Embedded Systems Design
Embedded Systems Design
Embedded Systems Design
in
JNTU World
SYLLABUS
Subject code:
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Exam marks:100
PART -A
(5 hours)
or
UNIT 1
UNIT 2
(8 hours)
development process.
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Machines ,concept of state and time, The state diagram, Finite state machines, A theoretical
model
UNIT 3
(7 hours)
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and DRAM design, DRAM Memory interface, Memory subsystem Architecture, Dynamic
memory Allocation
UNIT 4
(6 hours)
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systems design and development, Life cycle Models, The design process, Formulating the
requirements specification, System specification v/s system requirements, Partitioning and
decomposing a system, Functional design, Architectural design, function model v/s architectural
model, Prototyping, Archiving the project.
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PART -B
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Introduction to real time Kernels, Tasks and things, Programs and processes, The CPU is a
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1. Embedded Systems-A contemporary Design tool, James K Peckol, John Weily India Pvt
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Ltd,2008
REFERENCE BOOKS:
1. Embedded Systems:Architecture and programming,Raj Kamal,TMH,2008.
2. Embedded
Systems
Architecture-A
comprehensive
guide
for
Engineers
and
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TABLE OF CONTENT
Content
Unit 1
06
Embedded systems
10
16
Unit 2
Page no.
Representing information
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Sl.no
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22
31
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33
35
Classifying memory
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41
42
44
46
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Unit 3
33
47
49
50
Allocation
58
65
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Unit 4
specification
System specification v/s system requirements
68
69
71
model
Prototyping, Archiving the project
74
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77
78
80
80
82
Sharing resource
84
Foreground/Background systems
The operating system
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or
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88
Memory management
90
94
Complexity Analysis
96
Unit 7 &8
84
85
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Unit 5 &6
97
Analyzing code
98
Instruction in detail
101
102
103
104
106
106
Hardware Accelerators
107
108
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The Methodology
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UNIT 1
INTRODUCTION TO EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
Introducing Embedded systems, Philosophy, Embedded systems, Embedded design and
development process.
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TEXT BOOK:
1. Embedded Systems-A contemporary Design tool, James K Peckol, John Weily India Pvt
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TU
or
Ltd,2008
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UNIT 1
INTRODUCTION TO EMBEDDED SYSTEM
1.1.
An embedded system is nearly any computing system other than a desktop computer. An
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embedded system is a dedicated system which performs the desired function upon power up,
repeatedly.
Embedded systems are found in a variety of common electronic devices such as consumer
or
electronics ex. Cell phones, pagers, digital cameras, VCD players, portable Video games,
calculators, etc.,
Embedded systems are found in a variety of common electronic devices, such as:
recorders, portable video games, calculators, and personal digital assistants; (b) home appliances
-- microwave ovens, answering machines, thermostat, home security, washing machines, and
lighting systems; (c) office automation -- fax machines, copiers, printers, and scanners; (d)
business equipment -- cash registers, curbside check-in, alarm systems, card readers, product
scanners, and automated teller machines; (e) automobiles --transmission control, cruise control,
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1. Small Scale Embedded Systems: These systems are designed with a single 8- or 16-bit
microcontroller; they have little hardware and software complexities and involve board-
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level design. They may even be battery operated. When developing embedded software
for these, an editor, assembler and cross assembler, specific to the microcontroller or
processor used, are the main programming tools. Usually, C is used for developing
these systems. C program compilation is done into the assembly, and executable codes
are then appropriately located in the system memory. The software has to fit within the
memory available and keep in view the need to limit power dissipation when system is
running continuously.
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2. Medium Scale Embedded Systems: These systems are usually designed with a single or
few 16- or 32-bit microcontrollers or DSPs or Reduced Instruction Set Computers
(RISCs). These have both hardware and software complexities. For complex software
design, there are the following programming tools: RTOS, Source code engineering tool,
Simulator, Debugger and Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Software tools
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also provide the solutions to the hardware complexities. An assembler is of little use as a
programming tool. These systems may also employ the readily available ASSPs and IPs
(explained later) for the various functionsfor example, for the bus interfacing,
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that need hardware and software co-design and integration in the final system; however,
they are constrained by the processing speeds available in their hardware units. Certain
software functions such as encryption and deciphering algorithms, discrete cosine
transformation and inverse transformation algorithms, TCP/IP protocol stacking and
network driver functions are implemented in the hardware to obtain additional speeds by
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saving time. Some of the functions of the hardware resources in the system are also
implemented by the software. Development tools for these systems may not be readily
available at a reasonable cost or may not be available at all. In some cases, a compiler or
retarget able compiler might have to be developed for these.
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Embedded systems are a combination of hardware and software as well as other components
that we bring together inti products such as cell phones,music player,a network router,or an
or
aircraft guidance system.they are a system within another system as we see in Figure 1.1
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microcomputer and microcontrollers. The microcomputer and other hardware are connected via
A system bus is a single computer bus that connects the major components of a computer
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system. The technique was developed to reduce costs and improve modularity. It combines the
functions of a data bus to carry information, an address bus to determine where it should be sent,
and a control bus to determine its operation.
The system bus is further classified int address ,data and control bus.the microprocessor
controls the whole system by executing a set of instructions call firmware that is stored in ROM.
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An instruction set, or instruction set architecture (ISA), is the part of the computer
architecture related to programming, including the native data types, instructions, registers,
addressing modes, memory architecture, interrupt and exception handling, and external I/O. An
ISA includes a specification of the set of opcodes (machine language), and the native commands
implemented by a particular processor. To run the application, when power is first turned ON,
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the microprocessor addresses a predefined location and fetches, decodes, and executes the
instruction one after the other. The implementation of a microprocessor based embedded system
combines the individual pieces into an integrated whole as shown in Figure 1.2, which represents
the architecture for a typical embedded system and identifies the minimal set of necessary
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components.
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The traditional design approach has been traverse the two sides of the accompanying diagram
separately, that is,
Design the hardware components
Design the software components.
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Architectural design
Prototyping.
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or
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Embedded applications are intended to work with the physical world, sensing various
analog and digital signals while controlling, manipulating or responding to others. The study of
the interface to the external world extends the I/O portion of the von-Neumann machine as
shown in figure 1.4 with a study of buses, their constitutes and their timing considerations.
Exemplary applications of each type of embedded system
Embedded systems have very diversified applications. A few select application areas of
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embedded systems are Telecom, Smart Cards, Missiles and Satellites, Computer Networking,
Digital Consumer Electronics, and Automotive. Figure 1.9 shows the applications of embedded
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Recommended questions
1. What is an embedded system?
2. What is the difference between VLSI and embedded systems?
3. What are the three kinds of computing engine that are utilized in embedded system?
4. How are an embedded microcomputer and supporting hardware elements interconnected?
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UNIT 2
THE HARDWARE SIDE
An introduction, the core level ,Representing information, Understanding numbers addresses
instruction register, Register view of a microprocessor
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Machines ,concept of state and time, The state diagram, Finite state machines, A theoretical
model
TEXT BOOK:
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TU
Ltd,2008
or
1. Embedded Systems-A contemporary Design tool, James K Peckol, John Weily India Pvt
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UNIT 2
THE HARDWARE SIDE
In todays hi-tech and changing world, we can put together a working hierarchy of hard
ware components. At the top, we find VLSI circuits comprising of significant pieces of
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computing core of the system. we will expand and refine that view of hardware both inside and
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At the top, we begin with a model comprising four major functional blocks i.e., input, output,
memory and data path and control depicting the embedded hardware core and high level signal
flow as illustrated in figure 2.2.
The source of the transfer is the array of eight bit values; the destination is perhaps a
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display. in figure 2.3, we refine the high level functional diagram to illustrate a typical bus
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Figure 2.3 A typical Bus structure comprising address, data and control signals.
The Microprocessor
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line, allowing upgrades in performance with minimal redesign of the product. Different features
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can be implemented in different models of a product line at negligible production cost. Figure
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The microcomputer
computational core. Typically, a microcomputer will also utilizes numerous other large scale
integrated circuits to provide necessary peripheral functionality. The complexity of
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microcomputers varies from simple units that are implemented on a single chip along with a
small amount of on chip memory and elementary I/O system to the complex that will augment
the microprocessor with a wide array of powerful peripheral support circuitry.
The microcontroller
A microcontroller (sometimes abbreviated C, uC or MCU) is a small computer on a
single integrated
circuit containing
processor
core,
memory,
and
programmable input/output peripherals. Program memory in the form of NOR flash or OTP
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ROM is also often included on chip, as well as a typically small amount of RAM.
Microcontrollers are designed for embedded applications, in contrast to the microprocessors used
in personal computers or other general purpose applications.
Figure 2.5 shows together the microprocessor core and a rich collection of peripherals and I/O
capability into a single integrated circuit.
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automobile engine control systems, implantable medical devices, remote controls, office
machines, appliances, power tools, toys and other embedded systems. By reducing the size and
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cost compared to a design that uses a separate microprocessor, memory, and input/output
devices, microcontrollers make it economical to digitally control even more devices and
processes. Mixed signal microcontrollers are common, integrating analog components needed to
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optimized for the operational needs of digital signal processing. A DSP provides fast, discretePage 19
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time, signal-processing instructions. It has Very Large Instruction Word (VLIW) processing
capabilities; it processes Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) instructions fast; it processes
Discrete Cosine Transformations (DCT) and inverse DCT (IDCT) functions fast. The latter are a
must for fast execution of the algorithms for signal analyzing, coding, filtering, noise
cancellation, echo-elimination, compressing and decompressing, etc. Figure 2.6 shows the block
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By the standards of general-purpose processors, DSP instruction sets are often highly irregular.
One implication for software architecture is that hand-optimized assembly-code routines are
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commonly packaged into libraries for re-use, instead of relying on advanced compiler
technologies to handle essential algorithms.
Hardware features visible through DSP instruction sets commonly include:
Hardware modulo addressing, allowing circular buffers to be implemented without having to
constantly test for wrapping.
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Memory architecture designed for streaming data, using DMA extensively and expecting
code to be written to know about cache hierarchies and the associated delays.
Driving multiple arithmetic units may require memory architectures to support several
accesses per instruction cycle
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Separate program and data memories (Harvard architecture), and sometimes concurrent
Some processors use VLIW techniques so each instruction drives multiple arithmetic units in
parallel
arithmetic
operations,
such
as
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Special
Many
fundamental DSP algorithms, such as FIR filters or the Fast Fourier transform (FFT) depend
heavily on multiplyaccumulate performance.
Special loop controls, such as architectural support for executing a few instruction words in a
very tight loop without overhead for instruction fetches or exit testing
Deliberate exclusion of a memory management unit. DSPs frequently use multi-tasking
operating systems, but have no support for virtual memory or memory protection. Operating
systems that use virtual memory require more time for context switching among processes,
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Representing Information
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Big endian systems are simply those systems whose memories are organized with the
most significant digits or bytes of a number or series of numbers in the upper left corner of a
memory page and the least significant in the lower right, just as in a normal spreadsheet.
Little endian systems are simply those system whose memories are organized with the
least significant digits or bytes of a number or series of numbers in the upper left corner of a
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memory page and the most significant in the lower right. There are many examples of both types
of systems, with the principle reasons for the choice of either format being the underlying
operation of the given system.
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Understanding numbers
We have seen that within a microprocessor, we dont have an unbounded numbers of bits with
which to express the various kinds of numeric information that we will be working with in an
embedded application. The limitation of finite word size can have unintended consequences of
results of any mathematical operations that we might need to perform. Lets examine the effects
of finite word size on resolution, accuracy, errors and the propagation of errors in these
operation. In an embedded system, the integers and floating point numbers are normally
represented as binary values and are stored either in memory or in registers. The expensive
power of any number is dependent on the number of bits in the number.
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Addresses
In the earlier functional diagram as well as in the block diagram for a microprocessor, we learned
that information is stored in memory. Each location in memory has an associated address much
like an index in the array. If an array has 16 locations to hold information, it will have 16 indices.
if a memory has 16 locations to store information ,it will have 16 addresses. Information is
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MSB
31
LSB
LSB
0
Big endian
MSB
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Little endian
Instructions
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An instruction set, or instruction set architecture (ISA), is the part of the computer
architecture related to programming, including the native data types, instructions, registers,
addressing modes, memory architecture, interrupt and exception handling, and external I/O. An
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ISA includes a specification of the set of opcodes (machine language), and the native commands
The entities that instructions operate on are denoted Operand. The number of operands that an
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In figure 2.7 ,we see that within the 32 bit word, the bit are aggregated into groups or fields.
Some of the fields are interpreted as the operation to be performed, and others are seen as the
operands involved in the operation.
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A microprocessor instruction set specifies the basic operations supported by the machine. From
the earlier functional model, we see that the objectives of such operations are to transfer or store
data, to operate on data, and to make decisions based on the data values or outcome of the
operations, corresponding to such operations, we can classify instructions into the following
Data transfer
Flow control
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groups
Data transfer instructions are responsible for moving data around inside the processor as well as
for bringing data in from the outside world or sending data out. The source and destination can
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An input or output
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As shown in figure
Addressing modes
There are five addressing modes in 8085.
1.Direct Addressing Mode
2. Register Addressing Mode
3. Register Indirect Addressing Mode
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In this mode, the address of the operand is given in the instruction itself.
LDA is the operation.
2500 H is the address of source.
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In the above two examples, the source operand is in immediate mode and the destination operand
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is in register mode. A constant such as VALUE can be defined by the assembler EQUATE
directive such as VALUE EQU 35H
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or
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But by using a segment override prefix (SOP) in the instruction, any of the four segment
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The Execution Unit (EU) has direct access to all registers and data for register and immediate
operands. However the EU cannot directly access the memory operands. It must use the BIU, in
order to access memory operands.
In the direct addressing mode, the 16 bit effective address (EA) is taken directly from the
displacement field of the instruction.
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or
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The EA is specified in either pointer (BX) register or an index (SI or DI) register. The 20 bit
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when memory is accessed PA is computed from BX and DS when the stack is accessed PA is
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PA : [DS] + [EA]
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The execution flow or control flow captures the order of evaluation of each instruction
Sequential
Branch
Loop
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Sequential flow-sequential control flow describes the fundamental movement through a program.
Each instruction contained in the program is executed in sequence one after the other.
Branch-
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The control-flow of a language specify the order in which computations are performed
The if-else statement is used to express decisions. Formally the syntax is
if (expression)
statement1
else
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statement2
Where the else part is optional. The expression is evaluated; if it is true (that is, if expression has
a nonzero value), statement1 is executed. If it is false (expression is zero) and if there is an else
part, statement2 is executed instead.
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Since a if tests the numeric value of an expression, certain coding shortcuts are possible. The
most obvious is writing
if (expression)
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Instead of
if (expression != 0)
The procedure or function invocation is the most complex of the flow of control constructs.
CALL operand - when PC is unconditionally saved and replaced by specified operand; the
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Arithmetic and logic operations are essential elements in affecting what the processor is to do.
such operations are executed by any og several hardware components comprising the ALU.
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Figure 2.8 presents a block diagram for a possible functional ALU architecture.
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or
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Data is brought into the ALU and held in the local registers. The opcode is decoded, the
appropriate operation is performed on the selected operands, and the result is stored in another
local register.
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At the ISA level, the instruction set specifies the basic operations supported by the machine-that
is , the external view of the processor from the developers perspective. The instruction set
expresses the machines ability to transfer data, store data , operate on data, and make decision.
The core hardware comprises a control unit and a data path as illustrated in figure 2.9
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Control input
Control signals
Data input
control output
control
status information
Datapath
data output
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The data path is a collection of registers and an associated set of micro operations on the data
held in the registers. The control unit directs the ordered execution of the micro operations so as
to effect the desired transformation of the data. Thus the systems behavior can be expressed by
the movement of data among these registers, by operations and transformations performed on the
registers contents, and by the management of how such movements and operations take
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The datapath
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place.the operations on data found at the instruction level are paralled by a similar, yet more
Figure 2.10 expresses the architecture of the datapath and the memory interface for a
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Processor control
The control of the microprocessor data path comprises four fundamental operations
defined as the instruction cycle . The steps are identified in figure 2.11 .
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or
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Fetch-The fetch operation retrieves an instruction from memory. That instruction is identified by
its address, which is the contents of the PC.
Decode-The decode step is performed when the opcode field in the instruction is extracted from
the instruction and decoded by the decoder. That information is forwarded to the control logic,
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completed instruction.
output changes.
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ld
The values these variables assume over time characterize the behavior of that circuit. If we know
the values of the specified variables over time, we know the behavior of the circuit. Such
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variables are called state variables. We define the state of a system at any time as a set of values
for such variables; each set of values represents a unique state.
State changes
In traditional logic, a simple memory device, represented by a single variable, has two states
binary 1 and 0. The device will remain in the state until changed. For a set of variables, the state
changes with time are called the behavior of a system.
The state diagram
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In the embedded world, the state diagram is one of the means used to capture, describe and
specify the behavior of a system. In a state diagram, each state is represented by a circle,node,or
vertex. We label each node to identify the state. A memory device has two states-its output is a
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logical 0 or 1,thus to express its behavior we will need two nodes as shown in figure 2.12.
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We show the transition between two states using a labeled directed line or arrow called arc as
illustrated in figure because the line has a direction, the state diagram is referred to as a directed
graph. The head o point of the arrow identifies the final state, and the tail or back of the arrow
identifies the initial state.
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of a finite number of states. The machine is in only one state at a time; the state it is in at any
given time is called the current state. It can change from one state to another when initiated by a
triggering event or condition; this is called a transition. A particular FSM is defined by a list of
its states, and the triggering condition for each transition.
The behavior of state machines can be observed in many devices in modern society
which perform a predetermined sequence of actions depending on a sequence of events with
which they are presented. Simple examples are vending machines which dispense products when
the proper combination of coins are deposited, elevators which drop riders off at upper floors
before going down, traffic lights which change sequence when cars are waiting, and combination
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locks which require the input of combination numbers in the proper order.
Finite-state machines can model a large number of problems, among which are electronic
design automation, communication protocol design, language parsing and other engineering
applications. In biology and artificial intelligence research, state machines or hierarchies of state
machines have been used to describe neurological systems and in linguisticsto describe
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Figure shows a simple finite-state machine having no inputs other than a clock and have
only primitive outputs. such machines are referred to as autonomous clocks. A high level block
diagram for a finite-state machine begins with the diagram in figure 2.13.
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The output shown in the diagram may be the values of the state variables, combinations of the
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state variables ,or combinations of the state variables and the inputs.
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Recommended question
1. Identify and briefly describe the major functional blocks that comprise the computing
core.
2. How are the major blocks of the computing core interconnected?
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UNIT 3
MEMORIES AND MEMORY SUBSYSTEM
Classifying memory, A general Memory interface, ROM Overview, Static RAM Overview,
Dynamic RAM Overview, Chip organization, Terminology, Memory interface in detail, SRAM
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and DRAM design, DRAM Memory interface, Memory subsystem Architecture, Dynamic
memory Allocation
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Internal RAM of 256 or 512 bytes in a microcontroller for registers, temporary data and
(ii)
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stack.
(iii) External RAM for the temporary data and stack (in most systems).
(iv)
(v)
(v) EEPROM or flash (in many systems saving the results of processing in nonvolatile
or
(iii)
memory: for example, system status periodically and digital-camera images, songs, or
speeches after a suitable format compression).
(vi) External ROM or PROM for embedding software (in almost all nonmicrocontrollerbased systems).
(vii) RAM Memory buffers at the ports. (viii) Caches (in superscalar microprocessors).
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(vii)
(vi)
Table 1.1 gives the functions assigned in the embedded systems to the memories. ROM or
PROM or EPROM embeds the embedded software specific to the system.
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ld
Table 1.1
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The memory unit in an embedded system should have low access time and high density (a
memory chip has greater density if it can store more bits in the same amount of space). Memory
in an embedded system consists of ROM (only read operations permitted) and RAM (read and
write operations are permitted). The contents of ROM are non-volatile (power failure does not
erase the contents) while RAM is volatile. The classification of the ROM is given in Figure 3.1.
ROM stores the program code while RAM is used to store transient input or output data.
Embedded systems generally do not possess secondary storage devices such as magnetic disks.
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As programs of embedded systems are small there is no need for virtual storage.
Volatile memory
A primary distinction in memory types is volatility. Volatile memories only hold their contents
while power is applied to the memory device. As soon as power is removed, the memories lose
their contents; consequently, volatile memories are unacceptable if data must be retained when
the memory is switched off. Examples of volatile memories include static RAM (SRAM),
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synchronous static RAM (SSRAM), synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), and FPGA on-chip
memory.
Nonvolatile memory
Non-volatile memories retain their contents when power is switched off, making them good
choices for storing information that must be retrieved after a system power-cycle. Processor
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boot-code, persistent application settings, and FPGA configurationdataaretypicallystoredinnonvolatilememory.Althoughnon-volatile memory has the advantage of retaining its data when
power is removed, it is typically much slower to write to than volatile memory, and often has
more complex writing and erasing procedures. Non-volatile memory is also usually only
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guaranteed to be erasable a given number of times, after which it may fail. Examples of nonvolatile memories include all types of flash, EPROM, and EEPROM. Most modern embedded
systems use some type of flash memory for non-volatile storage. Many embedded applications
require both volatile and non-volatile memories because the two memory types serve unique and
embedded systems.
ROM Overview
exclusive purposes. The following sections discuss the use of specific types of memory in
Although there are exceptions, the ROM is generally viewed as read only device. A high level
interface to the ROM is as shown in figure 3.2. when the ROM is implemented,positions in the
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array that are to store a logical 0 have a transistor connected as shown in figure. Those positions
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Read Operation
A value is read from a ROM by asserting one of the row lines. Those rows in which there is a
transistor will be pulled to ground thereby expressing a logical 0. Those without the transistor
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will express a logical 1. Timing for a ROM read operation is given in figure 3.3.
A high level interface to the SRAM is very similar to that for the ROM.The major differences
arise from support for write capability. Figure 3.4 represents the major I/O signals and a typical
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Write operation
A value is written into the cell by applying a signal to bi and bi bar through the write/sense
amplifiers. Asserting the word line causes the new value to be written into the latch.
Read Operation
A value is read from the cell by first precharging bi and bibar to a voltage that is halfway between
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Typical timimg for a read and write operation is shown in Figure 3.5 .
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SDRAM
SDRAM is another type of volatile memory. It is similar to SRAM, except that it is
dynamic and must be refreshed periodically to maintain its content. The dynamic memory cells
in SDRAM are much smaller than the static memory cells used in SRAM. This difference in size
translates into very high-capacity and low-cost memory devices. In addition to the refresh
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requirement, SDRAM has other very specific interface requirements which typically necessitate
the use of special controller hardware. Unlike SRAM, which has a static set of address lines,
SDRAM divides up its memory space into banks, rows, and columns. Switching between banks
and rows incurs some overhead, so that efficient use of SDRAM involves the careful ordering of
or
accesses. SDRAM also multiplexes the row and column addresses over the same address lines,
which reduces the pin count necessary to implement a given size of SDRAM. Higher speed
varieties of SDRAM such as DDR, DDR2, and DDR3 also have strict signal integrity
requirements which need to be carefully considered during the design of the PCB. SDRAM
devices are among the least expensive and largest-capacity types of RAM devices available,
making them one of the most popular. Most modern embedded systems use SDRAM. A major
part of an SDRAM interface is the SDRAM controller. The SDRAM controller manages all the
address-multiplexing, refresh and row and bank switching tasks, allowing the rest of the system
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Larger microcomputer systems use Dynamic RAM (DRAM) rather than Static RAM (SRAM)
because of its lower cost per bit. DRAMs require more complex interface circuitry because of
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their multiplexed address bus and because of the need to refresh each memory cell periodically.
A typical DRAM memory is laid out as a square array of memory cells with an equal number of
rows and columns. Each memory cell stores one bit. The bits are addressed by using half of the
bits (the most signicant half) to select a row and the other half to select a column.
Each DRAM memory cell is very simple it consists of a capacitor and a MOSFET switch. A
DRAM memory cell is therefore much smaller than an SRAM cell which needs at least two gates
to implement a ip-op. A typical DRAM array appears as illustrated in figure 3.6 .
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or
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Read Operation
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A value is read from the cell by first precharging bi and bibar to a voltage that is halfway between
a 0 and 1. Asserting the word line enables the stored signal onto bi. If the stored value is a
logical 1,through charge sharing,the value on line bi will increase. Conversely,if the stored value
is a logical 0, charge sharing will cause the value on bi to decrease. The change in the values are
sensed and amplified by write/sense amplifier
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Write operation
A value is written into the cell by applying a signal to bi and bi bar through the write/sense
amplifiers. Asserting the word line charges the capacitor if a logical 1 is to be stored and
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or
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Figure 3.7 : Timing for the DRAM read and write cycles
Chip organization
Independent type of internal storage, the typical memory chip appears as is shown in figure 3.8
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TU
or
ld
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If a single ROM or RAM chip is large enough and the address and the data I/O are wide enough
to satisfy system memory requirements,then the interface is rather straightforward. We will look
at the SRAM system and then the DRAM design.
An SRAM design
A system specification requires an SRAM system that can store upto 4K 16 bit words..but the
largest memory device available is 1K by 8. Thus it can store upto 1024 8 bit words.
Consequently ,the design will require 8 of the smaller memorydevices:2 sets of 4.
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In worst case, to support 4K 16 bit words,12 address lines and 16 data lines are required.
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A DRAM Design
The DRAM system will utilize an architecture that duplicates most of the previous SRAM
systems. One major difference is the potential need to manage the refresh function. A second
difference results from a memory size versus IC package size difficulty.
or
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The relative timing for some of the signals in the base case is illustrated in figure 3.10.
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This is the primary physical memory. From a high level perspective, the memory subsystem is
comprised of two basic types:ROM and RAM. It is possible for the required code and data space
to exceed total available primary memory.under such circumstances, one must use techniques
called virtual memory and overlays to accommodate the expanded needs.
ld
or
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At the top are the slowest,largest and least expensive memories. These are known as secondary
memory. At the bottom are the smallest,fastest,called cache memory. These are typically higher
speed SRAM. These devices are more expensive.
Basic concepts of Caching
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A CPU cache is a cache used by the central processing unit of a computer to reduce the average
time to access memory. The cache is a smaller, faster memory which stores copies of the data
from frequently used main memory locations. As long as most memory accesses are cached
memory locations, the average latency of memory accesses will be closer to the cache latency
than to the latency of main memory.
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Data is transferred between memory and cache in blocks of fixed size, called cache lines. When a
cache line is copied from memory into the cache, a cache entry is created. The cache entry will
include the copied data as well as the requested memory location (now called a tag).
When the processor needs to read or write a location in main memory, it first checks for a
corresponding entry in the cache. The cache checks for the contents of the requested memory
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location in any cache lines that might contain that address. If the processor finds that the memory
location is in the cache, a cache hit has occurred. However, if the processor does not find the
memory location in the cache, a cache miss has occurred. In the case of:
or
a cache hit, the processor immediately reads or writes the data in the cache line.
a cache miss, the cache allocates a new entry, and copies in data from main memory. Then,
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The replacement policy decides where in the cache a copy of a particular entry of main memory
will go. If the replacement policy is free to choose any entry in the cache to hold the copy, the
cache is called fully associative. At the other extreme, if each entry in main memory can go in
just one place in the cache, the cache is direct mapped. Many caches implement a compromise in
which each entry in main memory can go to any one of N places in the cache, and are described
as N-way set associative. For example, the level-1 data cache in an AMD Athlon is 2-way set
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associative, which means that any particular location in main memory can be cached in either of
2 locations in the level-1 data cache.
Associativity is a trade-off. If there are ten places to which the replacement policy could
have mapped a memory location, then to check if that location is in the cache, ten cache entries
must be searched. Checking more places takes more power, chip area, and potentially time. On
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the other hand, caches with more associativity suffer fewer misses so that the CPU wastes less
time reading from the slow main memory. The rule of thumb is that doubling the associativity,
from direct mapped to 2-way, or from 2-way to 4-way, has about the same effect on hit rate as
doubling the cache size. Associativity increases beyond 4-way have much less effect on the hit
or
direct mapped cache The best (fastest) hit times, and so the best tradeoff for "large"
caches
2-way skewed associative cache In 1993, this was the best tradeoff for caches whose sizes
were in the range 4K-8K bytes.
4-way set associative cache
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fully associative cache the best (lowest) miss rates, and so the best tradeoff when the miss
penalty is very high
Direct-mapped cache
Here each location in main memory can only go in one entry in the cache. It doesn't have a
replacement policy as such, since there is no choice of which cache entry's contents to evict. This
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means that if two locations map to the same entry, they may continually knock each other out.
Although simpler, a direct-mapped cache needs to be much larger than an associative one to give
comparable performance, and is more unpredictable. Let 'x' be block number in cache, 'y' be
block number of memory, and 'n' be number of blocks in cache, then mapping is done with the
help of the equation x=y mod n.
2-way set associative cache
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If each location in main memory can be cached in either of two locations in the cache, one
logical question is: which one of the two? The simplest and most commonly used scheme, shown
in the right-hand diagram above, is to use the least significant bits of the memory location's index
as the index for the cache memory, and to have two entries for each index. One benefit of this
scheme is that the tags stored in the cache do not have to include that part of the main memory
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address which is implied by the cache memory's index. Since the cache tags have fewer bits, they
take less area on the microprocessor chip and can be read and compared faster. Also LRU is
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or
especially simple since only one bit needs to be stored for each pair.
Cache reads are the most common CPU operation that takes more than a single cycle.
Program execution time tends to be very sensitive to the latency of a level-1 data cache hit. A
great deal of design effort, and often power and silicon area are expended making the caches as
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fast as possible.
The simplest cache is a virtually indexed direct-mapped cache. The virtual address is calculated
with an adder, the relevant portion of the address extracted and used to index an SRAM, which
returns the loaded data. The data is byte aligned in a byte shifter, and from there is bypassed to
the next operation. There is no need for any tag checking in the inner loop in fact, the tags
need not even be read. Later in the pipeline, but before the load instruction is retired, the tag for
the loaded data must be read, and checked against the virtual address to make sure there was a
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cache hit. On a miss, the cache is updated with the requested cache line and the pipeline is
restarted.
An associative cache is more complicated, because some form of tag must be read to determine
which entry of the cache to select. An N-way set-associative level-1 cache usually reads all N
possible tags and N data in parallel, and then chooses the data associated with the matching tag.
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Level-2 caches sometimes save power by reading the tags first, so that only one data element is
read from the data SRAM.
The diagram to the right is intended to clarify the manner in which the various fields of the
or
address are used. Address bit 31 is most significant, bit 0 is least significant. The diagram shows
the SRAMs, indexing, and multiplexing for a 4 kB, 2-way set-associative, virtually indexed and
virtually tagged cache with 64 B lines, a 32b read width and 32b virtual address.
Because the cache is 4 kB and has 64 B lines, there are just 64 lines in the cache, and we read
two at a time from a Tag SRAM which has 32 rows, each with a pair of 21 bit tags. Although
any function of virtual address bits 31 through 6 could be used to index the tag and data SRAMs,
it is simplest to use the least significant bits.
Similarly, because the cache is 4 kB and has a 4 B read path, and reads two ways for each access,
the Data SRAM is 512 rows by 8 bytes wide.
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A more modern cache might be 16 kB, 4-way set-associative, virtually indexed, virtually hinted,
and physically tagged, with 32 B lines, 32b read width and 36b physical addresses. The read path
recurrence for such a cache looks very similar to the path above. Instead of tags, vhints are read,
and matched against a subset of the virtual address. Later on in the pipeline, the virtual address is
translated into a physical address by the TLB, and the physical tag is read (just one, as the vhint
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supplies which way of the cache to read). Finally the physical address is compared to the
physical tag to determine if a hit has occurred.
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programs at their request, and freeing it for reuse when no longer needed. This is critical to the
computer system.
Several
methods
have
been
devised
that
increase
the
effectiveness
of
memory
management. Virtual memory systems separate the memory addresses used by a process from
actual physical addresses, allowing separation of processes and increasing the effectively
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available amount of RAM using paging or swapping to secondary storage. The quality of the
virtual memory manager can have an extensive effect on overall system performance.
The task of fulfilling an allocation request consists of locating a block of unused memory of
or
sufficient size. Memory requests are satisfied by allocating portions from a large pool of memory
called the heap. At any given time, some parts of the heap are in use, while some are "free"
(unused) and thus available for future allocations. Several issues complicate implementation,
such as internal and external fragmentation, which arises when there are many small gaps
between allocated memory blocks, which invalidates their use for an allocation request. The
allocator'smetadata can also inflate the size of (individually) small allocations. This is managed
often by chunking. The memory management system must track outstanding allocations to
ensure that they do not overlap and that no memory is ever "lost" as a memory leak.
We are more concerned with managing main memory to accommodate
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Overlays
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An overlay is a poor mans version of virtual memory. The overlay will be in ROM and used to
accommodate a program that is larger than main memory. The program is segmented into a
number of sections called overlays. The sections are
Top level routine.
Code to perform overlay process.
Data segment for shared data.
Overlay segment.
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Recommended questions
1. What do the terms static and dynamic allocation of memory mean?
2. What do the terms SRAM and DRAM mean,and what are the major differences
between the two types of RAM?
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3. What are the major differences between the following types of read only memory:
applications?
or
5. What are the 2 major categories of memory devices that are utilized in embedded
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work?
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UNIT 4
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS DESIGN AND DEVLOPMENT
systems design and development, Life cycle Models, The design process, Formulating the
requirements specification, System specification v/s system requirements, Partitioning and
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decomposing a system, Functional design, Architectural design, function model v/s architectural
model, Prototyping, Archiving the project
TEXT BOOK:
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Ltd,2008
or
1. Embedded Systems-A contemporary Design tool, James K Peckol, John Weily India Pvt
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UNIT 4
EMBEDDED SYSTEM DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT
LIFE CYCLE MODELS
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Waterfall model
V cycle model.
Spiral
Rapid prototype
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Waterfall model
The waterfall model represents a cycle- specifically a series of steps appearing much like a
waterfall. It is the model which is use to linear process development. It is a sequential design
process, often used in
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Construction,
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Specification.
Preliminary design.
Design review
Detailed design.
Design review.
Implementation.
Review.
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Phases:
1) Requirement : In this phase we gather necessary information which will use for
development of any project . For above example we gather information like which types of
characteristics client wants. It also defines system requirement specification. This phase defines
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what to do.
2) Design: In design phase we then construct design to how to implement that requirements
gathered into phase 1 .This phase define how to do .For this phase we then write algorithms
or
3) Coding: Now base on design phase we then write actual code to implement algorithms. This
4)Testing : This phase use to test our coding part it checks all the validation...like our code
should work for each and every possibilities of input if any bug occur then we have to report
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5. The migration process is exceptional, and is not part of daily maintenance tasks. If the
software must be ported to another platform without any change in functionality, this process
will be used and a maintenance project team is likely to be assigned to this task.
6. Finally, the last maintenance process, also an event which does not occur on a daily basis, is
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The V-Model is a term applied to a range of models, from a conceptual model designed to
or
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phase is identified with its matching development phase as shown in figure 4.2.
In diagram, we have
Requirement
system/Functional Testing
Integration testing
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Detailed design
Unit testing
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The V represents the sequence of steps in a project life cycle development. It describes the
activities to be performed and the results that have to be produced during product development.
The left side of the "V" represents the decomposition of requirements, and creation of system
or
specifications. The right side of the V represents integration of parts and their validation
Validation. The assurance that a product, service, or system meets the needs of the customer
and other identified stakeholders. It often involves acceptance and suitability with external
customers. Contrast with verification."
"Verification. The evaluation of whether or not a product, service, or system complies with a
model is
a software
development
process combining
elements
of
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systems development method (SDM) used in information technology (IT). This model of
development combines the features of the prototyping and the waterfall model. The spiral model
is intended for large, expensive and complicated projects. A simplified version of that model is
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Evaluate alternatives.
Develop deliverables-verify that they are correct.
Plan the next iteration.
The spiral model combines the idea of iterative development (prototyping) with the systematic,
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controlled aspects of the waterfall model. It allows for incremental releases of the product, or
incremental refinement through each time around the spiral. The spiral model also explicitly
includes risk management within software development. Identifying major risks, both technical
and managerial, and determining how to lessen the risk helps keep the software development
process under control.
The spiral model is based on continuous refinement of key products for requirements definition
and analysis, system and software design, and implementation (the code). At each iteration
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around the cycle, the products are extensions of an earlier product. This model uses many of the
same phases as the waterfall model, in essentially the same order, separated by planning, risk
assessment, and the building of prototypes and simulations
Documents are produced when they are required, and the content reflects the information
necessary at that point in the process. All documents will not be created at the beginning of the
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process, nor all at the end (hopefully). Like the product they define, the documents are works in
progress. The idea is to have a continuous stream of products produced and available for user
review.
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The spiral lifecycle model allows for elements of the product to be added in when they become
available or known. This assures that there is no conflict with previous requirements and design.
This method is consistent with approaches that have multiple software builds and releases and
allows for making an orderly transition to a maintenance activity. Another positive aspect is that
the spiral model forces early user involvement in the system development effort. For projects
with heavy user interfacing, such as user application programs or instrument interface
applications, such involvement is helpful
Note that the requirements activity takes place in multiple sections and in multiple iterations, just
as planning and risk analysis occur in multiple places. Final design, implementation, integration,
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and test occur in iteration 4. The spiral can be repeated multiple times for multiple builds. Using
this method of development, some functionality can be delivered to the user faster than the
waterfall method. The spiral method also helps manage risk and uncertainty by allowing multiple
decision points and by explicitly admitting that all of anything cannot be known before the
subsequent activity starts.
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Rapid prototype
The Rapid prototyping model is intended to provide a rapid implementation of high level
portions of both the software and the hardware . the approach allows developers to construct
working portion of hardware and software in incremental stages.Each stage through the
cycle,one incorporates a little more of the intended functionality.The prototype is useful for both
the designer and the customer. The prototype can be either evolutionary or throughway. It has
the advantage of having a working system early in development process.
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Functional design
Architectural design
Prototyping.
or
The design process comprises five distinct stages although it may vary for particular projects or
design disciplines. This information may be useful when working with a designer to understand
the processes involved. Before the project is started however, a vital question has to be asked:
Why do you need a new identity, brochure or website etc? This question is the key to
undertaking a successful project.
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tasks that go into determining the needs or conditions to meet for a new or altered product, taking
account of the possibly conflicting requirements of the various stakeholders, analyzing,
documenting, validating and managing software or system requirements. Figure 4.4 shows the
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Figure 4.4 The interface between the customer and the design process.
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ld
or
Analyzing requirements: determining whether the stated requirements are clear, complete,
consistent and unambiguous, and resolving any apparent conflicts.
Requirements analysis can be a long and arduous process during which many delicate
psychological skills are involved. New systems change the environment and relationships
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between people, so it is important to identify all the stakeholders, take into account all their
needs and ensure they understand the implications of the new systems. Analysts can employ
several techniques to elicit the requirements from the customer. These may include the
development of scenarios, the identification of use cases, the use of workplace observation
or ethnography,
holding interviews,
or focus
groups and
creating
requirements
lists. Prototyping may be used to develop an example system that can be demonstrated to
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stakeholders. Where necessary, the analyst will employ a combination of these methods to
establish the exact requirements of the stakeholders, so that a system that meets the business
needs is produced.
The specification of the external environment should contain the following for each entity:
Name and description of the entity.
For each I/O variable, the following information is available
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The System Design Specification (SDS) is a complete document that contains all of the
architecture,
components,
modules,
or
information needed to develop the system. Systems design is the process of defining the
interfaces,
a system to
satisfy
analysis, systems architecture and systems engineering. System design specification serves as a
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Figure 4.5: The Customer, the requirement, the design and the engineer
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The requirement specifications provides a view from the outside of the system, design
specification provides a view from the inside looking out as well. Design specification has 2
masters:
It must specify the systems public interface from inside the system.
It must specify how the requirements defined for and by the public interface are to be met
by the initial functions of the system.
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or
ld
Temporal constraints.
Requirements give a description of something wanted or needed. They are a set of needed
properties.
requirements of a system.
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specifications. While it is a common tendency for designers to be anxious about starting the
design and implementation, discussing requirements with the customer is vital in the
construction of safety-critical systems. For activities in this first stage has significant impact on
the downstream results in the system life cycle.
For example, errors developed during the requirements and specifications stage may lead
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to errors in the design stage. When this error is discovered, the engineers must revisit the
requirements and specifications to fix the problem. This leads not only to more time wasted but
also the possibility of other requirements and specifications errors. Many accidents are traced to
requirements flaws, incomplete implementation of specifications, or wrong assumptions about
the requirements. While these problems may be acceptable in non-safety-critical systems, safetycritical systems cannot tolerate errors due to requirements and specifications. Therefore, it is
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necessary that the requirements are specified correctly to generate clear and accurate
specifications.
There is a distinct difference between requirements and specifications. A requirement is a
condition needed by a user to solve a problem or achieve an objective. A specification is a
document that specifies, in a complete, precise, verifiable manner, the requirements, design,
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behavior, or other characteristics of a system, and often, the procedures for determining whether
these provisions have been satisfied. For example, a requirement for a car could be that the
maximum speed to be at least 120mph. The specification for this requirement would include
or
technical information about specific design aspects. Another term that is commonly seen in
books and papers is requirements specification which is a document that specifies the
requirements for a system or component. It includes functional requirements, performance
requirements, interface requirements, design requirements, and developement standards.
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Able to be written
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Functional design
The functional design process maps the "what to do" of the Requirements Specification into the
"how to do it" of the design specifications. During this stage, the overall structure of the product
is defined from a functional viewpoint. The functional design describes the logical system flow,
data organization, system inputs and outputs, processing rules, and operational characteristics of
the product from the user's point of view. The functional design is not concerned with the
software or hardware that will support the operation of the product or the physical organization
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of the data or the programs that will accept the input data, execute the processing rules, and
produce the required output.
Functional Design is a paradigm used to simplify the design of hardware and software devices
such as computer software and increasingly, 3D models. A functional design assures that each
modular part of a device has only one responsibility and performs that responsibility with the
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minimum of side effects on other parts. Functionally designed modules tend to have
low coupling.
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Architectural design
The major objective of the Architectural design activity is the allocation or mapping of the
different pieces of system functionality to the appropriate hardware anf software blocks. Work is
based on the detailed functional structure. The important constraints that must be considered
include items as
The geographical distribution.
Physical and user interfaces
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Power consumption
Legacy components and cost.
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Whether several functions can be combined in order to reduce the number of software
tasks and if so, how?
A priority for each task.
An implementation technique for each intertask relationship.
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Implementation cost
Development time and cost
Performance and dependability constraints
Power consumption
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Size
An appropriate model has to include elements both at the functional and architectural level to be
or
The functional model describes a system through a set of interacting functional elements. The
design proceeds at a high level without initial bias toward any specific implementation. We have
freedom to explore and to be creative. The functional models will interact using one of the
following 3 types of relations
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Architectural model
Tha architectural model describes the physical architecture of the system based on real
components such as microprocessor, arrayed logics, special purpose processors,analog and
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Prototyping
Detailed design
Debugging
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Validation
Testing
A prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to
be replicated or learned from. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including
semantics, design, electronics, and software programming. A prototype is designed to test and
ld
trial a new design to enhance precision by system analysts and users. Prototyping serves to
provide specifications for a real, working system rather than a theoretical one.
In many fields, there is great uncertainty as to whether a new design will actually do what is
or
desired. New designs often have unexpected problems. A prototype is often used as part of the
product design process to allow engineers and designers the ability to explore design alternatives,
test theories and confirm performance prior to starting production of a new product. Engineers
use their experience to tailor the prototype according to the specific unknowns still present in the
intended design. For example, some prototypes are used to confirm and verify consumer interest
in a proposed design whereas other prototypes will attempt to verify the performance or
suitability of a specific design approach.
In general, an iterative series of prototypes will be designed, constructed and tested as the final
design emerges and is prepared for production. With rare exceptions, multiple iterations of
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prototypes are used to progressively refine the design. A common strategy is to design, test,
evaluate and then modify the design based on analysis of the prototype.
In many product development organizations, prototyping specialists are employed - individuals
with specialized skills and training in general fabrication techniques that can help bridge between
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Other Considerations
The 2 additional complementary and concurrent activities that need to be considered are
Capitalization and reuse
Requirement and traceability management.
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Capitalization
Capitalization and reuse are activities that are essential to the contemporary design
process. Proper and efficient exploitation of intellectual properties is very important
.intellectuel properties are designs, often patented,that can be sold to another party to
Reuse
ld
One of the main purpose of reuse is to help designers shorten the development life cycle.
or
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Requirement traceability refers to the ability to follow the life of a requirement in both the
forward and reverse directions through the entire design process and the design. The few
important pieces of informations are
The means for the project manager and the customer to moniter the development
progress.
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A path that can be used during the verification and validation of the product against the
original specification.
A means of identifying which hardware or software modules are affected if a requirement
changes.
Requirement management
Requirement management addresses
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Requirement specifications
Changes
Improvements
Corrections
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During the design, such changes are difficult to avoid for many reasons. Therefore a clear
procedure that facilitates a way to accommodate such modifications has to be used during the
whole design process.
or
When the product has finally been released to production, some work remains to be done. If the
product follows the typical life cycle, bugs that must be fixed will be expected and added, and
the next generation product will build on the current. The typical project will have had many
Product planning
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Marketing
Sales
Each group will have information, knowledge, documentation, and tools that will be important in
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Recommended question
1. Why are deadlines and cost important when developing a product?
2. Why is it important to consider reliability,safety,and quality in an embedded design?
3. What are the 4 life cycle models ?
4. Briefly discuss the syeps that comprise the V-life cycle model.
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5. What are the major differences between system requirement and design system
specification?
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UNIT 5 & 6
REAL TIME KERNELS AND OPERATING SYSTEMS
Introduction to real time Kernels, Tasks and things, Programs and processes, The CPU is a
resource, Threads-Lightweight and heavyweight, Sharing resource, Foreground/Background
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systems, The operating system, The real time operating system, OS Architecture, Task and Task
control blocks,Memory management
TEXT BOOK:
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Ltd,2008
or
1. Embedded Systems-A contemporary Design tool, James K Peckol, John Weily India Pvt
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UNIT 5& 6
Real time kernel and operating system
An operating system (OS) is a resource manager. It takes the form of a set of software
routines that allow users and application programs to access system resources (e.g. the CPU,
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memory, disks, modems, printers, network cards etc.) in a safe, efficient and abstract way.
For example, an OS ensures safe access to a printer by allowing only one application
program to send data directly to the printer at any one time. An OS encourages efficient use of
the CPU by suspending programs that are waiting for I/O operations to complete to make way
or
for programs that can use the CPU more productively. An OS also provides convenient
abstractions (such as files rather than disk locations) which isolate application programmers and
users from the details of the underlying hardware. UNIX Operating system allows complex tasks
to be performed with a few keystrokes. It doesnt tell or warn the user about the consequences of
the command. Kernighan and Pike (The UNIX Programming Environment) lamented long ago
that as the UNIX system has spread, the fraction of its users who are skilled in its application
has decreased. However, the capabilities of UNIX are limited only by your imagination.
A typical embedded system solves a complex problem by decomposing it into a number
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of smaller, simpler pieces called tasks that work together in an organized way. Such a system is
called a multi tasking. In computing, multitasking is a method where multiple tasks, also known
as processes, are performed during the same period of time. The tasks share common processing
resources, such as a CPU and main memory. In the case of a computer with a single CPU, only
one task is said to be running at any point in time, meaning that the CPU is actively executing
instructions for that task. Multitasking solves the problem by scheduling which task may be the
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one running at any given time, and when another waiting task gets a turn. The act of reassigning
a CPU from one task to another one is called a context switch. When context switches occur
frequently enough the illusion of parallelism is achieved. Even on computers with more than one
CPU (called multiprocessor machines), multitasking allows many more tasks to be run than there
are CPUs.
Operating systems may adopt one of many different scheduling strategies, which generally fall
into the following categories:
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In multiprogramming systems, the running task keeps running until it performs an operation
that requires waiting for an external event (e.g. reading from a tape) or until the computer's
scheduler forcibly swaps the running task out of the CPU. Multiprogramming systems are
designed to maximize CPU usage.
In time-sharing systems, the running task is required to relinquish the CPU, either voluntarily
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or by an external event such as a hardware interrupt. Time sharing systems are designed to
allow several programs to execute apparently simultaneously.
In real-time systems, some waiting tasks are guaranteed to be given the CPU when an
external event occurs. Real time systems are designed to control mechanical devices such as
or
In computing, a task is an execution path through address space[1] - in other words, a set
of program instructions that are loaded in memory. The address registers have been loaded with
the initial address of the program. At the next clock cycle, the CPU will start execution, in accord
with the program. The sense is that some part of "a plan is being accomplished". As long as the
program remains in this part of the address space, the task can continue, in principle, indefinitely,
unless the program instructions contain a halt, exit, or return.
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In the computer field, "task" can have the sense of a real-time application, as distinguished
from process, which takes up space (memory), and execution time. Both "task" and "process"
should be distinguished from event, which takes place at a specific time and place, and which a
computer program can allow for.
Lets take an example of inviting friends for meal. We can capture the meal preparation
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in a high level UML activity diagram as shown in figure 5.1 . The common approach to
designing an embedded application follows the same pattern. The application comprises a
number of tasks that must be completed in order for the intended application to be completed. In
preparation of the meal, we are working on several of the tasks at the same time, in the
application; the CPU is being shared among the tasks so that each can progress.
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A program is a list of instructions written in a programming language that is used to control the
behavior of a machine, often a computer. A series of actions, changes, or functions bringing
about a result. Sequence of interdependent and linked procedures which, at every stage, consume
one or more resources (employee time, energy, machines, money) to convert inputs into outputs.
reached.
The CPU is a Resource
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These outputs then serve as inputs for the next stage until a known goal or end result is
A central processing unit (CPU), also referred to as a central processor unit, is the hardware
within a computer that carries out the instructions of a computer program by performing the
basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The term has been in use in
the computer industry at least since the early 1960s.[2] The form, design, and implementation of
CPUs have changed over the course of their history, but their fundamental operation remains
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Two typical components of a CPU are the arithmetic logic unit (ALU), which performs
arithmetic and logical operations, and the control unit (CU), which extracts instructions
from memory and decodes and executes them, calling on the ALU when necessary.
Not all computational systems rely on a central processing unit. An array processor or vector
processor has multiple parallel computing elements, with no one unit considered the "center". In
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the distributed computing model, problems are solved by a distributed interconnected set of
processors.
The abbreviation CPU is sometimes used incorrectly by people who are not computer specialists
or
to refer to the cased main part of a desktop computer containing the motherboard, processor, disk
drives, etc., i.e., not the display monitor or keyboard.
Hardwired into a CPU's design is a list of basic operations it can perform, called an instruction
set. Such operations may include adding or subtracting two numbers, comparing numbers, or
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CPU is also responsible for reading the next instruction from memory, reading data specified in
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or
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process. The implementation of threads and processes differs from oneoperating system to
another, but in most cases, a thread is contained inside a process. Multiple threads can exist
within the same process and share resources such as memory, while different processes do not
share these resources. In particular, the threads of a process share the latter's instructions (its
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code) and its context (the values that its variables reference at any given moment).
On a single processor, multithreading generally occurs by time-division multiplexing (as
in multitasking):
between
different
threads.
This context
switching generally happens frequently enough that the user perceives the threads or tasks as
running at the same time. On a multiprocessor or multi-core system, threads can be truly
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Many modern operating systems directly support both time-sliced and multiprocessor threading
with a process scheduler. The kernel of an operating system allows programmers to manipulate
threads via the system call interface. Some implementations are called a kernel thread, whereas
a lightweight process (LWP) is a specific type of kernel thread that shares the same state and
information.
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Programs can have user-space threads when threading with timers, signals, or other methods to
interrupt their own execution, performing a sort of ad-hoc time-slicing.
Threads in the same process share the same address space. This allows concurrently running
or
code to couple tightly and conveniently exchange data without the overhead or complexity of
an IPC. When shared between threads, however, even simple data structures become prone
to race hazards if they require more than one CPU instruction to update: two threads may end up
attempting to update the data structure at the same time and find it unexpectedly changing
underfoot. Bugs caused by race hazards can be very difficult to reproduce and isolate.
To prevent this, threading APIs offer synchronization primitives such as mutexes to lock data
structures against concurrent access. On uniprocessor systems, a thread running into a locked
mutex must sleep and hence trigger a context switch. On multi-processor systems, the thread
may instead poll the mutex in a spinlock. Both of these may sap performance and force
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processors in SMP systems to contend for the memory bus, especially if the granularity of the
locking is fine. Figure 5.4 represents a single task with one thread of execution. The model is
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Figure 5.4 illustrates one such task with multiple threads. An operating system that support tasks
with multiple threads is referred to as multithread operating system.
Sharing resources
In computing, a shared resource or network share is a device or piece of information on a
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computer that can be remotely accessed from another computer, typically via a local area
network or an enterprise Intranet, transparently as if it were a resource in the local
machine.There are 4 categories of multitasking operating system.
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Status information.
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The Foreground /background systems for managing task execution decomposes the set of tasks
comprising the application into 2 subsets called background tasks and foreground tasks. The
traditional view of such systems allocates tasks that interact with the user or other I/O devices to
the foreground set and the remainder to the background set.
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The foreground tasks are those initiated by interrupt or by real time constraints that must
be met. They will be assigned a higher priority level in the system. In contrast, background tasks
are non interrupt driven and are assigned the lower priorities. Once started, the background task
will typically run to completion. but they may be interrupted by any foreground task at any time.
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Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also
include accounting for cost allocation of processor time, mass storage, printing, and other
resources.
For hardware functions such as input and output and memory allocation, the operating system
acts as an intermediary between programs and the computer hardware, although the application
code is usually executed directly by the hardware and will frequently make a system call to an
OS function or be interrupted by it. Operating systems can be found on almost any device that
contains a computerfrom cellular phones and video game consoles to supercomputers and web
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servers.
Examples of popular modern operating systems include Android, BSD, iOS, GNU/Linux, OS
X, QNX, Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone, and IBM z/OS. All these, except Windows and
z/OS, share roots in UNIX.
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from software, and translates them into data processing instructions for the central processing
unit and other electronic components of a computer. The kernel is a fundamental part of a
modern computer's operating system.
When a computer program (in this case called a process) makes requests of the kernel, the
request is called a system call. Various kernel designs differ in how they manage system calls
(time-sharing) and resources. For example, a monolithic kernel executes all the operating
system instructions in the same address space to improve the performance of the system.
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A microkernel runs most of the operating system's background process in user space, to make the
operating system more modular and, therefore, easier to maintain.
To begin, an operating system must provide or support 3 specific functions
Schedule task execution.
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In an embedded operating system,such functions are captured in the following types of services.
Memory management
I/O system management
File system management
Networking
System protection
or
Command interpretation
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A real-time operating system is a multitasking operating system that aims at executing real-time
applications. Real-time operating systems often use specialized scheduling algorithms so that
they can achieve a deterministic nature of behavior. The main objective of real-time operating
systems is their quick and predictable response to events. They have an event-driven or timesharing design and often aspects of both. An event-driven system switches between tasks based
on their priorities or external events while time-sharing operating systems switch tasks based on
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clock interrupts.
A real-time operating system (RTOS) is an operating system (OS) intended to serve real-
time application requests. It must be able to process data as it comes in, typically without
buffering delays. Processing time requirements (including any OS delay) are measured in tenths
of seconds or shorter.
A key characteristic of an RTOS is the level of its consistency concerning the amount of
time it takes to accept and complete an application's task; the variability is jitter. A hardreal-time
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operating system has less jitter than a soft real-time operating system. The chief design goal is
not high throughput, but rather a guarantee of a soft or hard performance category. An RTOS
that can usually or generally meet a deadline is a soft real-time OS, but if it can meet a
deadline deterministically it is a hard real-time OS.
An RTOS has an advanced algorithm for scheduling. Scheduler flexibility enables a wider,
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latency and minimal thread switching latency; a real-time OS is valued more for how quickly or
time.
Operating system architecture
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how predictably it can respond than for the amount of work it can perform in a given period of
Most contemporary operating systems are designed and implemented as a hierarchy of what are
called virtual machines as shown in figure 5.5 . Organized like the onion model, the only real
machine that the various pieces of functionality within the operating system see is the underlying
physical microprocessor. specifically ,the OS sees the the CPU, the memory, and the concrete
I/O devices. The hierarchy is designed such that each layer uses the functions/operations and
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services of lower layers. The primary advantage of such an approach is increased modularity.
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A typical architecture for an operating system appears in figure 5.6 . In sone architecture,
the higher level layers have access to lower levels through system calls and hardware
instructions. The existing calling interface between levels is retained while providing access to
the physical hardware below. This idea can be logically extended so as to create the illusion that
the tasks at each level are running on its own machine. Each level in such a model is called a
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or
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virtual machine
A task or process simply identifies a job that is to be did one within an embedded application. It
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is a set of software instructions, collected together, that are designed and executed to accomplish
that job.
the OS/360 and successors control program dispatcher, a TCB does not strictly perform all the
functions of a Process control block, although it performs most of these.
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Rather, a TCB provides the anchor for a linked list of other, related request control blocks (RBs),
the composite of which (i.e., the TCB plus the top-linked RB) performs the function of a Process
control block.
The Program status word may be stored in one control block (possibly a PRB, a Program
Request Block), while the general purpose registers may be stored in the immediately preceding
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control block (an SVRB, Supervisor Call Request Block, an IRB, Interruption Request Block, or
Once the control program's dispatcher selects a TCB to be dispatched, the context is determined
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and the general purpose registers are obtained from the appropriate control block, then
the PSW is loaded from the appropriate control block thereby dispatching the unit of work.
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A typical TCB, which contains the following information ,is illustrated in figure 5.7
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memory to programs at their request, and freeing it for reuse when no longer needed. This is
critical to the computer system.
methods
have
been
devised
that
increase
the
effectiveness
of
or
Several
memory
management. Virtual memory systems separate the memory addresses used by a process from
actual physical addresses, allowing separation of processes and increasing the effectively
available amount of RAM using paging or swapping to secondary storage. The quality of the
virtual memory manager can have an extensive effect on overall system performance.
The task of fulfilling an allocation request consists of locating a block of unused memory of
sufficient size. Memory requests are satisfied by allocating portions from a large pool of memory
called the heap. At any given time, some parts of the heap are in use, while some are "free"
(unused) and thus available for future allocations. Several issues complicate implementation,
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such as internal and external fragmentation, which arises when there are many small gaps
between allocated memory blocks, which invalidate their use for an allocation request. The
allocators metadata can also inflate the size of (individually) small allocations. This is managed
often by chunking. The memory management system must track outstanding allocations to
ensure that they do not overlap and that no memory is ever "lost" as a memory leak.
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The information that must be saved from an existing context may be as simple as the program
counter and stack pointer for the original context or as complex as the state of the system at the
time the switch occurs. The typical minimum includes
The state of the CPU registers, including the CPU
The values of local variables.
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Status information
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Stacks
or
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Recommended questions
1. What are the differences between a program and a process?
2. What are the differences between a task and a process?
3. What is a thread? What is lightweight and heavy thread?
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6. What are the differences between an operating system and an operating system
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or
kernel?
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UNIT 7 & 8
Performance Analysis and Optimization
Performance or Efficiency measures, Complexity Analysis, The Methodology, Analyzing code,
Instruction in detail, Time, etc,- A more detailed look, Response time, Time loading, Memory
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Ltd,2008
or
1. Embedded Systems-A contemporary Design tool, James K Peckol, John Weily India Pvt
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UNIT 7 & 8
Performance Analysis and Optimization
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between effort expended and results achieved. The difference between current performance and
the theoretical performance limit is the performance improvement zone.
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potential areas. First, is the resource INPUT requirements (e.g., reduced working capital,
material, replacement/reorder time, and set-up requirements). Second, is the THROUGHPUT
requirements, often viewed as process efficiency; this is measured in terms of time, waste, and
resource utilization. Third, OUTPUT requirements, often viewed from a cost/price, quality,
functionality perspective. Fourth, OUTCOME requirements, did it end up making a difference.
Performance
improvement is
output
of
particular process or procedure, then modifying the process or procedure to increase the output,
increase efficiency, or increase the effectiveness of the process or procedure. The concept of
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development, performance
improvement is
the
concept
of
organizational change in which the managers and governing body of an organization put into
place and manage a program which measures the current level of performance of the
and
then
generates
ideas
for
modifying organizational
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organization
behavior and infrastructure which are put into place to achieve higher output. The primary goals
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usually
involves
softer
forms
of
measurement
such
as customer
satisfaction surveys which are used to obtain qualitative information about performance from the
viewpoint of customers.
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The difficulty is the significant variability one encounters when running the program.
What input data?
What compiler?
What compiler options>
Complexity
Time
or
Power consumption
Memory size
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Cost
Weight
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Ease of maintenance
Extensibility
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With respect to size, one is looking for the smallest amount needed.
Average case
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The system
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We consider software to be
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analysis can also be used to provide relative comparisons of complexity between releases of a
product.
The complexity of an algorithm is a function describing the efficiency of the algorithm in terms
of the amount of data the algorithm must process. Usually there are natural units for the domain
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and range of this function. There are two main complexity measures of the efficiency of an
algorithm:
Time complexity is a function describing the amount of time an algorithm takes in terms
of the amount of input to the algorithm. "Time" can mean the number of memory
or
accesses performed, the number of comparisons between integers, the number of times
some inner loop is executed, or some other natural unit related to the amount of real time
the algorithm will take. We try to keep this idea of time separate from "wall clock" time,
since many factors unrelated to the algorithm itself can affect the real time (like the
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needed, not counting the memory needed to store the input itself. Again, we use natural
(but fixed-length) units to measure this. We can use bytes, but it's easier to use, say,
number of integers used, number of fixed-sized structures, etc. In the end, the function we
come up with will be independent of the actual number of bytes needed to represent the
unit. Space complexity is sometimes ignored because the space used is minimal and/or
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The methodology
The steps involved in analyzing a complexity of a problem perform trade-off analyses in the
design cycle. They are
Decompose the problem into a set of basic operations.
Count the total number of such operations.
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Derive a formula, based in some parameter and that is the size of the problem.
Use order of magnitudes estimation to assess behavior
Analyzing code
As one gains facility in analyzing and understanding the behavior of a system, it becomes
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evident rather quickly that even the most complex parts of a system are ultimately composed of
fundamental modules. Lets now analyze several of the basic flow of control construct that are
commonly found in
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performance.
The execution of constant time statements ,is a constant, independent of the size of the input.
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Looping construct
Looping constructs are a common flow of control mechanism. any loop analysis has 2 parts.
Determine the number of iterations to be performed.
Determine the number of steps per iteration.
For loop
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for loop is a programming language statement which allows code to be repeatedly executed.
A for loop is classified as an iteration statement.
or (int i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
/* Prints the numbers 0 to 99, each separated by a space. */
System.out.print(i);
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System.out.print(' ');
}
or
System.out.println();
While loop
a while loop is a control flow statement that allows code to be executed repeatedly based on a
int x = 0;
while (x < 5)
{
printf ("x = %d\n", x);
given boolean condition. The while loop can be thought of as a repeating if statement.
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x++;
}
Sequential statements
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Conditional statements
or
actions
depending
on
whether
programmer-
specified Boolean condition evaluates to true or false. Apart from the case of branch predication,
this is always achieved by selectively altering the control flow based on some condition.
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ELSE
(Alternative)
END IF
When an interpreter finds an If, it expects a Boolean condition for example, x > 0, which
means "the variable x contains a number that is greater than zero" and evaluates that condition.
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If the condition is true, the statements following the then are executed. Otherwise, the execution
continues in the following branch either in the else block (which is usually optional), or if there
is no else branch, then after the end If.
Analysis of Algorithms
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After either branch has been executed, control returns to the point after the end If.
For most of the algorithms associated with this course, time complexity comparisons are more
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interesting than space complexity comparisons .A measure of the amount of time required to
execute an Factors that should not affect time complexity analysis:
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To simplify analysis, we sometimes ignore work that takes a constant amount of time,
When comparing two algorithms that perform the same task, we often just
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Instructions in detail
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The analysis is conducted at the assembly language level. Each different compiler is
going to generate somewhat different assembly code, even for the same target. The
analysis must be based on the compiler that is generating the final code for the
microprocessor used in the design.
Compilers support different options for the compilation process. Such variations include
the size of the target memory. Different code may be generated for a small memory
model versus a large memory model.
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Consistency is the keyword. always perform the analysis on the code that will ultimately be
embedded in the system being designed.
A hardware interrupt is an electronic alerting signal sent to the processor from an external
device, either a part of the computer itself such as a disk controller or an external peripheral.
For example, pressing a key on the keyboard or moving the mouse triggers hardware
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interrupts that cause the processor to read the keystroke or mouse position.
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Time is one of the most critical constraints that must be considered when designing
embedded system. we must consider both hardware and software timing. On the hardware
side, one must consider the internal delays of the hardware components as well as the delays
through external elements. Software performance is affected by both the path through the
Metrics
Response time- the interval between the occurrence of an event and the completion of some
associated action.
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Time loading- this is the percentage of time that the CPU is doing useful work.
Memory loading- this is the percentage of usable memory being used.
Response time
Response time is the time a system or functional unit takes to react to a given input. In data
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processing, the response time perceived by the end user is the interval between
(a) The instant at which an operator at a terminal enters a request for a response from
a computer.
(b) The instant at which the last character of the response is received at a terminal.
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In a data system, the system response time is the interval between the receipt of the end
of transmission of an inquiry message and the beginning of the transmission of a response
message to the station originating the inquiry.
Polled loops
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Polled loops are the simplest and the response time consists of three components
Hardware delays in the external device to set the signaling event.
Time to test the flag
or
Time needed to respond to and process the event associated with the flag.
Co-routine
In a noninterrupt environment, the time for a co-routine may be computed directly or, more
Time loading
often,bounded, which we compute as the worst case path through each component.
Time loading is the percentage of time that the CPU is doing useful work.analyzing time loading
entails the execution times of the constituent modules. These times are computed by finding the
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time spent in both the primary tasks and the support tasks. Then compute the ratio of
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Instruction counting
Simulation
Physical measurement
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or
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Memory loading
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or
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Performance optimization
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In order to improve the performance, we must look at the common mistakes that are often made
Common mistakes
Expecting improvement in one aspect of the design to improve the overall performance
proportional to improvement.
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Response time and time loading can be reduced in a number of ways. Here are a couple of
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simple ones.
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Optimize a common path or frequently used code block. The most frequently used path
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Hardware accelarators
One technique that can be used to gain significant performance increase with respect to a
software implementation is to move some of the functionality to hardware. Such a collection
of components is called a hardware accelerator. The accelerator is often attatched to the CPU
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bus. Communication with the CPU is accomplished through many of the same techniques
that have already been discussed.
Shared variables.
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Hardware accelerators are used when there are functions whose operations do not map well onto
the CPU. Possible examples include
Bit and nit field operations.
Differing precisions of arithmetic calculations.
Very high speed arithmetic
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FFT calculations
Multiples
Very high speed or associative search.
High demand input or output operations, with tight timing constraints and high
throughput.
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Streaming applications including high speed audio and video. With such application,
delays in the time domain translate directly to distortion in the frequency domain.
Caches and performance
or
A CPU cache is a cache used by the central processing unit of a computer to reduce the
average time to access memory. The cache is a smaller, faster memory which stores copies of the
data from frequently used main memory locations. As long as most memory accesses are cached
memory locations, the average latency of memory accesses will be closer to the cache latency
The proportion of accesses that result in a cache hit is known as the hit rate, and can be a
measure of the effectiveness of the cache for a given program or algorithm.
Read misses delay execution because they require data to be transferred from memory much
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more slowly than the cache itself. Write misses may occur without such penalty, since the
processor can continue execution while data is copied to main memory in the background.
Instruction caches are similar to data caches, but the CPU only performs read accesses
(instruction fetches) to the instruction cache. (With Harvard architecture and modified Harvard
architecture CPUs, instruction and data caches can be separated for higher performance, but they
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requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values
that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere. If
requested data is contained in the cache (cache hit), this request can be served by simply reading
the cache, which is comparatively faster. Otherwise (cache misses), the data has to be
recomputed or fetched from its original storage location, which is comparatively slower. Hence,
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the greater the number of requests that can be served from the cache, the faster the overall system
performance becomes.
To be cost efficient and to enable an efficient use of data, caches are relatively small.
Nevertheless, caches have proven themselves in many areas of computing because access
patterns in typical computer applications have locality of reference. References exhibit temporal
ld
locality if data is requested again that has been recently requested already. References
exhibit spatial locality if data is requested that is physically stored close to data that has been
requested already.
or
Small memories on or close to the CPU can operate faster than the much larger main memory.
Most CPUs since the 1980s have used one or more caches, and modern high-end embedded,
desktop and server microprocessors may have as many as half a dozen, each specialized for a
specific function. Examples of caches with a specific function are the D-cache and I-cache (data
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Recommended questions
1. What is meant by the performance of an embedded application?
2. What is the difference between an optimnization and a trade off?
3. In an embedded application, what is meant by the term response time? Throughput?
Memory loading? Time loading?
ld
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or
6. What are the major factors that can affect the time performance of an instruction?
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