DR.
UMAR SHAHBAZ KHAN
umarshahbaz@gmail.com
Digital Logic Design
Computer Architecture
Programming
Microcontrollers
Introduction to Embedded Systems
Processor Technology
Single purpose and General purpose
processors
Embedded Systems Hardware and
Software
Interfacing
IC Technology
Design Technology
Programmable logic devices like,
Programmable array logic (PAL)
Programmable logic array (PLA), complex
Programming logic device (CPLD), Application
Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) and Field
Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA)
Software for embedded systems: Introduction
to development environment: FPGA
development kit (Spartan-III), Introduction to
Verilog
Development of various applicationslike
Mux, Demux, counters, registers, ALU etc
Embedded System Design: A unified
Hardware/Software Introduction. By Frank
Vahid & Tony D. Givarigis
Computer Architecture, A Quantitative
approach by Dr. David A. Patterson and
Dr. Paul Hennessey, - Digital Computer
Electronics by Malvino & Brown.
Embedded System Design. Hardware/
Software System, by P. Marwedel
FPGA prototyping by VHDL examples:
Xilinx Spartan-3 version, By Pong P. Chu Wiley-Interscience.
Quiz :
10%
Assignment:
05%
Projects :
05%
2 x Sessional Exams:
30%
Final Exam :
50 %
An electronic device that includes a programmable
computer, but is not itself intended to be a
general-purpose computer
It is not your desktop PC or portable PC. Some
examples are
Fax machines
Digital cameras
Mobile phones etc.
Millions of desktop PCs are manufactured every
year
Billions of embedded computer systems are
manufactured every year
A combination of hardware and software
which together form a component of a
larger machine. An embedded system is
designed to run on its own without human
intervention, and may be required to
respond to events in real time. Embedded
systems are used in industrial machines,
automobiles, medical equipment, cameras,
household appliances, airplanes, vending
machines, cellular phone, PDAs, toys and
many other devices.
Digital camera chip
CCD
CCD preprocessor
Pixel coprocessor
D2A
A2D
lens
JPEG codec
Microcontroller
Multiplier/Accum
DMA controller
Memory controller
Display ctrl
ISA bus interface
UART
LCD ctrl
Single-functioned -- always a digital camera
Tightly-constrained -- Low cost, low power, small,
fast
This top of the range car may contain more than 200 dedicated
embedded systems
Definition: Mechatronics
is the synergistic
combination of precision
mechanical engineering,
electronic controls and
systems engineering in the
design of products and
processes
Embedded
Sensors/actuators/
processors are integral
parts of mechatronic
systems
Dedicated to specific tasks
Real-time constraints
Cost sensitive
Power sensitive
Short design times
Harsh operating environments
Fail-safe operations
Restricted design and development tools
Sophisticated algorithms
Complex and reactive user interfaces
Complex testing requirements
How much hardware do we need?
How much software do we need?
What is the optimum balance between
hardware and software?
How do we meet operational deadlines?
How do we minimize power consumption?
How do we design for upgradeability?
How do we convince people that the
system works properly?
Unit cost: the monetary cost of manufacturing each
copy of the system, excluding NRE cost
NRE cost (Non-Recurring Engineering cost): The onetime monetary cost of designing the system.
Size: the physical space required by the system.
Performance: the execution time or throughput of the
system.
Power: the amount of power consumed by the system.
Flexibility: the ability to change the functionality of
the system without incurring heavy NRE cost
Time-to-prototype: the time needed to build a working
version of the system.
Time-to-market: the time required to develop a system
to the point that it can be released and sold to
customers.
Maintainability: the ability to modify the system after
its initial release
Correctness, safety, many more
Improving one design metric may worsen
other
The hardware and software are
normally developed together in order
to satisfy the system requirements:
Correct functionality
Cost
Size
Performance
Power consumption
Time-to-Market etc.
Real Time Systems are typically
monitoring and/or control systems
The external environment (system or
machine) is often termed the Controlled
System
The Real Time System (including its
hardware/OS) is known as the Controlling
System
Surface to air missiles
Cardiac Pacemaker
Sense heartbeat
Deliver electrical stimulus to heart on basis of sensed
heart events
Rate of stimulation and duration of stimulus controlled
by the system
Digital cellular telephony
Detect aircraft, initiate launch, track target.... bang!
Compress/ decompress speech, error coding, manage
radio transmission, manage power consumption
Like many Real Time Systems, above are all
embedded in some larger system that they control
Processor technology
IC technology
Design technology
The architecture of the computation
engine used to implement a systems
desired functionality
Controller
Datapath
Controller
Control
logic and State
register
Register
file
Control logic and
State register
IR
General
ALU
PC
Datapath
Registers
Data
memory
Assembly code for:
Control
logic
index
State register
PC
Data
memory
Program memory
Datapath
total
Custom
ALU
IR
Controller
Data
memory
Program memory
Assembly code for:
total = 0
for i =1 to
total = 0
for i =1 to
General-purpose (software)
Application-specific
Single-purpose (hardware)
Programmable device used in
a variety of applications
Features
Program memory
General datapath with large
register file and general ALU
User benefits
Also known as microprocessor
Low time-to-market and NRE
costs
High flexibility
Pentium the most wellknown, but there are
hundreds of others
Controller
Datapath
Control
logic and
State
register
Register
file
IR
PC
Program
memory
Assembly code
for:
total = 0
for i =1 to
General
ALU
Data
memory
Digital circuit designed to
execute exactly one program
Features
a.k.a. coprocessor, accelerator or
peripheral
Contains only the components
needed to execute a single
program
No program memory
Benefits
Fast
Low power
Small size
Controller
Datapath
Control
logic
index
total
State
register
Data
memory
Programmable processor
optimized for a particular class of
applications having common
characteristics
Datapath
Control
logic and
State
register
Registers
IR
PC
Features
Compromise between generalpurpose and single-purpose
processors
Controller
Program memory
Optimized datapath
Special functional units
Benefits
Some flexibility, good performance,
size and power
Program
memory
Assembly code
for:
total = 0
for i =1 to
Custom
ALU
Data
memory
The manner in which a digital (gatelevel) implementation is mapped onto
an IC
IC: Integrated circuit, or chip
IC technologies differ in their customization
to a design
ICs consist of numerous layers (perhaps
10 or more)
IC
technologies differ with respect to who builds
each layer and when
IC package
IC
source
gate
oxide
channel
drain
Silicon substrate
Full-custom/VLSI
Semi-custom ASIC (gate array and
standard cell)
PLD (Programmable Logic Device)
Full custom IC design often referred to as Very
Large Scale Integration (VLSI) design.
All layers are optimized for an embedded
systems particular digital implementation
Benefits
Placing transistors
Sizing transistors
Routing wires
Excellent performance, small size, low power
Drawbacks
High NRE cost (e.g., $300k), long time-to-market
28
Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI)
Placement
Routing
Connect transistors
Sizing
Place and orient transistors
Make fat, fast wires or thin, slow wires
May also need to size buffer
Design Rules
simple rules for correct circuit function
Metal/metal spacing, min poly width
Also referred to as Application-specific IC (ASIC).
Lower layers are fully or partially built
Benefits
Designers are left with routing of wires and maybe
placing some blocks
Good performance, good size, less NRE cost than a
full-custom implementation (perhaps $10k to $100k)
Drawbacks
Still require weeks to months to develop
30
Gate Array
Array of prefabricated gates
place and route
Higher density, faster time-to-market
Does not integrate as well with full-custom
Standard Cell
A library of pre-designed cell
Place and route
Lower density, higher complexity
Integrate great with full-custom
31
Most popular design style
Jack of all trade
Good
Power,
time-to-market,
performance, NRE cost, perunit cost, area
Master of none
Integrate with full custom
for critical regions of design
33
Programmable Logic Device
Programmable Logic Array, Programmable Array Logic, Field
Programmable Gate Array
All layers already exist
Designers can purchase an IC
To implement desired functionality
Benefits
Connections on the IC are either created or destroyed to implement
Very low NRE costs
Great time to market
Drawback
High unit cost, bad for large volume
Power
Except special PLA
slower
1600 usable gate, 7.5 ns
$7 list price
34
The most important trend in embedded
systems
Predicted in 1965 by Intel co-founder Gordon
Moore
IC transistor capacity has doubled roughly
every 18 months for the past several decades
10,000
1,000
100
10
1
0.1
0.01
2009
2007
2005
2003
2001
1999
1997
1995
1993
1991
1989
1987
1985
0.001
1983
Logic transistors
per chip
(in millions)
1981
The manner in which we convert our
concept of desired system functionality
into an implementation
Compilation/
Synthesis
Compilation/Synthesis: Automates
exploration and insertion of
implementation details for lower level.
Libraries/
IP
Test/
Verification
System
specification
System
synthesis
Hw/Sw/
OS
Model simulate./
checkers
Behavioral
specification
Behavior
synthesis
Cores
Hw-Sw
co simulators
RT
specification
RT
synthesis
RT
components
HDL simulators
Logic
specification
Logic
synthesis
Gates/
Cells
Gate
simulators
Libraries/IP: Incorporates pre-designed
implementation from lower abstraction
level into higher level.
Test/Verification: Ensures correct
functionality at each level, thus reducing
costly iterations between levels.
To final implementation
2009
2007
2005
2003
2001
1999
1997
1995
1993
1991
1989
1987
1985
1983
1981
1,000
100
10
0.1
0.01
Productivity
(K) Trans./Staff Mo.
Exponential increase over the past few decades
100,000
10,000
In the past:
Hardware and software
design technologies
were very different
Recent maturation of
synthesis enables a
unified view of hardware
and software
Hardware/software co
design
Sequential program code (e.g., C, VHDL)
Behavioral synthesis
(1990's)
Compilers
(1960's,1970's)
Register transfers
Assembly instructions
RT synthesis
(1980's, 1990's)
Assemblers, linkers
(1950's, 1960's)
Logic equations / FSM's
Machine instructions
Logic synthesis
(1970's, 1980's)
Logic gates
Microprocessor plus
program bits: software
Implementation
VLSI, ASIC, or PLD
implementation: hardware
The choice of hardware versus software for a particular function is simply a tradeoff among
various design metrics, like performance, power, size, NRE cost, and especially flexibility;
there is no fundamental difference between what hardware or software can implement.
Basic tradeoff
General vs. custom
With respect to processor technology or IC technology
The two technologies are independent
General,
providing improved:
Generalpurpose
processor
ASIP
Singlepurpose
processor
Flexibility
Maintainability
NRE cost
Time- to-prototype
Time-to-market
Cost (low volume)
Customized,
providing improved:
Power efficiency
Performance
Size
Cost (high volume)
PLD
Semi-custom
Full-custom
While designer productivity has grown
at an impressive rate over the past
decades, the rate of improvement has
not kept pace with chip capacity
100,000
1,000
10,000
100
1000
Gap
10
100
IC capacity
10
0.1
productivity
0.01
0.1
0.001
2009
2007
2005
2003
2001
1999
1997
1995
1993
1991
1989
1987
1985
0.01
1983
Logic transistors
per chip
(in millions)
10,000
1981
Productivity
(K) Trans./Staff-Mo.
Adaptive Cruise Control
Drive by wire
XM Satellite Radio
Telematics (OnStar)
Software drive train
Software body control
Rain-sensing Wipers
In-vehicle entertainment
Generation II ABS
Heads-up display
Night Vision
Back-up collision sensor
Navigation
Tire Pressure Monitor
Gasoline to hybrid to fuel cell
Mechanical connection to Drive-by-wire
Proprietary electrical/hardware/software system to
standardized architectures
Adoption and implementation of IT standards in the
technology of the car (XML, Web Services, etc.)
On-demand to Always-on vehicle connectivity to the
Internet
Measuring physical variables (sensing)
Storing data
Processing sensor signals and data
Influencing physical variables
(actuating)
Monitoring, Supervision
Enable manual and automatic
operation
