embedded System are of three types: 
1. Small Scale Embedded System
2. Medium Scale Embedded System
3. Sophisticated Embedded System
 Small Scale Embedded System
1. Single 8 bit or 16 bit Microcontroller
2. Little hardware and software complexity
3. They may even be battery operated
4. Usually c is used for developing these system
5. The need to limit power dissipation when system
is running continuously
Programming tool:
Editor, assembler, cross compiler
Example : simple temperature measurement
embedded system, a robotic arm controller, etc
 Medium Scale Embedded System
1. Single or few 16 or 32 bit microcontrollers or digital signal
processors(DSP) or Reduced instructions set
computers(RISC)
2. may also have multiple such microcontrollers or DSPs
3. RTOS (Real Time Operating System) is used in such systems. 
4. Both hardware and software complexity
Programming tools:
RTOS, Source code engineering tool, simulator, debugger
and Integrated development environment (IDE)
Example : routers for networking, ATM (is. Automated Teller
Machine for bank transactional machines etc.
 Sophisticated Embedded System

1. Enormous hardware and increased software complexity

2. May need scalable processor or configurable processor
and PLA (programmable logic array)
3. Constrained by the processing speed available in their
hardware units
Programming Tools
these systems may not be readily available at a reasonable
cost or may not be available at all.
A compiler or re targetable compiler might have to be
developed for this
Example : systems used for cutting edge applications like
smart phones, multimedia systems etc.
PROCESSOR IN AN EMBEDDED SYSTEM
1. A processor is the heart of an
embedded system
2. For an embedded system designer,
knowledge of MP & MC is must.
PROCESSOR OF AN
EMBEDDED SYSTEM HAS OPERATION OF THE UNIT:
TWO ESSENTIAL UNITS:
CONTROL UNIT (CU) FETCH
EXECUTION UNIT (EU) EXCEUTE
 PROCESSOR IN THE SYSTEM
1. Control unit : includes fetch unit for fetching
instruction from memory
2. Execution unit: includes circuits to
implement data transfer & data conversion
operations… This includes ALU and Program
Control Task(interrupt, jump or halt)
• Processor runs the cycles of fetch & execute
• Processor is in the form of IC chip/ASIC/SOC
 CONTROL UNIT 

• The control unit (CU) is a component of a

computer's central processing unit (CPU) that directs
the operation of the processor.
• It tells the computer's memory, arithmetic and logic
unit and input and output devices how to respond to
the instructions that have been sent to the processor.
• It directs the operation of the other units by
providing timing and control signals.
• Most computer resources are managed by the CU. It
directs the flow of data between the CPU and the
other devices.
 EXECUTION UNIT 
• An execution unit (also called a functional unit)
performs the operations and calculations as instructed
by the computer program.
• It may have its own internal control sequence unit,
which is not to be confused with the CPU's main control
unit, some registers,
• and other internal units such as an arithmetic logic
unit(ALU), address generation unit(AGU), floating-point
unit(FPU), load-store unit(LSU), branch execution
unit(BEU)or some smaller and more specific
components.
• It is common for modern CPUs to have multiple parallel
execution units.
VARIOUS PROCESSORS IN EMBEDDED SYSTEM
 Processor Selection For An Embedded System
• System designer should consider the following for
processor selection:
1. Instruction set
2. Maximum bits in an operand (8 or 16 or 32) in a
single arithmetic or logical operation
3. Clock frequency in MHz
4. processing speed in million instruction per second
(MIPS)
5. Processor ability to solve the complex algorithms
used in meeting the deadlines for their processing.
Other Hardware Units
 5. Memories
Various Forms of System Memory

Internal RAM at SOC Internal External Flash/ ROM/ Memory

RAM at or External cache RAM EEPROM PROM address at
Micro- RAM chips the system
controller ports
Internal and
external
Functions Assigned To Memories In an
Embedded System
 Software Embedded Into A System

1. Software is the brain of the embedded

system
2. Software is specific to a given application
3. Final stage software is known as ROM image
4. System requires BYTES at each ROM address
5. A machine implementable software file is
therefore like a table of address and bytes at
each address of the system memory
 ROM IMAGE
• Final stage software is called “ROM image”
• Just as an image is a unique sequence and
arrangement of pixels ---
embedded software also has a unique
placement and arrangement at each
ROM address of bytes for instructions
and data.
The final machine implementable software (shown
in previous slide) consists of :
1. Boot up program
2. Stack address pointer
3. Program counter
4. Address pointer
5. Application tasks
6. ISR(Interrupt Service Routine) , also called an
interrupt handler
7. RTOS
8. Input data
9. Vector address
1.There is a distinct ROM image in a every
Embedded System
2. Hardware elements between the
distinct systems can be identical but it is
the software that makes a system unique
and distinct from the other
Final machine software comprises of the following --
1. Bytes at each address defined for creating the
ROM image.
2. By changing this image, the same hardware
platform works differently and can be used for
entirely different applications.
3. Distinct ROM image in a distinct Embedded
System.
4. Compressed Codes and Data ROM image may
alternatively be compressed software (for
example, the zip format) and data.
 1.Converting ALP Into Machine Implementable
Software File And Obtaining ROM Image File

Steps in converting ALP to ROM image

1. Assembling
2. Linking
3. Reallocating
4. Locating
5. Generation of ROM image file
-- before finally being burned on the ROM
converting ALP into machine implementable software file and
obtaining ROM image file
 2. Converting C program into ROM image

Steps to convert c program ROM image

1. Generation of object codes
2. Assembling
3. Compiling
4. Linking
5. Creating the ROM image
-- before finally being burned on the ROM
• Compiler
Generates an object file. Using linker and
locator, the file for ROM image is created for the
targeted hardware. C++ and Java are other
languages used for software coding.
 Converting c program into ROM image
• Coding in ALP is time consuming hence we go for C , C++,
JAVA etc

Conversion process
C program to ROM image
Examples of an embedded system
 Embedded SOC and use in VLSI
• An SoC is specially designed to meet the standards of incorporating the required
electronic circuits of numerous computer components onto a single integrated
chip. Instead of a system that assembles several chips and components onto a
circuit board, the SoC fabricates all necessary circuits into one unit.
• An SoC usually contains various components such as:
1. Operating system
2. Utility software applications
3. Voltage regulators and power management circuits
4. Timing sources such as phase lock loop control systems or oscillators
5. A microprocessor, microcontroller or digital signal processor
6. Peripherals such as real-time clocks, counter timers and power-on-reset
generators
7. External interfaces such as USB, FireWire, Ethernet, universal asynchronous
receiver-transmitter or serial peripheral interface bus
8. Analog interfaces such as digital-to-analog converters and analog-to-digital
converters
9. RAM and ROM memory
10.PLD and FPGA
Design Process In Embedded Systems
 DESIGN METRICS OF EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
• A Design Metric is a measurable feature of the system’s performance,
cost, time for implementation and safety etc.
• Most of these are conflicting requirements i.e. optimizing one shall
not optimize the other-- e.g. a cheaper processor may have a lousy
performance as far as speed and throughput is concerned.

1. NRE cost (nonrecurring engineering cost): It is one-time cost of

designing the system. Once the system is designed, any number of
units can be manufactured without incurring any additional design
cost; hence the term nonrecurring.
 
2. Unit cost: The monetary cost of manufacturing each copy of the
system, excluding NRE cost.

3. Size: The physical space required by the system, often measured in

bytes for software, and gates or transistors for hardware.
 Contd…
4. Performance : The execution time of the system
 
5. Power Consumption: It is the amount of power consumed by the
system, which may determine the lifetime of a battery, or the
cooling requirements of the IC, since more power means more heat.

6. Flexibility: The ability to change the functionality of the system

without incurring heavy NRE cost. Software is typically considered
very flexible.
 
7. Time-to-prototype: The time needed to build a working version of
the system, which may be bigger or more expensive than the final
system implementation, but it can be used to verify the system’s
usefulness and correctness and to refine the system’s functionality.
 Contd…

8. Time-to-market:The time required to develop a system to the

point that it can be released and sold to customers. The main
contributors are design time, manufacturing time, and testing time.
This metric has become especially demanding in recent years.
Introducing an embedded system to the marketplace early can make
a big difference in the system’s profitability.
 
9. Maintainability:It is the ability to modify the system after its initial
release, especially by designers who did not originally design the
system.
 
10. Correctness:This is the measure of the confidence that we have
implemented the system’s functionality correctly. We can check the
functionality throughout the process of designing the system, and we
can insert test circuitry to check that manufacturing was correct