Assignment Set for Concept Building

(Taken from Exercises of book of Raj Kamal)

1. How does the processor, RAM, ROM and I/O units organized?
2. What is the significance of ARM processor?
Ans:
https://electronicsdesk.com/arm-processors.html

3. What are the advantages of internet enabled systems?

Ans:
: Businesses focus on getting products to the marketplace faster, adapting to regulatory
requirements, increasing efficiency, and most importantly, persisting to innovate. With a highly
mobile workforce, evolving customer, and changing supply chain demand, the IoT can move your
enterprise forward, starting todaySome advantages of internet enabled systems are that they can be
accessed from anywhere in the world, they are often more affordable than traditional systems, and
they can be more easily updated and customized.
4. What is a thread?
Ans:
A thread is the primitive that can execute code
A thread is a single sequential flow of control within a process
‘Thread’ is also known as lightweight process
A process can have many threads of execution
Different threads, which are part of a process, share the same address space; meaning they share
the data memory, code memory and heap memory area
Threads maintain their own thread
status (CPU register values),
Program Counter (PC) and stack.A thread otherwise called a lightweight process (LWP) is a basic unit
of CPU utilization, it comprises of a thread id, a program counter, a register set and a stack. It shares
with other
threads belonging to the same process its code section, data section, and operating system
resources such as open files and signals

5. Define critical section of a task.

Ans:
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/critical-section-problem#:~:text=The%20critical%20section%20is
%20a,execute%20in%20their%20critical%20sections.
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/g-fact-70/
A critical section of code, also called a critical region, is a code that needs to be treated indivisibly (as
an atomic instruction).
It is a section where shared variables can be accessed

6. What is an exception?
Ans:Exceptions are unexpected events which will disrupt the normal flow of execution of instruction
(that is currently executing by processor). An exception is an unexpected event from within the
processor.
Whenever an exception, the hardware starts executing the code that performs an action in response
to the exception. This action may involve killing a process, outputting an error message,
communicating with an external device, or horribly crashing the entire computer system by initiating
a “Blue Screen of Death” and halting the CPU. The instructions responsible for this action reside in
the operating system kernel, and the code that performs this action is called the interrupt handler
code

7. What is meant by a pipe?

Ans:A pipe is simply a set of storage locations, each big enough to hold a single data item of
user-defined byte length, access to which is controlled so that it may be safely utilized by
multiple tasks. Tasks can write to a pipe repeatedly until all the locations are full. Tasks can
read from a pipe and data is normally received on a first in, first out (FIFO) basis.

8. State importance of embedded system in real life.

Ans:
Embedded Systems: Applications: • Consumer electronics, e.g., cameras, camcorders, etc., •
Consumer products, e.g., washers, microwave ovens, etc., • Automobiles (anti-lock braking, engine
control, etc.,) • Industrial process controllers & avionics/defense applications •
Computer/Communication products, e.g., printers, FAX machines, etc.,
9. How does a pipe differ from a queue?
10. How an error handling task is executed on throwing the exception?
11. How does USB protocol function?
12. Critically investigate about the utility of context, interrupt latency and interrupt service deadline
in the field of embedded systems.
13. Describe properly about interrupt-servicing mechanism. What do you mean by nonmaskable
and maskable interrupts?
14. State and explain about the design challenges faced during the design process of an embedded
system.
Ans:

The newest wave of embedded systems is bringing innovation to a wide range of applications, often
using Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, including IoT security, robotics, medical devices,
autonomous vehicles, vision technologies, System-on-Chip solutions, and more.

The challenges in design of embedded systems have always been in the same limiting requirements
for decades: Small form factor; Low energy; Long-term stable performance without maintenance.
There are three common types of cyber-attacks targeting embedded systems:

a)Software-based: Malware, brute-forcing access, memory buffer overflow, web service exploits

b)Network-based: MITM (man in the middle), DNS poisoning, DDoS, session hijacking, signal
jamming

c)Side based: Power analysis, timing attacks, electromagnetic analysis

15. What is a serial port?

16. What do you mean by plug and play device?
17. What is PISO?
18. How synchronous communication is different from asynchronous communication?
19. Does a system clock always increment without stopping?
20. What is the utility of USB bus?
21. What do you mean by the buses for networking of serial devices and buses for networking of
parallel devices?
22. With neat diagram show how parallel port interfacing can be done with touch screen. 23. With
the help of block Diagram, establish CPU Interfacing With data and program Memory In PIC
microcontroller.
24. What is the advantage and disadvantage of of disabling interrupts from during the running of a
critical section of a process?
25. How does use of a counting semaphore differ from a mutex? Comment also about the
application process of counting semaphore.
26. Does PIC16F873 microcontroller use RISC architecture?
27. State the real life applications of PIC16F873 microcontroller.
28. What are the different specifications of PIC16F873 microcontrollers that are required to checked
before using it for any application?
29. What is Zigbee?
Ans: Zigbee is an IEEE 802.15.4-based specification for a suite of high- level communication
protocols used to create personal area networks with small, low-power digital radios, such
as for home automation, medical device data collection, and other low-power low-
bandwidth needs, designed for small scale projects which need wireless connection.Hence,
zigbee is a low-power, low data rate, and close proximity (i.e., personal area) wireless ad hoc
network.The technology
defined by the zigbee specification is intended to be simpler and less expensive than other
wireless personal area networks (WPANs), such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi . Applications include
wireless light switches, electrical meters with in-home-displays, traffic management
systems, and other consumer and industrial equipment that require short-range low- rate
wireless data transfer. Its low power consumption limits transmission distances to 10– 100
meters line-of-sight, depending on power output and environmental characteristics. Zigbee
devices can transmit data over long distances by passing data through a mesh network of
intermediate devices to reach more distant ones.

30. What is a protocol?

Ans:
What is a protocol? - A protocol is a set of rules and conventions that must be followed in order to
communicate using a particular system. In the context of this course, a protocol is a set of rules that
must be followed in order to communicate over the Internet.

[00:01:27] So when you're thinking about how the Internet works, you're really thinking about how
protocols work. So the two most common protocols that we use on the Internet are the Hypertext
Transfer Protocol, or HTTP, and the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, or SMTP. HTTP is the protocol
that's responsible for communicating content across the web.

[00:01:50] So every time you use a web browser, you're using HTTP. Every time you request a web
page, you're using HTTP. And every time you receive a web page, you're using HTTP. So if you're
looking at this course right now, this is being served to you via HTTP.

[00:02:07] SMTP is the protocol that's responsible for sending and receiving mail. So if you use an
email program like Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail, you're using SMTP to send and receive your
mail. So what's happening under the hood is that your email program

31. What is the full form of HDLC?

Ans: HDLC (High-level Data Link Control) is a group of protocols or rules for
transmitting data between network points (sometimes called nodes). In more
technical terms, HDLC is a bit-oriented, synchronous data link layer protocol created
by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
32. What is CAN bus?
Ans:CAN is a serial bus for interconnecting a central Control network. It is mostly used in
automobiles. It has fields for bus arbitration bits, control bits for address and data length
data bits, CRC check bits, acknowledgement bits and ending bits.

33. Is there any advantage of using freeware, GNU C/C++ compiler?

34. Explain the importance of the following declarations for real time application model: static,
volatile and interrupt in embedded C.
35. What is System-on-Chip (SoC) and IrDA?
36. What is validation?
37. What is synthesis?
38. What is a PIC microcontroller?
39. What is bit rate?
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/baud-rate-and-its-importance/
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/difference-btween-bit-rate-and-baud-rate/

40. What is baud rate?

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/baud-rate-and-its-importance/
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/difference-btween-bit-rate-and-baud-rate/

41. State the importance of DMA.

42. Why are the new age microcontrollers are smarter than the older ones?
43. Make a classification of PIC microcontrollers on the basis of internal structures.
44. What are the different memory options available for PIC microcontrollers?
45. Which is the entity controlling (scheduling) the transitions from one state to another in a task?
46. What is the importance of device management in an OS for an embedded system?
47. When is a message used and when does a system call for seeking access to system resources?
48. Give an example of deadlock situation during multiprocessing/multitasking execution.
49. Multitasking OS and Multitasking Scheduler - explain in terms of real life application.
50. Real time operating systems performance metrics are throughput, interrupt latencies, average
response times and deadline misses. Explain importance of each of these
metrics.
51. State and explain round robin scheduling in embedded systems.
Ans:
Each process in the ‘Ready’ queue is executed for a pre-defined time
slot.
The execution starts with picking up the first process in the ‘Ready’ queue. It is
executed for a pre-defined time

When the pre-defined time elapses or the process completes (before the pre-
defined time slice), the next process in the ‘Ready’ queue is selected for execution.
This is repeated for all the processes in the ‘Ready’ queue
Once each process in the ‘Ready’ queue is executed for the pre-defined time period,
the scheduler comes back and picks the first process in the ‘Ready’ queue again for
execution.
Round Robin scheduling is similar to the FCFS scheduling and the only difference is
that a time slice based preemption is added to switch the execution between the
processes in the ‘Ready’ queue

52. Any application based embedded software of a given system is built up after selecting an
appropriate programming languge. What are the criterias of choosing the appropriate
programming language?
53. Analyse the feature in C that makes it popular high level language for an embedded system.
54. Why do you break a program into header files, configuration files, modules and function?
55. Why do you use an infinite loop in embedded software? Explain with
proper justification.
Ans:The infinite loop is necessary because the embedded software's job is never done.
It is intended to be run until either the world comes to an end or the board is reset,
whichever happens first. In addition, most embedded systems have just one piece of
software running on them
56. How half duplex is different from full duplex?
Ans:https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/difference-between-simplex-half-duplex-and-full-duplex-
transmission-modes/

57. What is the need of handshaking signals?

58. What is the difference between serial port and parallel port?
59. What is the difference between counter and timer?
Ans:
A timer is a specialized type of clock which is used to measure time intervals. A timer that counts
from zero upwards for measuring time elapsed is often called a stopwatch. It is a device that counts
down from a specified time interval and used to generate a time delay, for example, an hourglass is a
timer.

A counter is a device that stores (and sometimes displays) the number of times a particular event or
process occurred, with respect to a clock signal. It is used to count the events happening outside the
microcontroller. In electronics, counters can be implemented quite easily using register-type circuits
such as a flip-flop.

Difference between a Timer and a Counter

The points that differentiate a timer from a counter are as follows −

https://www.tutorialspoint.com/embedded_systems/es_timer_counter.htm#:~:text=A%20timer
%20uses%20the%20frequency,external%20signal%20to%20count%20pulses.

60. State the difference between flip flop and latch.

Ans:https://www.elprocus.com/difference-between-latches-and-flip-flops/

61. What is the utility of RS232C port?

62. What are advantages of re-entrant functions in embedded system software?

63. State if any advantage of polymorphism while programming with C++?
64. State the utilities and features of JAVA that makes it a highly useful high level language for an
embedded system in many network related applications.
65. Each process or task has an endless loop in preemptive scheduler. How does the control of
resources transfer from one task to another?
66. What do you understand by throwing an exception? Evaluate the exception function handling
during execution of a routine.
67. Examine about the uses of hardware and software assigned priorities in an interrupt
mechanism.
68. What is a device driver?
Ans:
Device Drivers:
Device driver is a piece of software that acts as a bridge between the operating system and the
hardware
The user applications talk to the OS kernel for all necessary information exchange including
communication with the hardware peripherals
A device driver is software for controlling, receiving and sending byte or a stream of bytes from or to
a device.

69. What is soft real time and hard real time?

Ans:
Hard Time:
A Real Time Operating Systems which strictly adheres to the timing constraints for a task
A Hard Real Time system must meet the deadlines for a task without any slippage
Missing any deadline may produce catastrophic results for Hard Real Time Systems, including
permanent data lose and irrecoverable damages to the system/users
Emphasize on the principle ‘A late answer is a wrong answer’

Soft Time:

70. What is a buffer?