CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION
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System: A system is a way of working, organizing 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.

System examples:
Watch: It is a time display SYSTEM
Parts: Hardware, Needles, Battery, Dial, Chassis
and Strap
 INTRODUCTION……CONTD

Rules of the watch system

1. All needles move clockwise only
2. A thin needle rotates every second
3. A long needle rotates every minute
4. A short needle rotates every hour
5. All needles return to the original position after 12 hours
 INTRODUCTION……CONTD
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What is an Embedded System ?

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

What is Real Time?

Real Time: the actual time during which a process or event occurs.

• Not all embedded systems exhibit real-time behavior, but, all real-time systems
are embedded.
 A Real-time Embedded system are designed and installed to carry out specific
tasks within a pre-defined time limit.
Eg. GPS tracking system, DVD player
 CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EMBEDDED SYSTEM

The important characteristics of an embedded system are:

 Speed (bytes/sec) : Should be high speed

 Power (watts) : Low power consumption
 Size and weight : As far as possible small in size and low weight
 Accuracy (% error) : Must be very accurate
 Adaptability: High adaptability and accessibility.
 Reliability: Must be reliable over a long period of time.
Common Applications of RTES

•Flight control
•Space missions
•Railway switching systems
•Military systems
•Plant monitoring
•Automotive applications
•Robotics
•Virtual / augmented reality, etc
 CATEGORIES OF EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

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Embedded systems can be classified into the following categories based on

their functional and performance requirements.
 CATEGORIES OF EMBEDDED SYSTEMS….cont
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 Real-time embedded systems:

 An embedded system which gives the required output in a specified time

or which strictly follows the time deadlines for completion of a task

There are two types of Real time systems.

(i) Soft real time system and (ii) Hard real time system.

 Soft Real-Time system: A Real time system in which, the violation of

time constraints will cause quality degradation, but the system can
continue to operate

Ex: A Microwave Oven, washing machine, and TV remote etc.

 CATEGORIES OF EMBEDDED SYSTEMS….cont
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 Hard Real-Time system: A Real time system in which, the

violation of time constraints will cause critical failure and
loss of life or property damage or catastrophe.

Example : Deadline in a missile control embedded system ,

Delayed alarm during a Gas leakage, car airbag control system , A
delayed response in pacemakers of aerodynamics, Failure in RADAR
functioning etc.
 CLASSIFICATIONS OF EMBEDDED SYSTEM

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 Small Scale Embedded System:

• Single 8 bit or 16bit Microcontroller.
• Little hardware and software complexity.
• They May even be battery operated.

 Medium Scale Embedded System:

 Single or few 16 or 32 bit microcontrollers
 Both hardware and software complexity.
 CLASSIFICATIONS OF EMBEDDED
SYSTEM….contd
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 Sophisticated Embedded System:

• Enormous hardware and software complexity
• Which may need scalable processor or configurable
processor and programming logic arrays.
• Constrained by the processing speed available in their
hardware units.
 A BASIC MODEL OF A REAL TIME EMBEDED SYSTEM

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• Real-time system includes various hardware and software

embedded in a such a way that the specific tasks can be
performed in the time constraints allowed.
• The e x t e n t o f accuracy and correctness involved in real- time
system makes the model complex.

BASIC MODEL OF
 Timing constraints
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What are timing constraints?

 Release time (when job is available for execution)

 Deadline (it should be get executed within that respective time)
 Completion time(Early or late with respect to the deadline)
 Response time (time between release time and completion time)
 Relative deadline(the maximum allowable response time of a job)
 Absolute deadline(Release time +Relative deadline)
 Modelling timing constraints
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 Modelling time constraints is very important since once a model of the

time constraints in a system is constructed, it can serve as a formal
specification of the system.

Use of timing constraints?

 Timing constraints are used to specify the timing characteristics of the
design.
 Timing constraints may affect all internal timing interconnections
 COMPUTER ORGANIZATION CONCEPTS AND MEMORY

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• The computer organization is concerned with the structure and behaviour of

digital computers.
• It acts as the interface between hardware and software.
• It deals with the components of a connection in a system.
• Computer Architecture helps us to understand the functionalities of a system.

Components of A General-Purpose Computer

A typical general purpose computer system can have one or more of the following
components.
1. A microprocessor
2. A large memory comprising the following two kinds:
• Primary memory (RAM, ROM and fast accessible caches)
• Secondary memory (magnetic memory located in hard disks, diskettes and cartridge
tapes, optical memory in CD-ROM or memory stick (USB sticks, memory cards)
 COMPUTER ORGANIZATION CONCEPTS AND MEMORY

3. Input units such as keyboard, mouse, scanner, etc

4. Output units like LCD screen, video monitor, printer, speaker etc.
5. Networking units like Ethernet card, bus, drivers, etc.
6. Operating system (OS).
7. General purpose user interfaces and application software
 COMPUTER ORGANIZATION CONCEPTS AND MEMORY
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General-purpose Microprocessor:
 CPU
 Commonly has no RAM, ROM, I/O in the CPU chip
 COMPUTER ORGANIZATION CONCEPTS AND MEMORY
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Components of an Embedded System

Microcontroller
• A single-chip computer
• On-chip RAM, ROM, I/O ports...
Example: Motorola’s 6811, Intel’s 8051, Atmel
128, Zilog’s Z8 and PIC 16X, Atmel328/ Arduino
etc.
 COMPUTER ORGANIZATION CONCEPTS AND MEMORY

Architecture of an Embedded System

ASIC: Application specific

integrated circuit
 MEMORY
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RAM is a direct access memory, meaning we can access the desired memory
location directly without the need for traversing through the entire memory locations
to reach the desired memory position (i.e. Random Access of memory location).

1. Static RAM (SRAM):

 Static RAM stores data in the form of Voltage.
 They are made up of flip-flops
 SRAM cell (bit) is realized using 6 transistors (or 6 MOSFETs). Four of the transistors
are used for building the latch (flip-flop) part of the memory cell and 2 for controlling
the access.
 Static RAM is the fastest form of RAM.
 MEMORY ….contd

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2. Dynamic RAM (DRAM)

 Dynamic RAM stores data in the form of charge.
 The advantages of DRAM are its high density and low cost compared to SRAM
 The disadvantage is that since the information is stored as charge it gets leaked
off with time and to prevent this they need to be refreshed periodically
 Special circuits called DRAM controllers are used for the refreshing
operation. The refresh operation is done periodically in milliseconds interval
 Memory selection for Embedded Systems
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• Selection of suitable memory is essential step in high performance applications, because

the challenges and limitations of the system’s performance is often decided by the type
of memory architecture.
• System's memory requirement depend primarily on the nature of the application
that is planned to run on the system.
• Memory performance and capacity requirement for low-cost systems are small,
whereas memory throughput can be the most critical requirement in a complex, high
performance system.

The following are the factors that are to be considered while selecting the memory
devices,
 Speed
 Data storage size and capacity
 Bus width
 Power consumption
 Cost
 EMBEDDED SYSTEM DESIGN PROCESS
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The embedded system design process aimed at two objectives.

A. First, it will give us an introduction to the various steps in embedded
system design
B. Second, it will allow us to consider the design methodology itself.

A design methodology is important for three reasons.

1. It allows us to keep a scorecard on a design to ensure that we have done
everything we need to do, such as optimizing performance or performing
functional tests.
2. It allows us to develop computer-aided design tools.
3. A design methodology makes it much easier for members of a design team to
communicate.

The below Figure summarizes the major steps in the embedded system design
process. In this top–down view, we start with the system requirements.
 EMBEDDED SYSTEM DESIGN PROCESS
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 DESIGN PROCESS OF EMBEDDED SYSTEM….contd
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The major areas of the design process are

Ensuring a sound software and hardware specification.
Formulating the architecture for the system to be designed.
Partitioning the h/w and s/w.
Providing an iterative approach to the design of h/w and s/w