Why Study Embedded System

Each day, our lives become more dependent on 'embedded systems', digital
information technology that is embedded in our environment. This includes not
only safety-critical applications such as automotive devices and controls, railways,
aircraft, aerospace and medical devices, but also communications, 'mobile worlds'
and 'e-worlds', the 'smart' home, clothes, factories etc. All of these have wide-
ranging impacts on society, including security, privacy and modes of working and
living. More than 98% of processors applied today are in embedded systems, and
are no longer visible to the customer as 'computers' in the ordinary sense. New
processors and methods of processing, sensors, actuators, communications and
infrastructures are 'enablers' for this very pervasive computing. They are in a sense
ubiquitous, that is, almost invisible to the user and almost omnipresent. As such,
they form the basis for a significant economic push.
These applications are 'vision driven', as in the following examples:
Automotive: Accident free driving
Aerospace: A free, safe sky for all
Medical Devices: Robotic surgeon
Communications: Seamless connectivity
e-Life: ubiquitous/pervasive computing.

1/3/2015
 MICROCONTROLLER
2

Introduction
Born of parallel developments in computer architecture
and integrated circuit fabrication, the 4-bit 4004
microprocessor, or "computer on a chip," first became a
commercial reality by intel corporation.
Other, more well-established, semiconductor firms soon
followed Intels pioneering technology so that by the late
1970s one could choose from a half dozen microprocessor
types.

1/3/2015
 3

A by-product of microprocessor development was the

microcontroller.
The same fabrication techniques and programming
concepts that make possible the general-purpose
microprocessor also yielded the microcontroller.

1/3/2015
 Microprocessors vs. Microcontrollers
4

Microprocessors and microcontrollers stem from the

same basic idea,
are made by the same people. and are sold to the same
types of system designers and programmers.
What is the difference between the two?

1/3/2015
 continued
5
MICROCONTROLLERS MICROPROCESSORS
a typical microcontroller, which is a true
A microprocessor, as the term has
computer on a chip come to be known, is a general-
The design incorporates all of the features
purpose digital computer central
found in a microprocessor CPU: ALU, PC, processing unit (CPU).
SP, and registers microprocessor CPU, which
It also has added the other features needed to contains an arithmetic and logic unit
make a complete computer: ROM. RAM, (ALU), a program counter (PC), a
parallel I/O, serial I/O, counters, and a clock stack pointer (SP), some working
circuit. registers, a clock timing circuit, and
interrupt circuits.

1/3/2015
 continued
6

The prime use of a microcontroller is

The prime use of a
to control the operation of a machine microprocessor is to fetch
using a fixed program that is stored in data, perform extensive
ROM and that does not change over calculations on that data, and
the lifetime of the system. store those calculations in a
one which is meant to fetch data. mass storage device or
Perform limited calculations on that
display the results for human
use
data, and control its environment
The programs used by the
based on those calculations microprocessor are stored in
the mass storage device and
loaded into RAM as the user
directs
A few microprocessor programs are
stored in ROM

1/3/2015
 TYPES OF MICROCONTROLLERS
7

MICROCONTROLLER

4-BIT MICROCONTROLLER differ in the amount of internal ROM,

RAM and other cost sensitive features.
Often the memory can be expanded lo
8 BIT MICROCONTROLLER include off-chip ROM and RAM; in some
cases, the microcontroller has no on-board
ROM at all, or the ROM is an Electrically
16-BIT MICROCONTROLLER Reprogrammable Read Only Memory
(EPROM).

32-BIT MICROCONTROLLER

1/3/2015
 8

All controllers of a family contain the same processor

core and hence are code-compatible,
but they differ in the additional components like the
number of timers or the amount of memory.
There are numerous microcontrollers on the market today
many different controller families like 8051, PIC, HC,
ARM to name just a few, and that even within a single
controller family you may again have a choice of many
different controllers.

1/3/2015
9

1/3/2015
 Memory
10
The register file is, of course, just a small memory embedded in the CPU
Obvious distinction of memory types can be made according to their
function from a programmers perspective, that makes sense

REGISTER FILE
Small & CPU short term memory, a set of general purpose registers or
dedicated registers (accumulators) or index register for addressing
mode
Embedded in CPU

DATA MEMORY
For longer term storage
on-chip data memory

INSTRUCTION MEMORY
Like data memory, a relatively large external memory
is usually integrated right into the MCU
1/3/2015
 11

Different members in a MCU family usually provide different amounts of

memory, so you can choose a particular MCU which offers the appropriate
memory space.
However, hardware or chip designers usually view memory rather differently:
They prefer to distinguish according to the physical properties of the electronic
parts the memory is made of.
There, the most basic distinction would be volatile versus non-volatile
memory.
volatile means that the contents of the memory are lost as soon as the systems
power is switched off.
Further distinction based on the physical properties can go into more detail
See the next page

1/3/2015
 12
. continued

why should you use volatile memory at all, when non-volatile

memory is readily available?
The problem here is that non-volatile memory is usually a lot slower, and
much more expensive. While the volatile memory in your PC has access times
in the nanosecond range, some types of non-volatile memory will be
unavailable for milliseconds after writing one lousy byte to them.

1/3/2015
 Volatile memory
13

volatile memory retains its contents only so long as

the system is powered on
Static RAM
Dynamic RAM
STATIC RAM: was the first type of volatile memory
to be widely used.
An SRAM chip consists of an array of cells, each
capable of storing one bit of information
. To store a bit of information, a so-called flip-flop is
used, which basically consists of six transistors

1/3/2015
 14

Dynamic RAM:
The number of transistors needed per bit of
information was brought down to one.
DRAM has much larger storage capacity compared to
an SRAM
Instead of using a lot of transistors to build flip-flops,
one bit of information is stored in a capacitor

1/3/2015
 Non-volatile Memory
15

memories retain their content even when power is

cut.

ROM
first types of non-volatile semiconductor memory
Did we just say write access is more involved with non-volatile than with volatile memory?

As an alternative For prototypes

matrices of memory cells, each containing a silicon fuse
PROM each fuse is intact and each cell reads as a logical 1
the cells fuse can be destroyed, thereby programming a logical 0 into the selected cell
Any drawback?

programming is non-destructive
EPROM Memory is stored in so-called field effect transistors (FETs)(one of its pins called gate)
completely insulated from the rest of the circuit. instead of burning fuses, electrons are
injected into the floating gate, thus closing the transistor switch
1/3/2015
 continued
16

all the advantages of an EPROM without the hassle

An elevated voltage is still needed, but it is provided on-chip via so-called charge pumps, which
EEPROM can generate higher voltages than are supplied to the chip externally
They endure a limited number of write/erasecycles only (usually in the order of 100.000 cycles)

EEPROM is rather expensive and Flash is a variant of EEPROM where erasing is not
possible for each address
Flash-EEPROM Flash EEPROM is commonly used for program, not data memory and Flash-EEPROMs often
have a lower guaranteed write/erase cycle endurance compared to EEPROM

combines the advantages of volatile and non-volatile memories: Non-

Volatile RAM (NVRAM)
NVRAM One is to just add a small internal battery to an SRAM device
One is to just add a small internal battery to an SRAM device

1/3/2015
 Interrupts
17

Microcontrollers tend to be
deployed in systems that have to
react to events
Interrupts are a mechanism
which enables MC to respond to
some events, regardless of what
MC is doing at that time.
Each interrupt changes the
program flow, Interrupts it and
after executing an interrupt
routine, it continues from that
same point on

1/3/2015
 continued
18

As soon as the event occurs, the microcontroller calls

an interrupt service routine (ISR) which handles the
event

1/3/2015
 Interrupt Control
19

Two bits form the main interface to the interrupt logic of

the microcontroller:
The interrupt enable (IE) bit is set by the application
programmer to indicate that the controller should call an
ISR in reaction to the event.
The interrupt flag (IF) bit is set by the microcontroller
whenever the event occurs, and it is cleared either
automatically upon entering the ISR or manually
the IF bit shows that the interrupt condition has
occurred, whereas the IE bit allows the interrupt itself to
occur.

1/3/2015
20

1/3/2015
 Basic I/O devices and technologies
21

The ability to directly monitor and control hardware, is

the main characteristic of microcontrollers
It uses both analog and digital I/O technologies as the
environments of the system are both analog and
digital.
Digital I/O
Analog I/O
In general, you can find 8-32 pins on most controllers,
and some even have a lot more than that (like
Motorolas HCS12 with over 90 I/O pins).

1/3/2015
 Digital I/O
22

I/O pins are generally grouped into ports of 8 pins,

which can be accessed with a single byte access.
Pins can either be input only, output only, or most
commonly, bi-directional
most pins have one or more alternate functions
As far as digital I/O is concerned, three registers
control the behavior of the pins
Data Direction Register (DDR)
Port Register (PORT)
Port Input Register (PIN)

1/3/2015
 23

Data Direction Register (DDR): Each bidirectional port has its own DDR,
which contains one bit for each pin of the port
Port Register (PORT): This register is used to control the voltage level of output
pins.
Assuming a pin has been configured to output, then if its bit in the PORT register is
set, the pin will be high; if the bit is cleared, the pin will be low.
Port Input Register (PIN): The PIN register is generally read-only and contains
the current state (high or low) of all pins, whether they are configured as output or
as input.
It is used to read the state of input pins, but it can also be used to read the state of
output pins to verify that the output was taken over correctly.

1/3/2015
 Analog I/O
24

the microcontroller must deal with the analog value.

On the other hand, the microcontroller is inherently
digital, so we need appropriate ways of converting
analog signals into the digital world and back again.
This problem is addressed by the analog module of
the microcontroller.

1/3/2015