Embedded System Design Concepts

Module –4

4.1 Characteristics and Quality Attributes of Embedded Systems

Characteristics of Embedded Systems

 Embedded systems possess certain specific characteristics. These characteristics are

unique to each embedded system.
 Some of the important characteristics of an embedded system are:
1. Application and domain specific
2. Reactive and Real Time
3. Operates in harsh environments
4. Distributed
5. Small size and weight
6. Power concerns

Application and Domain

Specific

 Each embedded system has certain functions to perform and they are developed in such a
manner to do the intended functions only.
 They cannot be used for any other purpose.
 For example, the embedded control unit of a microwave oven cannot be replaced with an
air conditioner's embedded control unit, because the embedded control units of
microwave oven and air conditioner are specifically designed to perform certain specific
tasks.
 Also, an embedded control unit developed for a particular domain, say telecom, cannot be
replaced with another control unit designed to serve another domain like consumer
electronics.

Reactive and Real Time

 Embedded systems are in constant interaction with the real world through sensors
and user-defined input devices which are connected to the input port of the system.
 Any changes happening in the real world (which is called an Event) are captured by
the sensors or input devices in Real Time and the control algorithm running inside
the unit reacts in a designed manner to bring the controlled output variables to the
desired level.
 Embedded systems procedure changes in output in response to the changes in the input.
So, they are generally referred as Reactive Systems.
 Real Time System operation means the timing behavior of the system should be
deterministic.
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 The system should respond to requests or tasks in a known amount of time.
 A Real Time system should not miss any deadlines for tasks or operations.
 It is not necessary that all embedded systems should be Real Time in operations.

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  Embedded applications or systems which are mission critical, like flight control systems,
Antilock Brake Systems (ABS), etc. are examples of Real Time systems.

Operates in Harsh Environment

 The environment in which the embedded system deployed may be a dusty one or a
high temperature zone or an area subject to vibrations and shock.
 Systems placed in such areas should be capable to withstand all these adverse
operating conditions.
 The design should take care of the operating conditions of the area where the system
is going to implement.
 For example, if the system needs to be deployed in a high temperature zone, then all
the components used in the system should be of high temperature grade. Also, proper
shock absorption techniques should be provided to systems which are going to be
commissioned in places subject to high shock.
 Power supply fluctuations, corrosion and component aging, etc. are the other factors that
need to be taken into consideration for embedded systems to work in harsh environments.

Distributed

 The term distributed means that embedded systems may be a part of larger systems.
 Many numbers of such distributed embedded systems form a single large embedded
control unit.
 For example, an automatic vending machine. It contains a card reader (for pre-paid
vending systems), a vending unit, etc. Each of them is independent embedded units
but they work together to perform the overall vending function.
 Another example is the Automatic Teller Machine (ATM). It contains a card reader
embedded unit, responsible for reading and validating the user's ATM card,
transaction unit for performing transactions, a currency counter for
dispatching/vending currency to the authorised person and a printer unit for printing
the transaction details.
 We can visualise these as independent embedded systems, but they work together to
achieve a common goal.
 Another typical example of a distributed embedded system is the Supervisory Control And
Data Acquisition (SCADA) system used in Control & Instrumentation applications, which
contains physically distributed individual embedded control units connected to a
supervisory module.

Small Weight and Size

 Product aesthetics is an important factor in choosing a product.

For example, when you plan to buy a new mobile phone, you may make a comparative study on the pros and
cons of the products available in the market.

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 Definitely the product aesthetics (size, weight, shape, style, etc.) will be one of the
deciding factors to choose a product.

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  People believe in the phrase "Small is beautiful". Moreover, it is convenient to handle
a compact device than a bulky product.
 In embedded domain also compactness is a significant deciding factor.
 Most of the application demands small sized and low weight products.

Power Concerns

 Power management is another important factor that needs to be considered in

designing embedded systems.
 Embedded systems should be designed in such a way as to minimize the heat
dissipation by the system.
 The production of high amount of heat demands cooling requirements like cooling
fans which in turn occupies additional space and make the system bulky.
 Select the design according to the low power components like low dropout regulators, and
controllers/processors with power saving modes.
 Also power management is a critical constraint in battery operated application. The more
the power consumption the less is the battery life.

Quality Attributes of Embedded Systems

 Quality attributes are the non-functional requirements that need to be documented

properly in any system design.
 If the quality attributes are more concrete and measurable it will give a positive impact on
the system development process and the end product.
 The quality attributes in any embedded system development are broadly classified into two:
• Operational Quality Attributes
• Non-Operational Quality Attributes

4.2 Operational Quality Attributes

 The operational quality attributes represent the relevant quality attributes related to
the embedded system when it is in the operational mode or 'online' mode.
 The important operational quality attributes are:
1. Response
2. Throughput
3. Reliability
4. Maintainability
5. Security
6. Safety
Response

 Response is a measure of quickness of the system.

 It gives you an idea about how fast the system is tracking the changes in input variables.
 Most of the embedded systems demand fast response which should be almost Real Time.

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  For example, an embedded system deployed in flight control application should respond
in a Real Time manner. Any response delay in the system will create potential damages to
the safety of the flight as well as the passengers.
 It is not necessary that all embedded systems should be Real Time in response. For
example, the response time requirement for an electronic toy is not at all time-critical.
There is no specific deadline that this system should respond within this particular
timeline.
Throughput

 Throughput deals with the efficiency of a system.

 Throughput can be defined as the rate of production or operation of adefined process over
a stated period of time.
 The rates can be expressed in terms of units of products, batches produced, or any
other meaningful measurements. In the case of a Card Reader, throughput means how
many transactions the Reader can perform in a minute or in an hour or in a day.
 Throughput is generally measured in terms of 'Benchmark’. A 'Benchmark' is a reference
point by which something can be measured. Benchmark can be a set of performance
criteria that a product is expected to meet or a standard product that can be used for
comparing other products of the same product line.

Reliability

 Reliability is a measure of how much percentage you can rely upon the proper functioning
of the system or what is the percentage susceptibility of the system to failures.
 System reliability is defined using two terms:
 Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF): Gives the frequency of failures in
hours/weeks/months.
 Mean Time To Repair (MTTR): Specifies how long the system is allowed to be out of
order following a failure. For an embedded system with critical application need, it should
be of the order of minutes.

Maintainability

 Maintainability deals with support and maintenance to the end user or client in case of
technical issues and product failures or on the basis of a routine system check-up.
 Reliability and maintainability are considered as two complementary disciplines.
 A more reliable system means a system with less corrective maintainability requirements
and vice versa.
 Maintainability can be broadly classified into two categories:
 Scheduled or Periodic Maintenance (preventive maintenance): For example,
replacing the cartridge of a printer after each 'n' number of printouts to get quality
prints.
 Maintenance to unexpected failures (corrective maintenance): For example,
repairing the printer if the paper feeding part fails.
 Maintainability is also an indication of the availability of the product for use.

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 In any embedded system design, the ideal value for availability is expressed as

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Security

 Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability are the three major measures of information
security.
 Confidentiality deals with the protection of data and application from unauthorized
disclosure.
 Integrity deals with the protection of data and application from unauthorized modification.
 Availability deals with protection of data and application from unauthorized users.
 A very good example of the 'Security' aspect in an embedded product is a Personal Digital
Assistant (PDA). The PDA can be either a shared resource (e.g., PDAs used in LAB
setups) or an individual one.
 If it is a shared one there should be some mechanism in the form of a user name and
password to access into a particular person's profile—This is an example of 'Availability’.
 Also, all data and applications present in the PDA need not be accessible to all users.
 Some of them are specifically accessible to administrators only.
 For achieving this, Administrator and user levels of security should be implemented —An
example of Confidentiality.
 Some data present in the PDA may be visible to all users but there may not be
necessary permissions to alter the data by the users.
 That is Read Only access is allocated to all users—An example of Integrity.

Safety

 Safety deals with the possible damages that can happen to the operators, public and
the environment due to the breakdown of an embedded system or due to the emission
of radioactive or hazardous materials from the embedded products.
 The breakdown of an embedded system may occur due to a hardware failure or a firmware
failure.
 Safety analysis is a must in product engineering to evaluate the anticipated damages
and determine the best course of action to bring down the consequences of the damages to
an acceptable level.
 Some of the safety threats are sudden (like product breakdown) and some of them are
gradual (like hazardous emissions from the product).
4.3 Non-Operational Quality Attributes

 The quality attributes that needs to be addressed for the product 'not’ on the basis of
operational aspects are grouped under this category.
 The important non-operational quality attributes are:
1. Testability & Debug-ability
2. Evolvability
3. Portability
4. Time-to-prototype and market
5. Per unit and total

cost Testability & Debug-ability

 Testability deals with how easily one can test his/her design, application and by which
means he/she can test it.
 For an embedded product, testability is applicable to both the embedded hardware
and firmware.
 Embedded hardware testing ensures that the peripherals and the total hardware
functions in the desired manner, whereas firmware testing ensures that the firmware
is functioning in the expected way.
 Debug-ability is a means of debugging the product as such for figuring out the
probable sources that create unexpected behaviour in the total system.
 Debug-ability has two aspects in the embedded system development context, namely,
hardware level debugging and firmware level debugging.
 Hardware debugging is used for figuring out the issues created by hardware problems
whereas firmware debugging is employed to figure out the probable errors that appear
as a result of flaws in the firmware.

Evolvability
  For an embedded system, the quality attribute 'Evolvability’ refers to the ease with which
the embedded product (including firmware and hardware) can be modified to take
advantage of new firmware or hardware technologies.

Portability

 Portability is a measure of 'system independence’.

 An embedded product is said to be portable if the product is capable of functioning 'as
such' in various environments, target processors/controllers and embedded operating
systems.
 A standard embedded product should always be flexible and portable.
 In embedded products, the term 'porting' represents the migration of the embedded
firmware written for one target processor (e.g. Intel x86) to a different target
processor (say Hitachi SH3 processor).
 If the firmware is written in a high level language like ‘C’, it is very easy to port the firmware
 If the firmware is written in Assembly Language for a particular family of processor (say
x86 family), the portability is poor.

Time-to-Prototype and Market

 Time-to-market is the time elapsed between the conceptualisation of a product and the
time at which the product is ready for selling (for commercial product) or use (for
non- commercial products).
 The commercial embedded product market is highly competitive and time-to-market
the product is a critical factor in the success of a commercial embedded product.
 Competitor might release their product before you do.
 The technology used might have superseded with a new technology.
 Product prototyping helps a lot in reducing time-to-market.
 Prototyping is an informal kind of rapid product development in which the important
features of the product under consideration are developed.
 The time-to-prototype is also another critical factor.
• If the prototype is developed faster, the actual estimated development time can be
brought down significantly.
• In order to shorten the time to prototype, make use of all possible options like the
use of off-the-shelf components, re-usable assets, etc.

Per Unit Cost and Revenue

 Cost is a factor which is closely monitored by both end user and product manufacturer.
 Cost is a highly sensitive factor for commercial products.
 Any failure to position the cost of a commercial product at a nominal rate, may lead to the
failure of the product in the market.
 Proper market study and cost benefit analysis should be carried out before taking a
decision on the per-unit cost of the embedded product.
 The budget and total system cost should be properly balanced to provide a marginal profit.
 The product life cycle of every embedded product has different phases:
Design and Development Phase:
 The product idea generation, prototyping, Roadmap definition, actual product design and
development are the activities carried out during this phase. There is only investment and
no returns.
Product Introduction Phase:
 Once the product is ready to sell, it is introduced to the market. During the initial
period the sales and revenue will be low. There won't be much competition and the
product sales and revenue increases with time.
Growth Phase
 The product grabs high market share.
Maturity Phase:
 The growth and sales will be steady and the revenue reaches at its peak.
Product Retirement/Decline Phase:
 Drop in sales volume, market share and revenue.
 The decline happens due to various reasons like competition from similar product
with enhanced features or technology changes, etc.
 At some point of the decline stage, the manufacturer announces discontinuing of the
product.
 The different stages of the embedded products life cycle—revenue, unit cost and profit
ineach stage are represented in the following Product Life-cycle graph

 From the graph, it is clear that the total revenue increases from the product
introduction stage to the product maturity stage.
 The revenue peaks at the maturity stage and starts falling in the decline/retirement Stage.
 The unit cost is very high during the introductory stage. A typical example is cell phone; if
you buy a new model of cell phone during its launch time, the price will be high and
you will get the same model with a very reduced price after three or four months of its
launching).
 The profit increases with increase in sales and attains a steady value and then falls
with a dip in sales.
 You can see a negative value for profit during the initial period.
 It is because during the product development phase there is only investment and no
returns.
  Profit occurs only when the total returns exceed the investment and operating cost.

4.4 Embedded Systems –Application and Domain Specific

Washing Machine – Application-Specific Embedded System

 Washing machine is a typical example of an embedded system providing extensive

support in home automation applications.
 An embedded system contains sensors, actuators, control unit and application-
specific user interfaces like keyboards, display units, etc.
 All these components can be seen in a washing machine.

 The actuator part of the washing machine consists of a motorised agitator, tumble tub,
water drawing pump and inlet valve to control the flow of water into the unit.

 The sensor part consists of the water temperature sensor, level sensor, etc. The control
part contains a microprocessor/controller based board with interfaces to the sensors
and actuators.
 The sensor data is fed back to the control unit and the control unit generates the necessary
actuator outputs.
 The control unit also provides connectivity to user interfaces like keypad for setting
the washing time, selecting the type of material to be washed like light, medium, heavy
duty, etc. User feedback is reflected through the display unit and LEDs connected to the
control board.
 Washing machine comes in two models, namely, top loading and front loading machines.
 In top loading models the agitator of the machine twists back and forth and pulls the cloth
down to the bottom of the tub.
 On reaching the bottom of the tub the clothes work their way back upto the top of the
tub where the agitator grabs them again and repeats the mechanism.
 In the front loading machines, the clothes are tumbled and plunged into the water over
and over again.
 This is the first phase of washing.
  In the second phase of washing, water is pumped out from the tub and the inner tub
uses centrifugal force to wring out more water from the clothes by spinning at several
hundred Rotations Per Minute (RPM).
 This is called a 'Spin Phase’.
 The inner tub of the machine contains a number of holes and during the spin cycle the
inner tub spins, and forces the water out through these holes to the stationary outer tub
from which it is drained off through the outlet pipe.
 The design of washing machines may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, but
the general principle underlying in the working of the washing machine remains the same.
 The basic controls consist of a timer, cycle selector mechanism, water temperature
selector, load size selector and start button.
 The mechanism includes the motor, transmission, clutch, pump, agitator, inner tub, outer
tub and water inlet valve.
 Water inlet valve connects to the water supply line using at home and regulates the
flow of water into the tub.
 The integrated control panel consists of a microprocessor/controller based board with
I/O interfaces and a control algorithm running in it.
 Input interface includes the keyboard which consists of wash type selector namely Wash,
Spin and Rinse, cloth type selector namely Light, Medium, Heavy duty and washing time
setting, etc.
 The output interface consists of LED/LCD displays, status indication LEDs, etc.
connected to the I/O bus of the controller.
 The other types of I/O interfaces which are invisible to the end user are different kinds of
sensor interfaces, namely, water temperature sensor, water level sensor, etc. and actuator
interface including motor control for agitator and tub movement control, inlet water flow
control, etc.

Automotive – Domain-Specific Embedded System

The major application domains of embedded systems are consumer, industrial, automotive,
telecom, etc.
Figure below gives an overview of the various types of electronic control units employed
automotive applications.
  Automotive embedded systems are the one where electronics take control over the
mechanical systems.
 The presence of automotive embedded system in a vehicle varies from simple mirror and
wiper controls to complex air bag controller and antilock brake systems (ABS).
 Automotive embedded systems are normally built around microcontrollers or DSPs or
a hybrid of the two and are generally known as Electronic Control Units (ECUs).
 The number of embedded controllers in an ordinary vehicle varies from 20 to 40 whereas
a luxury vehicle like Mercedes S and BMW 7 may contain 75 to 100 numbers of
embedded controllers.
 The first embedded system used in automotive application was the microprocessor based
fuel injection system introduced by Volkswagen 1600 in 1968.
 The electronic control units (ECUs) used in the automotive embedded industry can be
broadly classified into two:
 High-speed Electronic Control Units (HECUs):
 These are deployed in critical control units requiring fast response.
 They include fuel injection systems, antilock brake systems, engine control, electronic
throttle, steering controls, transmission control unit and central control unit.
 Low-speed Electronic Control Units (LECUs):
 These are deployed in applications where response time is not so critical.
 They generally are built around low cost microprocessors/microcontrollers and digital
signal processors.
 Audio controllers, passenger and driver door locks, door glass controls (power
windows), wiper control, mirror control, seat control systems, head lamp and tail lamp
controls, sun roof control unit etc. are examples of LECUs.
 Automotive applications make use of serial buses for communication, which greatly
reduces the amount of wiring required inside a vehicle.
 Different types of serial interface buses are:
• Controller Area Network (CAN) Bus
 • Local Interconnect Network (LIN) Bus
• Media-Oriented System Transport (MOST) Bus
 Controller Area Network (CAN) Bus
• CAN Bus was originally proposed by Robert Bosch, pioneer in the Automotive
embedded solution providers.
• It supports medium speed (ISO11519-class B with data rates up to 125 Kbps)
and high speed (IS011898 class C with data rates up to 1 Mbps) data transfer.
• CAN is an event-driven protocol interface with support for error handling in
data transmission.
• It is generally employed in safety system like airbag control; power train systems like
engine control and Antilock Brake System (ABS); and navigation systems like GPS.
 Local Interconnect Network (LIN) Bus
• LIN bus is a single master multiple slave (up to 16 independent slave nodes)
communication interface.
• LIN is a low speed, single wire communication interface with support for data rates
up to 20 Kbps and is used for sensor/actuator interfacing.
• LIN bus follows the master communication triggering technique to eliminate
the possible bus arbitration problem that can occur by the simultaneous talking of
different slave nodes connected to a single interface bus.
• LIN bus is employed in applications like mirror controls, fan controls, seat
positioning controls, window controls, and position controls where response time
is not a critical issue.
 Media-Oriented System Transport (MOST) Bus
• MOST Bus is targeted for automotive audio/video equipment interfacing.
• It is a multimedia fibre-optic point-to-point network implemented in a star, ring
or daisy-chained topology over optical fibre cables.
• The MOST bus specifications define the physical (electrical and optical parameters)
layer as well as the application layer, network layer, and media access control.
• MOST bus is an optical fibre cable connected between the Electrical Optical
Converter (EOC) and Optical Electrical Converter (OEC), which would translate into
the optical cable MOST bus.

Key Players of the Automotive Embedded Market

 The key players of the automotive embedded market can be visualised in three
verticals namely, silicon providers, tools and platform providers and solution
providers.
 Silicon Providers
• They are responsible for providing the necessary chips which are used in the control
application development.
• The chip may be a standard product like microcontroller or DSP or ADC/DAC
chips.
• Some applications may require specific chips and they are manufactured as
Application Specific Integrated Chip (ASIC).
• The leading silicon providers in the automotive industry are Analog Devices, Xilinx,
Atmel, Maxim/Dallas, NXP Semiconductors, Renesas, Texas Instruments, Fujitsu,
Infineon, NEC, etc.
 Tools and Platform Providers
 • They are manufacturers and suppliers of various kinds of development tools and
Real Time Embedded Operating Systems for developing and debugging different
control unit related applications.
• Some of the leading suppliers of tools and platforms in automotive embedded
applications are ENEA, The MathWorks, MATLAB, Keil Software, Lauterbach,
ARTiSAN, Microsoft, etc.
 Solution Providers
• They supply Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and complete solution
for automotive applications making use of the chips, platforms and different
development tools.
• The major players of this domain Bosch Automotive, DENSO Automotive, Infosys
Technologies, Delphi, etc.

4.5 Hardware Software Co-Design and Program Modelling

Hardware Software Co-Design

 In the traditional embedded system development approach, the hardware software

partitioning is done at an early stage.
 Engineers from the software group take care of the software architecture development and
implementation, whereas engineers from the hardware group are responsible for building
the hardware required for the product.
 There is less interaction between the two teams and the development happens either
serially or in parallel.
 Once the hardware and software are ready, the integration is performed.
 The increasing competition in the commercial market and need for reduced 'time-to-
market' the product calls for a novel approach for embedded system design in which
the hardware and software are co-developed instead of independently developing both.
 During the co-design process, the product requirements captured from the customer
are converted into system level needs or processing requirements. At this point of
time it is not segregated as either hardware requirement or software requirement,
instead it is specified as functional requirement.
 The system level processing requirements are then transferred into functions which can be
simulated and verified against performance and functionality.
 The Architecture design follows the system design.
• The partition of system level processing requirements into hardware and software
takes place during the architecture design phase.
• Each system level processing requirement is mapped as either hardware and/or
software requirement.
• The partitioning is performed based on the hardware-software trade-offs.
 The architectural design results in the detailed behavioural description of the hardware
requirement and the definition of the software required for the hardware.
 The processing requirement behaviour is usually captured using computational models.
 The models representing the software processing requirements are translated into
firmware implementation using programming languages.
Fundamental Issues in Hardware Software Co-Design

 The fundamental issues in hardware software co-design are:

 Selecting the Model
 Selecting the Architecture
 Selecting the Language
 Partitioning System Requirements into Hardware and Software

Selecting the Model

 In hardware software co-design, models are used for capturing and describing the system
characteristics.
 A model is a formal system consisting of objects and composition rules.
 It is hard to make a decision on which model should be followed in a particular
system design.
 Most often designers switch between a variety of models from the requirements
specification to the implementation aspect of the system design.
 The reason being, the objective varies with each phase.
 For example, at the specification stage, only the functionality of the system is
in focus and not the implementation information.
 When the design moves to the implementation aspect, the information about
the system components is revealed and the designer has to switch to a model
capable of capturing the system's structure.

Selecting the Architecture

 A model only captures the system characteristics and does not provide information on
'how the system can be manufactured?’.
 The architecture specifies how a system is going to implement in terms of the number and
types of different components and the interconnection among them.
 The commonly used architectures in system design are Controller Architecture, Datapath
Architecture, Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC), Reduced Instruction Set
Computing (RISC), Very Long Instruction Word Computing (VLIW), Single Instruction
Multiple Data (SIMD), Multiple Instruction Multiple Data (MIMD), etc.
 Some of them fall into Application Specific Architecture Class (like controller
architecture), while others fall into either general purpose architecture class (CISC,
RISC, etc.) or Parallel processing class (like VLIW, SIMD, MIMD, etc.).

Selecting the Language

 A programming language captures a 'Computational Model' and maps it into architecture.

 There is no hard and fast rule to specify this language should be used for capturing
this model.
  A model can be captured using multiple programming languages like C, C++, C#,
Java, etc. for software implementations and languages like VHDL, System C, Verilog, etc.
for hardware implementations.
 On the other hand, a single language can be used for capturing a variety of models.
 Certain languages are good in capturing certain computational model.
 For example, C++ is a good candidate for capturing an object oriented model.
 The only pre-requisite in selecting a programming language for capturing a model is that
the language should capture the model easily.

Partitioning System Requirements into Hardware and Software

 From an implementation perspective, it may be possible to implement the system

requirements in either hardware or software (firmware).
 It is a tough decision making task to figure out which one to opt.
 Various hardware software trade-offs are used for making a decision on the hardware-
software partitioning.

Computational Models in Embedded Design

 The commonly used computational models in embedded system design are:

 Data Flow Graph Model
 Control Data Flow Graph Model
 State Machine Model
 Sequential Program Model
 Concurrent/Communicating Process Model
 Object-Oriented Model

Data Flow Graph/Diagram (DFG) Model

 The Data Flow Graph (DFG) model translates the data processing requirements into a
data flow graph.
 It is a data driven model in which the program execution is determined by data.
 This model emphasises on the data and operations on the data which transforms the input
data to output data.
 Embedded applications which are computational intensive and data driven are
modelled using the DFG model.
 DSP applications are typical examples for it.
 Data Flow Graph (DFG) is a visual model in which the operation on the data (process)
is represented using a block (circle) and data flow is represented using arrows.
 An inward arrow to the process (circle) represents input data and an outward arrow from
the process (circle) represents output data in DFG notation.

𝑥 = 𝑎 + 𝑏 and 𝑦 = 𝑥 − 𝑐.
 Suppose one of the functions in our application contains the computational requirement
  Figure illustrates the implementation of a DFG model for implementing these
requirements.

 In a DFG model, a data path is the data flow path from input to output.
 A DFG model is said to be acyclic DFG (ADFG) if it doesn't contain multiple values
for the input variable and multiple output values for a given set of input(s).
 Feedback inputs (Output is fed back to Input), events, etc. are examples for
non- acyclic inputs.
 A DFG model translates the program as a single sequential process execution.

Control Data Flow Graph/Diagram (CDFG) Model

 The DFG model is a data driven model in which the execution is controlled by data and it
doesn't involve any control operations (conditionals).
 The Control DFG (CDFG) model is used for modelling applications involving conditional
program execution.
 CDFG models contains both data operations and control operations. The CDFG uses
Data Flow Graph (DFG) as element and conditional (constructs) as decision makers.
 CDFG contains both data flow nodes and decision nodes, whereas DFG contains only
data flow nodes.

 𝐼𝑓 𝑓𝑙𝑎𝑔 = 1, 𝑥 = 𝑎 + 𝑏; 𝑒𝑙𝑠𝑒 𝑦 = 𝑎 − 𝑏;
 Consider the implementation of the CDFG for the following requirement.

 This requirement contains a decision making process.

 The CDFG model for the same is given in the figure.
 The control node is represented by a 'Diamond' block which is the decision making
element in a normal flow chart based design.
 CDFG translates the requirement, which is modelled to a concurrent process model.
 The decision on which process is to be executed is determined by the control node.
  A real world example for modelling the embedded application using CDFG is
capturing and saving of the image to a format set by the user in a digital still camera.
 The decision on, in which format the image is stored (formats like JPEG, TIFF, BMP,
etc.) is controlled by the camera settings, configured by the user.

State Machine Model

 The State Machine Model is used for modelling reactive or event-driven embedded
systems whose processing behaviour are dependent on state transitions.
 Embedded systems used in the control and industrial applications are typical
examples for event driven systems.
 The State Machine model describes the system behaviour with 'States', 'Events', 'Actions'
and 'Transitions’.
 State is a representation of a current situation.
 An event is an input to the state.
 The event acts as stimuli for state transition.
 Transition is the movement from one state to another.
 Action is an activity to be performed by the state machine.

Finite State Machine (FSM) Model

 A Finite State Machine (FSM) model is one in which the number of states are finite.
 The system is described using a finite number of possible states.
 As an example, let us consider the design of an embedded system for driver/passenger
'Seat Belt Warning' in an automotive using the FSM model.
 The system requirements are captured as.
 When the vehicle ignition is turned on and the seat belt is not fastened within
10 seconds of ignition ON, the system generates an alarm signal for 5 seconds.
  The Alarm is turned off when the alarm time (5 seconds) expires or if the
driver/passenger fastens the belt or if the ignition switch is turned off,
whichever happens first.

 Here the states

are
 'Alarm Off’
 'Waiting’
 'Alarm On’
 The events are
 'Ignition Key ON’
 'Ignition Key OFF’
 'Timer Expire’
 'Alarm Time Expire’
 'Seat Belt ON’
 Using the FSM, the system requirements can be modeled as given in figure.

 The 'Ignition Key ON' event triggers the 10 second timer and transitions the state to
'Waiting’.
 If a Seat Belt ON’ or 'Ignition Key OFF' event occurs during the wait state, the state
transitions into 'Alarm Off’.
 When the wait timer expires in the waiting state, the event 'Timer Expire' is generated and
it transitions the state to 'Alarm On' from the 'Waiting' state.
 The 'Alarm On' state continues until a 'Seat Belt ON' or 'Ignition Key OFF' event or
'Alarm Time Expire' event, whichever occurs first.
 The occurrence of any of these events transitions the state to 'Alarm Off’.

 The wait state is implemented using a timer.

 The timer also has certain set of states and events for state transitions.
 Using the FSM model, the timer can be modelled as shown in the figure.
  As seen from the FSM, the timer state can be either 'IDLE' or 'READY' or 'RUNNING’.
 During the normal condition when the timer i
 s not running, it is said to be in the 'IDLE' state.
 The timer is said to be in the 'READY’ state when the timer is loaded with the count
corresponding to the required time delay.
 The timer remains in the 'READY' state until a 'Start Timer' event occurs.
 The timer changes its state to 'RUNNING' from the 'READY' state on receiving a
'Start Timer' event and remains in the 'RUNNING' state until the timer count expires or a
'Stop Timer' even occurs.
 The timer state changes to 'IDLE' from 'RUNNING' on receiving a 'Stop Timer' or 'Timer
Expire' event.

FSM Model

 Design an automatic tea/coffee vending machine based on FSM model for the
following requirement.
 The tea/coffee vending is initiated by user inserting a 5 rupee coin.
 After inserting the coin, the user can either select 'Coffee' or 'Tea' or press 'Cancel'
to cancel the order and take back the coin.
Solution

 The FSM Model contains four states namely,

 'Wait for coin’
 'Wait for User Input’
 'Dispense Tea'
 'Dispense Coffee'
  The event 'Insert Coin' (5 rupee coin insertion), transitions the state to 'Wait for User
Input’.
 The system stays in this state until a user input is received from the buttons 'Cancel', 'Tea'
or 'Coffee' (Tea and Coffee are the drink select button).
 If the event triggered in 'Wait State' is 'Cancel' button press, the coin is pushed out and the
state transitions to 'Wait for Coin’.
 If the event received in the 'Wait State' is either 'Tea' button press, or 'Coffee' button press,
the state changes to 'Dispense Tea' and 'Dispense Coffee' respectively.
 Once the coffee/tea vending is over, the respective states transition back to the 'Wait
for Coin' state.

Sequential Program Model

 In the Sequential Program Model, the functions or processing requirements are executed
in sequence.
 It is same as the conventional procedural programming.
 Here the program instructions are iterated and executed conditionally and the data
gets transformed through a series of operations.
 Finite State Machines (FSMs) and Flow Charts are used for modelling sequential program.
 The FSM approach represents the states, events, transitions and actions,
whereas the Flow Chart models the execution flow.
 The execution of functions in a sequential program model for the 'Seat Belt Warning'
system is illustrated below:
 Sequential Program Model for Seat Belt Warning System
Concurrent/Communicating Process Model

 The concurrent or communicating process model models concurrently executing

tasks/processes.
 It is easier to implement certain requirements in concurrent processing model than the
conventional sequential execution.
 Sequential execution leads to a single sequential execution of task and thereby
leads to poor processor utilisation, when the task involves I/O waiting,
sleeping for specified duration etc.
 If the task is split into multiple subtasks, it is possible to tackle the CPU usage
effectively by switching the task execution, when the subtask under execution goes
to a wait or sleep mode.
 However, concurrent processing model requires additional overheads in task scheduling,
task synchronization and communication.
 As an example, consider the implementation of the 'Seat Belt Warning' system using
concurrent processing model.
 We can split the tasks into:
 Timer task for waiting 10 seconds (wait timer task)
 Task for checking the ignition key status (ignition key status monitoring task)
 Task for checking the seat belt status (seat belt status monitoring task)
 Task for starting and stopping the alarm (alarm control task)
 Alarm timer task for waiting 5 seconds (alarm timer task)
  The tasks cannot be executed them randomly or sequentially.
 We need to synchronize their execution through some mechanism.

Object-Oriented Model

 The object-oriented model is an object based model for modelling system requirements.
 It disseminates a complex software requirement into simple well defined pieces called
objects.
 Object-oriented model brings re-usability, maintainability and productivity in system
design.
 In the object-oriented modelling, object is an entity used for representing or modelling
a particular piece of the system.
 Each object is characterized by a set of unique behaviour and state.
 A class is an abstract description of a set of objects and it can be considered as a 'blueprint'
of an object.
 A class represents the state of an object through member variables and object
behaviour through member functions.
 The member variables and member functions of a class can be private, public or protected.
 Private member variables and functions are accessible only within the class,
whereas public variables and functions are accessible within the class as well
as outside the class.
 The protected variables and functions are protected from external access.
 However, classes derived from a parent class can also access the protected
member functions and variables.