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An Introduction to Embedded Systems
Florian Lechner, Daniel Waltercsad5478@uibk.ac.at, csae8958@uibk.ac.atNovember 8, 2006
Abstract
This text provides a brief introduction to the widefield of embedded systems. It covers the history andthe main aspects of hard- and software design forembedded systems. The basic concepts of synthe-sis and automated verification are introduced anda short overview of well-known metrics, which areused to describe the economical and technical at-tributes of a system, is provided. Additionally thedifferences between commonly used operating sys-tems are discussed.
1 Introduction
Embedded systems are computers which are part of special-purpose devices. Due to the limited dutiesthis systems can be highly optimized to the par-ticular needs. Traditionally most of this systemsare used for control and process measurement, asa side-effect of higher integration of integrated cir-cuits more complex applications can be solved byembedded systems. To be able to solve this prob-lems embedded systems are commonly equippedwith various kinds of peripherals.Early applications of embedded devices includethe guidance computer of the Minuteman I missilesand the Apollo guidance computer. The Minute-man I & II missiles are intercontinental ballistic nu-clear warheads, produced by Boeing in the 1960’s.Due to the large quantities of ICs used in the guid-ance system of Minuteman II missiles, prices forICs fell from 1000$ each to 3$ each. This lead towide adoption of embedded systems in consumer-electronics in the 1980’s.Figure 1: Minuteman I Guidance SystemNowadays embedded systems can be found in de-vices from digital watches to traffic-control systems.The broad range of applications with totally dif-ferent requirements lead to various implementationapproaches. The range of hardware used in em-bedded systems reaches from FPGAs to full blowndesktop CPUs which are accompanied by special-purpose ICs such as DSPs.On the software side, depending on the needs,everything, from logic fully implemented in hard-ware, to systems with own operating system anddifferent applications running on it, can be found.1
 
2 Metrics for Embedded Sys-tems
In order to be able to compare different designs andapproaches, there need to be pre-defined, systemindependent, metrics. These can either be technicalspecifications or economical criteria.
2.1 Technical Metrics
Technical metrics are mainly used to compare tech-nical designs and specifications of embedded de-vices or to determine if technical requirements havebeen fulfilled.
Performance
describes the execution time orthroughput of the system.
Energy Efficiency
is an indicator for the amountof power consumed by the device.
Size
as a metric is used if there are constraints forphysical size (eg: pacemaker)
Flexibility
is a metric for ease of reconfigurationand reusability.
2.2 Economical Metrics
Economical metrics are mostly used to determinewhich COTS should be use or if the systems willbe brought into the market.
Unit Cost
describes the monetary cost if manu-facturing each copy of the system, excludingNRE cost.
Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE)
are theone-time monetary cost of designing thesystem.
Flexibility
in a economical sense describes theability to change the functionality of the sys-tem without incurring heavy NRE cost.
Time to Market
indicates the amount of time todevelop a system to the point that it can bereleased and sold to customers.
3 Hardware Platforms
Based on the metrics, introduced in the above sec-tion, processors for embedded systems can be dis-tinguished by the grade of customization they grantand the performance they achieve.
3.1 Standard General Purpose Pro-cessors
Standard general purpose processors (SGPP) arecarefully designed and offer a maximum of flexibil-ity to the designer. Programming SGPPs can bedone in nearly every high-level language or assem-bly language and requires very little knowledge of the system architecture.As SGPPs are manufactured to high numbers,NRE is spread upon many units. NeverthelessSGPPs are more expensive then other solutions likeFPGAs or single purpose processors, when used inproducts with a large number of selling units.As they are produced to work in a broad rangeof environments they are not designed to be energyefficient nor high-performance for specific applica-tions.Examples for standard general purpose proces-sors are:
•
Motorola ARM
•
Atmel AVR
•
Microchip PIC
•
Intel Pentium-(I/II/III/IV)-Series
•
AMD Athlon (or other)
•
VIA EDEN
3.2 Standard Single Purpose Pro-cessors (SSPP)
Standard single purpose processors, sometimescalled peripherals, are ”off-the-shelf” pre-designedprocessors, optimized for a single task, such as dig-ital signal processing, analog to digital conversion,timing, etc.SSPPs are manufactured in high quantities, soNRE is spread upon many units. The total costsper SSPP unit are lower than for custom single pur-pose processors.2
 
3.3 Custom Single Purpose Proces-sors (CSPP)
As the name suggests, custom single purpose pro-cessors are designed for a very specific task. Thisimplies, less flexibility, longer time-to-market andhigh costs. On the other hand CSPP can be de-signed to be very small, fast and power-efficient.Examples for such CSPP are FPGAs or moregeneral PLDs.
3.4 Application Specific Instruction-Set Processors (ASIP)
ASIPs are basically standard general purpose pro-cessors which are extended by domain-specific in-structions. This allows domain-relevant tasks tobe performed highly optimized, while keeping theflexibility of general purpose processors.
4 Specification/Design of Em-bedded Systems
When designing an embedded system, usually, thefirst step is to specify the intended or required func-tionality. This is mostly be done using natural lan-guage, after the functionality is specified it is for-malized in some sort of definition language suchas VHDL or Verilog. Subsequently the resultingdesign is converted into hardware or software com-ponents which are then implemented.
Abstraction
The Gajski-Kuhn Y-chart (Figure 3) visualizes thedifferent layers of abstraction, which can be usedin the design process. This abstraction allows thedesigner to focus on different aspects of the behav-ioral, structural and geometrical design of the em-bedded system.
Automation
Nowadays, there is software which can automatesome of the steps mentioned above. Especially theprocess of transforming a formalized description toan actual implementation in hard- or software isFigure 2: Designprocess for a embedded systemcommonly automated. This proofs to be challeng-ing due to it’s inherently high complexity. Fur-thermore optimization of the given design metricsmust be taken into account when implementing for-mal descriptions into actual hard- or software. Tocounter this problems, the whole system is dividedinto smaller parts, which can be transformed usingalgorithms which are based on complex heuristics.As the quality of the implementation heavily de-pends on the quality of the algorithms used to pro-duce it, software for automated implementation of formalized designs usually costs in the range from100$ up to several 10000$.3
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khateem

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09 / 16 / 2009
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