Embedded System
Design methodologies
⚫ A procedure for designing a system.
⚫ Understanding your methodology helps you ensure
you didn’t skip anything.
⚫ Compilers, software engineering tools, computer-
aided design (CAD) tools, etc., can be used to:
⚫ help automate methodology steps;
⚫ keep track of the methodology itself.
Levels of design abstraction
Requirements What does the customer want?
Specification System functions/characteristics
Block diagram (HW vs. SW)
Architecture
Component HW & SW module detailed design
design
System Working system
integration
Top-down vs. bottom-up
⚫ Top-down design:
⚫ start from most abstract description;
⚫ work to most detailed.
⚫ Bottom-up design:
⚫ work from small components to big
system.
⚫ Real design often uses both techniques.
Stepwise refinement
⚫ At each level of abstraction, we must:
⚫ analyze the design to determine characteristics of
the current state of the design;
⚫ refine the design to add detail.
Embedded system design
⚫constraints
Cost
⚫ Competitivemarkets penalize products which don’t
deliver adequate value for the cost
⚫ Performance
⚫ Perform required operations (throughput)
⚫ Meet real-time deadlines (latency)
⚫ Size and weight limits
⚫ Mobile(aviation, automotive) and portable (e.g.
handheld) systems
⚫ Power and energy limits
⚫ Battery capacity
⚫ Cooling limits
⚫ Environment
⚫ Temperatures
may range
Impact of
Constraints (rather than microprocessors)
⚫ Microcontrollers/SoCs
⚫ Include peripherals to interface with other devices,
respond efficiently
⚫ On-chip RAM, ROM reduce circuit board complexity
and cost
⚫ Programming language
⚫ Programmed in C rather than Java (smaller and faster code, so
less expensive MCU)
⚫ Some performance-critical code may be in assembly language
⚫ Hierarchical design with SW libraries (math, I/O drivers, etc.)
⚫ Operating system
⚫ Small system: typically no OS, but instead simple scheduler (or
even just interrupts + main code (foreground/background
system)
Project Cost
⚫ Total
cost of a project involves non-
recurring engineering (NRE), cost plus
recurring (RE) cost, and number of units
produced (K)
Project Cost = NRE + K*RE
⚫ NRE includes design time, tools, facilities
⚫ RE includes components, manufacturing, testing,
and maintenance
What does “performance” actually
mean?
⚫ In general-purpose computing, performance often
means average-case, may not be well-defined.
⚫ In real-time systems, performance means meeting
deadlines.
⚫ Some systems require high throughput/bandwidth
⚫ We need to analyze the system at several levels of
abstraction to understand performance:
⚫ CPU.
⚫ Platform.
⚫ Multiprocessor.
⚫ Program.
⚫ Task.
Real-time operation
⚫ Must finish operations by deadlines.
⚫ Hard real time: missing deadline causes failure.
⚫ Soft real time: missing deadline results in
degraded performance.
⚫ Many systems are multi-rate: must
handle operations at widely varying
rates.
⚫ A real-time operating system (RTOS) can
manage scheduling of operations to satisfy
critical timing constraints
The performance
paradoxgenerally use more logic circuits
⚫ Microprocessors
to implement a function than do custom logic
circuits.
⚫ But are microprocessors as fast as custom circuits?
⚫ aggressive VLSI technology;
⚫ heavily pipelined;
⚫ smart compilers;
⚫ re-use and improve efficient SW routines.
Execution Time = NI x CPI x Tclk
(#instructions) x (#clocks/instruction) x (clock
period)
Power considerations
⚫ Custom logic typical in low power devices.
⚫ Modern microprocessors offer features to help
control power consumption.
⚫ Turn off unnecessary logic/modules
⚫ Reduce memory accesses
⚫ Reduce external communication
⚫ Reduce clock rates (CMOS)
⚫ Provide “sleep modes”
⚫ Low-power electronic circuit design methods
⚫ Software design techniques can also help reduce
power consumption.
Safe, secure
systems
⚫ Security: system’s ability to prevent malicious attacks.
⚫ Traditional security is oriented to IT and data security.
⚫ Insecure embedded computers can create unsafe cyber-physical
systems.
⚫ Internet of Things presents special security challenges!
⚫ Safety: no crashes, accidents, harmful releases of energy, etc.
⚫ We need to combine safety and security:
⚫ Identify security breaches that compromise safety.
⚫ Safety and security can’t be bolted on---they must be baked in.
⚫ Integrity: maintenance of proper data values.
⚫ Privacy: no unauthorized releases of data.
Computers as Components 4e © 2016 Marilyn Wolf
Product development
time
⚫ Often designed by a small team of designers.
⚫ Often constrained by tight deadlines.
⚫ 6 month market window is common.
⚫ Optimal sales windows (ex. calculators for back-to-
school)
⚫ Optimal sales window for holiday “gadgets”
⚫ Longer lead times for control systems
(automotive, aerospace, process control, etc.)
⚫ Hardware-software co-design can shorten
design cycle
Requirements
⚫ Plain language description of what the user wants
and expects to get.
⚫ May be developed in several ways:
⚫ talking directly to customers;
⚫ talking to marketing representatives;
⚫ providing prototypes to users for comment.
Functional vs. non-functional
requirements
⚫ Functional requirements:
⚫ output as a function of input.
⚫ Non-functional requirements:
⚫ time required to compute output;
⚫ size, weight, etc.;
⚫ power consumption (battery-powered?);
⚫ reliability;
⚫ low HW costs (CPU, memory) for mass
production
⚫ etc.
Sample requirements
form
Use form to assist “interviewing” the
customer.
name
purpose
inputs
outputs
functions
performan
ce
manufacturing
cost power
physical
size/weight
Designing hardware and
software components
⚫ Must spend time architecting the system before you
start coding or designing circuits.
⚫ Some components are ready-made, some can be
modified from existing designs, others must be
designed from scratch.
System integration
⚫ Put together the components.
⚫ Many bugs appear only at this stage.
⚫ Interfaces must be well designed
⚫ Have a plan for integrating components to uncover
bugs quickly, test as much functionality as early as
possible.
⚫ Test to each specification
Challenges, etc.
⚫ Does it really work?
⚫ Is the specification correct?
⚫ Does the implementation meet the spec?
⚫ How do we test for real-time
characteristics?
⚫ How do we test on real data?
⚫ How do we work on the system?
⚫ Observability, controllability?
⚫ What is our development platform?
Challenges in embedded system
design
⚫ How much hardware do we need?
⚫ CPU computing power? Memory?
⚫ What peripheral functions?
⚫ Implement in HW or SW?
⚫ How do we meet timing constraints?
⚫ Faster hardware or cleverer software?
⚫ Real-time operating system or custom design?
⚫ How do we minimize power consumption?
⚫ How do we optimize cost?
⚫ How do we ensure system
security/reliability?
⚫ How do we meet our time-to-market
Summary
⚫ Embedded systems are all around us.
⚫ Chip designers are now system designers.
⚫ Must deal with hardware and software.
⚫ Today’s applications are complex.
⚫ Reference implementations must be optimized, extended.
⚫ Platforms present challenges for:
⚫ Hardware designers---characterization, optimization.
⚫ Software designers---performance/power
evaluation, debugging.
⚫ Design methodologies help us manage the design
process and complexity.
