20-01-2023

Introduction of Embedded
System
Pinalkumar Engineer

Embedded systems overview

• Embedded computing systems
̶ Computing systems embedded within electronic devices
̶ Hard to define. Nearly any computing system other than a desktop computer
̶ Billions of units produced yearly, versus millions of desktop units
̶ Perhaps 50 per household and per automobile
• Example (Automobile):
• As many as 100 embedded microprocessors and microcontrollers managing
• Engine ignitions and firing
• Transmission shifting
• Power steering
• Antilock braking system (ABS)
• Security System
• Passenger entertainment system
• TPMS

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Common Characteristics
• Single-functioned:
• An embedded system usually executes only one program, repeatedly.
• Tightly constrained:
• All computing systems have constraints on design metrics, but those on embedded systems can be
especially tight.
• such as cost, size, performance, and power.
• Embedded systems often must cost just a few dollars, must be sized to fit on a single chip, must
perform fast enough to process data in real-time, and must consume minimum power to extend battery
life or prevent the necessity of a cooling fan.
• Reactive and real-time:
• Many embedded systems must continually react to changes in the system’s environment, and must
compute certain results in real time without delay.
• For example, a car's cruise controller continually monitors and reacts to speed and brake sensors. It
must compute acceleration or decelerations amounts repeatedly within a limited time; a delayed
computation result could result in a failure to maintain control of the car.

Example:

Frank Vahid and Tony Givargis, “Embedded System Design: A Unified Hardware/Software Approach”

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Design challenge – optimizing design metrics

• Obvious design goal:
• Construct an implementation with desired functionality
• Key design challenge:
• Simultaneously optimize numerous design metrics
• Design metric
• A measurable feature of a system’s implementation
• Optimizing design metrics is a key challenge

Frank Vahid and Tony Givargis, “Embedded System Design: A Unified Hardware/Software Approach”
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Design challenge – optimizing design metrics

• Common metrics
• Unit cost: the monetary cost of manufacturing each copy of the system, excluding NRE cost
• NRE cost (Non-Recurring Engineering cost): The one-time monetary cost of designing the
system
• Size: the physical space required by the system
• Performance: the execution time or throughput of the system
• Power: the amount of power consumed by the system
• Flexibility: the ability to change the functionality of the system without incurring heavy NRE cost

Frank Vahid and Tony Givargis, “Embedded System Design: A Unified Hardware/Software Approach”
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Design challenge – optimizing design metrics

• Common metrics (continued)
• Time-to-prototype: the time needed to build a working version of the system
• Time-to-market: the time required to develop a system to the point that it can be released and
sold to customers
• Maintainability: the ability to modify the system after its initial release
• Correctness, safety, many more

Frank Vahid and Tony Givargis, “Embedded System Design: A Unified Hardware/Software Approach”
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Design metric competition -- improving one may

worsen others
• Expertise with both software and hardware is needed to optimize design metrics
• Not just a hardware or software expert, as is common
• A designer must be comfortable with various technologies in order to choose the best for a
given application and constraints Power

Performance Size

Digital camera chip

CCD NRE cost
CCD preprocessor Pixel coprocessor D2A
A2D
lens
JPEG codec Microcontroller Multiplier/Accum

DMA controller Display ctrl Hardware

Memory controller ISA bus interface UART LCD ctrl

Software

Frank Vahid and Tony Givargis, “Embedded System Design: A Unified Hardware/Software Approach”
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Time-to-market: a demanding design metric

• Time required to develop a product to the point it can be sold to customers
• Market window
• Period during which the product would have highest sales
• Average time-to-market constraint is about 8 months
• Delays can be costly

Revenues ($)

Time (months)

Frank Vahid and Tony Givargis, “Embedded System Design: A Unified Hardware/Software Approach”
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Losses due to delayed market entry

• Simplified revenue model
• Product life = 2W, peak at W
• Time of market entry defines a triangle, representing market penetration
• Triangle area equals revenue Peak revenue

• Loss Peak revenue from

delayed entry
• The difference between the on-time and delayed triangle areas On-time
Revenues ($)

Market rise Market fall

Delayed

D W 2W
On-time Delayed Time
entry entry

Frank Vahid and Tony Givargis, “Embedded System Design: A Unified Hardware/Software Approach”
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Losses due to delayed market entry (cont.)

• Area = 1/2 * base * height
• On-time = 1/2 * 2W * W Peak revenue
• Delayed = 1/2 * (W-D+W)*(W-D)
Peak revenue from
• Percentage revenue loss = (D(3W-D)/2W2)*100% On-time
delayed entry

Revenues ($)
• Try some examples Market rise Market fall

– Lifetime 2W=52 wks, delay D=4 wks Delayed

– (4*(3*26 –4)/2*26^2) = 22%

– Lifetime 2W=52 wks, delay D=10 wks
D W 2W
– (10*(3*26 –10)/2*26^2) = 50%
On-time Delayed Time
– Delays are costly! entry entry

Frank Vahid and Tony Givargis, “Embedded System Design: A Unified Hardware/Software Approach”
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NRE and unit cost metrics

• Costs:
• Unit cost: the monetary cost of manufacturing each copy of the system, excluding NRE cost
• NRE cost (Non-Recurring Engineering cost): The one-time monetary cost of designing the system
• total cost = NRE cost + unit cost * # of units
• per-product cost = total cost / # of units
= (NRE cost / # of units) + unit cost

• Example
– NRE=$2000, unit=$100
– For 10 units
– total cost = $2000 + 10*$100 = $3000
– per-product cost = $2000/10 + $100 = $300

Amortizing NRE cost over the units results in an

additional $200 per unit

Frank Vahid and Tony Givargis, “Embedded System Design: A Unified Hardware/Software Approach”
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NRE and unit cost metrics

• Compare technologies by costs -- best depends on quantity
• Technology A: NRE=$2,000, unit=$100
• Technology B: NRE=$30,000, unit=$30
• Technology C: NRE=$100,000, unit=$2

$200,000 $200
A A
B B
$160,000 $160
C C
tota l c o st (x1000)

p er p ro d uc t c ost
$120,000 $120

$80,000 $80

$40,000 $40

$0 $0
0 800 1600 2400 0 800 1600 2400
Numb er of units (volum e) Numb er of units (volu me)

• But, must also consider time-to-market

Frank Vahid and Tony Givargis, “Embedded System Design: A Unified Hardware/Software Approach”
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The performance design metric

• Widely-used measure of system, widely-abused
• Clock frequency, instructions per second – not good measures
• Digital camera example – a user cares about how fast it processes images, not clock speed or
instructions per second
• Latency (response time)
• Time between task start and end
• e.g., Camera’s A and B process images in 0.25 seconds
• Throughput
• Tasks per second, e.g. Camera A processes 4 images per second
• Throughput can be more than latency seems to imply due to concurrency, e.g. Camera B may process 8
images per second (by capturing a new image while previous image is being stored).
• Speedup of B over S = B’s performance / A’s performance
• Throughput speedup = 8/4 = 2

Frank Vahid and Tony Givargis, “Embedded System Design: A Unified Hardware/Software Approach”
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Embedded System Design approach

• Requirements:
• may be functional or nonfunctional.
• Typical nonfunctional requirements include:
• Performance, Cost, Physical size and weight, Power
consumption
• Inputs and outputs:
• Types of data: Analog electronic signals? Digital
data? Mechanical inputs?
• Data characteristics: Periodically arriving data, such
as digital audio samples? Occasional user inputs?
How many bits per data element?
• Types of I/O devices:
• Functions:
• Performance, manufacturing cost

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Embedded System Design approach

• Specifications:
• The specification is more precise—it serves as
the contract between the customer and the
architects.
• Requirement vs Specifications:
• You are shopping for a new laptop.
• Prime requirements might be weight, size of
memory and speed.
• Computer manufacturers create spec sheets
to cover almost all customer concerns in order
to make shopping for the right model easier.
You have probably used on-line programs that
let you “compare” items.
• Architecture design

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Architecture design, Components and System

Integration
• Traditional
• Design the hardware components
• Design the software components
• Bring them together
• Spend time testing and debugging the system
• Contemporary methodologies
• “Simultaneous” design of both the HW and SW components
• System-level requirements through trade-offs between HW and
SW

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Three key embedded system technologies

• Technology
• A manner of accomplishing a task, especially using technical processes,
methods, or knowledge
• Three key technologies for embedded systems
• Processor technology
• IC technology
• Design technology

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Processor technology
• The architecture of the computation engine used to implement a system’s
desired functionality
• Processor does not have to be programmable
• “Processor” not equal to general-purpose processor
Controller Datapath Controller Datapath Controller Datapath
Control index
Control Register Control logic Registers
logic
logic and file and State total
State register State
Custom +
register
ALU register
General
IR PC ALU IR PC
Data Data
memory memory
Program Data Program
memory memory memory
Assembly code Assembly code
for: for:

total = 0 total = 0
for i =1 to … for i =1 to …
General-purpose (“software”) Application-specific Single-purpose (“hardware”)

Frank Vahid and Tony Givargis, “Embedded System Design: A Unified Hardware/Software Approach”
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Processor technology
• Processors vary in their customization for the problem at hand

total = 0
for i = 1 to N loop
total += M[i]
end loop
Desired
functionality

General-purpose Application-specific Single-purpose

processor processor processor

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General-purpose processors
• Programmable device used in a variety of
applications Controller Datapath

• Also known as “microprocessor” Control Register

logic and file
• Features State
register
• Program memory General
• General datapath with large register file and general ALU IR PC ALU

• User benefits
Program Data
• Low time-to-market and NRE costs memory memory
• High flexibility Assembly code
for:
• “x86” the most well-known, but there are hundreds
of others total = 0
for i =1 to …

Frank Vahid and Tony Givargis, “Embedded System Design: A Unified Hardware/Software Approach”
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Single-purpose processors
• Digital circuit designed to execute exactly one
program Controller Datapath

• a.k.a. coprocessor, accelerator or peripheral Control index

logic
• Features total
State
• Contains only the components needed to execute a single register +
program
• No program memory Data
memory
• Benefits
• Fast
• Low power
• Small size

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Application-specific processors
• Programmable processor optimized for a
Controller Datapath
particular class of applications having common
characteristics Control
logic and
Registers

• Compromise between general-purpose and single- State

register
purpose processors Custom
ALU
• Features IR PC

• Program memory Data

Program memory
• Optimized datapath memory
• Special functional units
Assembly code
• Benefits for:

total = 0
• Some flexibility, good performance, size and power for i =1 to …

Frank Vahid and Tony Givargis, “Embedded System Design: A Unified Hardware/Software Approach”
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IC technology
• Three types of IC technologies
• Full-custom/VLSI
• Semi-custom ASIC (gate array and standard cell)
• PLD (Programmable Logic Devices)

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Design Technology
Compilation/ Libraries/ Test/
• The manner in Synthesis
IP Verification
which we System System Hw/Sw/ Model simulat./
Compilation/Synthesis:
convert our Automates exploration and
specification synthesis OS checkers
concept of insertion of implementation
desired system details for lower level.
Behavioral Behavior Cores Hw-Sw
functionality specification synthesis cosimulators
Libraries/IP: Incorporates pre-
into an designed implementation
implementation from lower abstraction level
RT RT RT HDL simulators
into higher level. synthesis
specification components
Test/Verification: Ensures
correct functionality at each
Logic Logic Gates/ Gate
level, thus reducing costly
specification synthesis Cells simulators
iterations between levels.
To final implementation

Frank Vahid and Tony Givargis, “Embedded System Design: A Unified Hardware/Software Approach”
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Summary
• Embedded systems are everywhere
• Key challenge: optimization of design metrics
• Design metrics compete with one another
• A unified view of hardware and software is necessary to improve productivity
• Three key technologies
• Processor: general-purpose, application-specific, single-purpose
• IC: Full-custom, semi-custom, PLD
• Design: Compilation/synthesis, libraries/IP, test/verification

Frank Vahid and Tony Givargis, “Embedded System Design: A Unified Hardware/Software Approach”
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Summary
• Embedded systems are everywhere
• Key challenge: optimization of design metrics
• Design metrics compete with one another
• A unified view of hardware and software is necessary to improve productivity
• Three key technologies
• Processor: general-purpose, application-specific, single-purpose
• IC: Full-custom, semi-custom, PLD
• Design: Compilation/synthesis, libraries/IP, test/verification

Frank Vahid and Tony Givargis, “Embedded System Design: A Unified Hardware/Software Approach”
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