Embedded System Design-BEC601

EMBEDDED SYSTEM DESIGN Mrs. Bhargavi Sangam

Asst. Professor
Dr. Kishore M Dept. Of ECE
Associate Professor
KSSEM
[Link] ECE, KSSEM

MODULE -2
Embedded System Design Concepts: Characteristics and Quality Attributes of Embedded
systems, Operational and non-operational quality attributes, Embedded systems- Application
and Domain specific, Hardware Software Co-Design and Program Modelling (excluding
UML), Embedded firmware design and development (excluding C language).

EMBEDDED SYSTEM DESIGN CONCEPTS

The characteristics of embedded system are different from those of a general purpose
computer and so are its Quality metrics. The design of the embedded system should consider
both functional and non-functional characteristics. Non-functional characteristics of an
embedded system are generally referred as Quality attributes.

CHARACTERISTICS OF EMBEDDED SYSTEM

Unlike general purpose systems, embedded systems possess certain specific characteristics
and they are unique to each embedded system. Some of the important characteristics are:
1. Application and domain specific
2. Reactive and real time
3. Operates in harsh environments
4. Distributed systems
5. Small size and weight
6. Power concerns

1. Application and Domain specific

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

Dr.
[Link]
BhargaviM , KSSEM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE Page 1
Embedded System Design-BEC601

2. Reactive and Real time

 Embedded systems are in constant interaction with the real world through sensors and
user-defined input devices which are connected to the input port of the system.
 Any changes happening in the real world (which is called an Event) are captured by
the sensors or input devices in Real Time and the control algorithm running inside the
unit reacts in a designed manner to bring the controlled output variables to the desired
level.
 The event may be periodic one or unpredicted one.
 If an event is unpredicted one then such system should be designed in such a way that
it should be scheduled to capture the events without missing them.
 Embedded systems produce changes in output in response to the changes in the output
and they are generally referred as Reactive systems.
 Real Time System operation means the timing behaviour of the system should be
deterministic.
 The system should respond to requests or tasks in a known amount of time.
 A Real Time system should not miss any deadlines for tasks or operations.
 It is not necessary that all embedded systems should be Real Time in operations.
 Embedded applications or systems which are mission critical, like flight control
systems, Antilock Brake Systems (ABS), etc. are examples of Real Time systems.

3. Operation in harsh environment

 Certain embedded systems are designed to operate in harsh environments may be a
dusty or a high temperature zone or a area subject to vibrations and shock.
 Systems placed in such areas should be capable to with stand all these adverse
operating conditions.
 The design should take care of the operating conditions of the area where the system
is going to implement.
 For example, if the system needs to be deployed in a high temperature zone, then all
the components used in the system should be of high temperature grade.
 Also proper shock absorption techniques should be provided to systems which are
going to be commissioned in places subject to high shock.
4. Distributed systems
 The term distributed means that embedded systems may be a part of larger systems.
 Many numbers of such distributed embedded systems form a single large embedded
control unit.
For example,
 An automatic vending machine. It contains a card reader (for pre-paid vending
systems), a vending unit, etc.
 Each of them are independent embedded units but they work together to perform the
overall vending function.
Another example is the Automated Teller Machine (ATM).

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 2
Embedded System Design-BEC601

 It contains a card reader embedded unit, responsible for reading and validating the
user's ATM card, transaction unit for performing transactions, a currency counter for
dispatching/vending currency to the authorised person and a printer unit for printing
the transaction details.
 We can visualise these as independent embedded systems, but they work together to
achieve a common goal.
Another typical example of a distributed embedded system is the Supervisory Control
And Data Acquisition (SCADA) system used in Control & Instrumentation applications,
which contains physically distributed individual embedded control units connected to a
supervisory module.

5. Small size and weight

 An embedded system that is compact in size and has light weight will be desirable or
more popular than one that is bulky and heavy.

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

 Ex. Currently available cell phones. The cell phones that have the maximum features
are popular but also their size and weight is an important characteristic.

6. Power concerns

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

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

QUALITY ATTRIBUTES OF EMBEDDED SYSTEM

Quality attributes are the non-functional requirements that need to be documented properly in
any system design.
If the quality attributes are more concrete and measurable it will give a positive impact on the
system development process and the end product.
These are the attributes that together form the deciding factor about the quality of an
embedded system.

Dr.
[Link]
BhargaviM , KSSEM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE Page 3
Embedded System Design-BEC601

There are two types of quality attributes are:-

1. Operational Quality Attributes.
These are attributes related to operation or functioning of an embedded system. The way an
embedded system operates affects its overall quality.
2. Non-Operational Quality Attributes.
These are attributes not related to operation or functioning of an embedded system. The way
an embedded system operates affects its overall quality.
These are the attributes that are associated with the embedded system before it can be put in
operation.

Operational Quality Attributes

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

1. Response:
 Response is a measure of quickness of the system.
 It gives you an idea about how fast your system is tracking the input variables.
 Most of the embedded system demand fast response which should be real-time.

2. Throughput
 Throughput deals with the efficiency of system.
 It can be defined as rate of production or process of a defined process over a stated
period of time.
 The rates can be expressed in terms of units of products, batches produced or any
other meaningful measurements.
 In case of card reader like the ones used in buses, throughput means how much
transaction the reader can perform in a minute or hour or day.
 Throughput is generally measured in terms ‘Benchmark’.
 A ‘Benchmark’ is a reference point by which something can be measured.
 Benchmark can be set of performance criteria that a product is expected to meet or a
standard product that can be used for comparing other products of the same product
line.

3. Reliability
 Reliability is a measure of how much percentage you rely upon the proper functioning
of the system or what is the % susceptibility of the system failures.

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 4
Embedded System Design-BEC601

 Mean Time between failures (MTBF) and Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) are terms
used in defining system reliability.
 MTBF gives the frequency in hours/weeks/months.
 Mean Time between failures can be defined as the average time the system is
functioning before a failure occurs.
 Mean time to repair can be defined as the average time the system has spent in
repairs.
 MTTF specifies how long the system is allowed to be out of order following a failure.
For an embedded system with critical application need, it should be of order of
minutes.
4. Maintainability
 Maintainability deals with support and maintenance to the end user or a client in
case of technical issues and product failures or on the basis of a routine system
check-up
 Reliability and maintainability are considered as two complementary disciplines.
 It can be classified into two types :-
a) Scheduled or Periodic Maintenance ( Preventive maintenance)
This is the maintenance that is required regularly after a periodic time interval.
Example: Periodic Cleaning of Air Conditioners Refilling of printer cartridges.
b) Maintenance to unexpected failure
This involves the maintenance due to a sudden breakdown in the functioning of
the system.
Example:
Air conditioning not powering ON
Printer not taking full stacks of paper
In embedded system, the ideal value for availability is expressed as,
Ai=MTBF/(MTBF+MTTR)
Where,
Ai= availability in ideal condition
MTBF= Mean Time between Failures
MTTR= Mean time to repair

5. Security
 Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability are three major measures of information
security.
 Confidentiality deals with protection data from unauthorized disclosure.
 Integrity gives protection from unauthorized modification.
 Availability gives protection from unauthorized user
 Certain Embedded systems have to make sure they conform to the security measures.
 Ex. An Electronic Safety Deposit Locker can be used only with a pin number like a
password.
6. Safety

 Safety deals with the possible damage that can happen to the operating person and
environment due to the breakdown of an embedded system or due to the emission of
hazardous materials from the embedded products.

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 5
Embedded System Design-BEC601

 The breakdown of an embedded system may occur due to a hardware failure or a

firmware failure.
 A safety analysis is a must in product engineering to evaluate the anticipated damage
and determine the best course of action to bring down the consequence of damages to
an acceptable level.

Non Operational Attributes

The important attribute under this category are:
1. Testability and Debug-ability
2. Evolvability
3. Portability
4. Time to prototype and market
5. Per unit and total cost

1. Testability and Debug-ability

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

Mrs. BhargaviM
Dr. Kishore Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 6
Embedded System Design-BEC601

 For embedded system, the qualitative attribute “Evolvability” refer to ease with which
the embedded product can be modified to take advantage of new firmware or
hardware technology.
3. Portability
 Portability is measured of “system Independence”.
 An embedded product can be called portable if it is capable of performing its
operation as it is intended to do in various environments irrespective of different
processor and or controller and embedded operating systems.
 The ease with which an embedded product can be ported to a new platform is a direct
measure of re-work required.
 A standard embedded product should always be flexible and portable.
 In embedded products, ‘porting’ means migration of embedded firmware written for
one target processor to a different target processor.
4. Time to prototype and market

 Time to Market is the time elapsed between the conceptualization of a product and
time at which the product is ready for selling or use
 Product prototyping help in reducing time to market.

 Prototyping is an informal kind of rapid product development in which important

feature of the under consider are develop.

 In order to shorten the time to prototype, make use of all possible option like use of
reuse, off the self component etc.
5. Per unit and total cost
 Cost is an important factor which needs to be carefully monitored. Proper market
study and cost benefit analysis should be carried out before taking decision on the per
unit cost of the embedded product.

 When the product is introduced in the market, for the initial period the sales and
revenue will be low

 There won’t be much competition when the product sales and revenue increase.

 During the maturing phase, the growth will be steady and revenue reaches highest
point and at retirement time there will be a drop in sales volume.

Mrs. BhargaviM
Dr. Kishore Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 7
Embedded System Design-BEC601

Embedded Systems-Application and Domain specific

Embedded systems are highly specialised in functioning are dedicated for a specific
application. Hence it is not possible to replace an embedded system developed for a specific
application in a specific domain with another embedded system designed for some other
application in some other domain.
Application specific systems: Washing Machine
As mentioned earlier, embedded system contains sensors, actuators, control unit and
application specific user interfaces.
Washing machine also has all these parts.
The actuator part of washing machine consists of motorised agitator, tumbler tub, water
drawing pump and inlet valve to control the flow of water into the unit.
The sensor part consists of the water temperature sensor, level sensor etc.
The control part consists of microcontroller or microprocessor controlled based board with
interfaces to the sensors and actuators.
The sensor data is fed back to the control unit and the control unit also provides connectivity
to user interfaces like keypad for setting washing machine time, selecting the type of material
to be washed like light, medium, heavy etc.
User feedback is reflected through the display unit and LEDs connected to the control board.
The functional block diagram of washing machine is shown below:

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviMSangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 8
Embedded System Design-BEC601

Washing machine comes in two models

1. Top loading
2. Front loading
 In top loading models, the agitator of the machine twists back and forth and pulls the
cloth down to the bottom of the tub. On reaching the bottom of the tub the cloths work
their way back up to the top of the tub where the agitator grabs them again and repeats
the mechanism.
 In front loading machines, the cloths are tumbled and plunged into the water over and
over again.
 This is called first phase of washing.

 In the second phase of washing, water is pumped out from the tub and the inner tub
uses centrifugal force to wring out more water from the clothes by spinning at several
hundred Rotations Per Minute (RPM).
Mrs. BhargaviM
Dr. Kishore Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 9
Embedded System Design-BEC601

 This is called a ‘Spin phase’.

 The inner tub of the machine contains a number of holes and during the spin cycle the
inner tub spins, and forces the water out through these holes to the stationary outer tub
from which it is drained off through the outlet pipe.
 The design of washing machines may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, but
the general principle underlying in the working of the washing machine remains the
same.
 The basic controls consist of a timer, cycle selector mechanism, water temperature
selector, load size selector and start button.
 The mechanism includes the motor, transmission, clutch, pump, agitator, inner tub,
outer tub and water inlet valve.
 Water inlet valve connects to the water supply line using at home and regulates the
flow of water into the tub.
 The integrated control panel consists of a microprocessor/controller based board with
I/O interfaces and a control algorithm running in it.
 Input interface includes the keyboard which consists of wash type selector namely
Wash, Spin and Rinse, cloth type selector namely Light, Medium, Heavy duty and
washing time setting, etc.
 The output interface consists of LED/LCD displays, status indication LEDs, etc.
connected to the I/O bus of the controller.
 The other types of I/O interfaces which are invisible to the end user are different kinds
of sensor interfaces, namely, water temperature sensor, water level sensor, etc. and
actuator interface including motor control for agitator and tub movement control, inlet
water flow control, etc.

Automotive – Domain-Specific Embedded System

The major application domains of embedded systems are consumer, industrial, automotive,
telecom, etc.
Figure below gives an overview of the various types of electronic control units employed
automotive applications.

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 10
Embedded System Design-BEC601

 Automotive embedded systems are the one where electronics take control over the
mechanical systems.
 The presence of automotive embedded system in a vehicle varies from simple mirror
and wiper controls to complex air bag controller and antilock brake systems (ABS).
 Automotive embedded systems are normally built around microcontrollers or DSPs or
a hybrid of the two and are generally known as Electronic Control Units (ECUs).
 The number of embedded controllers in an ordinary vehicle varies from 20 to 40
whereas a luxury vehicle like Mercedes S and BMW 7 may contain 75 to 100
numbers of embedded controllers.
 The first embedded system used in automotive application was the microprocessor
based fuel injection system introduced by Volkswagen 1600 in 1968.
 The electronic control units (ECUs) used in the automotive embedded industry can be
broadly classified into two:
 High-speed Electronic Control Units (HECUs):
1. These are deployed in critical control units requiring fast response.
2. They include fuel injection systems, antilock brake systems, engine control, electronic
throttle, steering controls, transmission control unit and central control unit.
 Low-speed Electronic Control Units (LECUs):
1. These are deployed in applications where response time is not so critical.

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 11
Embedded System Design-BEC601

2. They generally are built around low cost microprocessors/microcontrollers and digital
signal processors.
3. Audio controllers, passenger and driver door locks, door glass controls (power
windows), wiper control, mirror control, seat control systems, head lamp and tail lamp
controls, sun roof control unit etc. are examples of LECUs.

 Automotive applications make use of serial buses for communication, which greatly
reduces the amount of wiring required inside a vehicle.
 Different types of serial interface buses are:
1. Controller Area Network (CAN) Bus
2. Local Interconnect Network (LIN) Bus
3. Media-Oriented System Transport (MOST) Bus
 Controller Area Network (CAN) Bus
• CAN Bus was originally proposed by Robert Bosch, pioneer in the
Automotive embedded solution providers.
• It supports medium speed (ISO11519-class B with data rates up to 125 Kbps)
and high speed (IS011898 class C with data rates up to 1 Mbps) data transfer.
• CAN is an event-driven protocol interface with support for error handling in
data transmission.
• It is generally employed in safety system like airbag control; power train
systems like engine control and Antilock Brake System (ABS); and navigation
systems like GPS.

 Local Interconnect Network (LIN) Bus

• LIN bus is a single master multiple slave (up to 16 independent slave nodes)
communication interface.
• LIN is a low speed, single wire communication interface with support for data
rates up to 20 Kbps and is used for sensor/actuator interfacing.
• LIN bus follows the master communication triggering technique to eliminate
the possible bus arbitration problem that can occur by the simultaneous talking
of different slave nodes connected to a single interface bus.
• LIN bus is employed in applications like mirror controls, fan controls, seat
positioning controls, window controls, and position controls where response
time is not a critical issue.
Media-Oriented System Transport (MOST) Bus
• MOST Bus is targeted for automotive audio/video equipment interfacing.
• It is a multimedia fibre-optic point-to-point network implemented in a star,
ring or daisy-chained topology over optical fibre cables.
• The MOST bus specifications define the physical (electrical and optical
parameters) layer as well as the application layer, network layer, and media
access control.
• MOST bus is an optical fibre cable connected between the Electrical Optical
Converter (EOC) and Optical Electrical Converter (OEC), which would
translate into the optical cable MOST bus.

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 12
Embedded System Design-BEC601

Hardware Software Co-Design and Program Modelling

Hardware Software Co-Design

In the traditional embedded system development approach, the hardware software

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

Fundamental Issues in Hardware Software Co-Design

The fundamental issues in hardware software co-design are:
 Selecting the Model
 Selecting the Architecture
 Selecting the Language
 Partitioning System Requirements into Hardware and Software

Selecting the Model

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 13
Embedded System Design-BEC601

In hardware software co-design, models are used for capturing and describing the system
characteristics.
A model is a formal system consisting of objects and composition rules.
It is hard to make a decision on which model should be followed in a particular system
design.
Most often designers switch between varieties of models from the requirements specification
to the implementation aspect of the system design.
 The reason being, the objective varies with each phase.
 For example, at the specification stage, only the functionality of the system is in focus
and not the implementation information.
 When the design moves to the implementation aspect, the information about the
system components is revealed and the designer has to switch to a model capable of
capturing the system's structure.
Selecting the Architecture
 A model only captures the system characteristics and does not provide information on
'how the system can be manufactured?’.
 The architecture specifies how a system is going to implement in terms of the number
and types of different components and the interconnection among them.
 The commonly used architectures in system design are Controller Architecture, Data
path Architecture, Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC), Reduced Instruction
Set Computing (RISC), Very Long Instruction Word Computing (VLIW), Single
Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD), Multiple Instruction Multiple Data (MIMD), etc.
• Some of them fall into Application Specific Architecture Class (like controller
architecture), while others fall into either general purpose architecture class (CISC,
RISC, etc.) or parallel processing class (like VLIW, SIMD, MIMD, etc.).
The control architecture implements the finite state machine model using a state register
and two combinational circuits. The state register holds the present state and the
combinational circuits implement the logic for next state and output.
The data path architecture is best suited for implementing the data flow graph model where
the output is generated as a result of a set of predefined computations on the input data. A
datapath represents a channel between the input and output and in datapath architecture the
datapath may contain registers, datapath to multiple buses. Most of the time the arithmetic
units are connected in parallel with pipelining support for bringing high performance.
The finite state machine datapath (FSMD) architecture combines the controller architecture
with datapath architecture. It implements a controller with datapath. The controller generates
the control input whereas the datapath processes the data. The datapath contains two types of
I/O ports, out of which one acts as the control port for receiving/sending the control signals
from/to the controller unit and the second I/O port interfaces the datapath with external world
for data input and data output.
The Complex Instruction set computing (CISC) uses an instruction set representing
complex operations. It is possible for a CISC instruction set to perform large complex
operation with a single instruction. The use of a single complex instruction in place of

Mrs. BhargaviM
Dr. Kishore Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 14
Embedded System Design-BEC601

multiple simple instructions greatly reduces the program memory access and program
memory size requirement. However it requires additional silicon for implementing microcode
decode for decoding the CISC instruction.
The very long instruction word (VLIW) architecture implements multiple functional units
(ALU’s, multipliers, etc) in the datapath. The VLIW instruction packages one standard
instruction per functional unit of the datapath.
Parallel processing architecture implements multiple concurrent processing elements (PEs)
and each processing element may associate a datapath containing register and local memory.
Single instruction multiple data (SIMD) and multiple instruction multiple data (MIMD)
architectures are examples for parallel processing architecture.
In SIMD architecture, a single instruction is executed in parallel with the help of processing
elements. The scheduling of the instruction execution and controlling of each PE is
performed through single controller.
The SIMD architecture forms the basis of re-configurable processor.
The processing elements of MIMD architecture execute different instructions at a given point
of time.
The MIMD architecture forms the basis of multiprocessor systems.
The PEs in multiprocessor systems communicates through mechanisms like shared memory
and message passing.

Selecting the Language

 A programming language captures a 'Computational Model' and maps it into
architecture.
 There is no hard and fast rule to specify this language should be used for capturing
this model.
 A model can be captured using multiple programming languages like C, C++, C#,
Java, etc. for software implementations and languages like VHDL, System C, Verilog,
etc. for hardware implementations.
 On the other hand, a single language can be used for capturing a variety of models.
 Certain languages are good in capturing certain computational model.
 For example, C++ is a good candidate for capturing an object oriented model.
 The only pre-requisite in selecting a programming language for capturing a model is
that the language should capture the model easily.
Partitioning System Requirements into Hardware and Software
 From an implementation perspective, it may be possible to implement the system
requirements in either hardware or software (firmware).
 It is a tough decision making task to figure out which one to opt.
 Various hardware software trade-offs are used for making a decision on the hardware-
software partitioning.

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 15
Embedded System Design-BEC601

Computational Models in Embedded Design

The commonly used computational models in embedded system design are:
 Data Flow Graph Model
 Control Data Flow Graph Model
 State Machine Model
 Sequential Program Model
 Concurrent/Communicating Process Model
 Object-Oriented Model

Data Flow Graph/Diagram (DFG) Model:

 The Data Flow Graph (DFG) model translates the data processing requirements into a
data flow graph.
 It is a data driven model in which the program execution is determined by data.
 This model emphasises on the data and operations on the data which transforms the
input data to output data.
 Embedded applications which are computational intensive and data driven are
modelled using the DFG model.
• DSP applications are typical examples for it.
 Data Flow Graph (DFG) is a visual model in which the operation on the data
(process) is represented using a block (circle) and data flow is represented using
arrows.
 An inward arrow to the process (circle) represents input data and an outward arrow
from the process (circle) represents output data in DFG notation.
 Suppose one of the functions in our application contains the computational
requirement = + and = − .
 Figure illustrates the implementation of a DFG model for implementing these
requirements.

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviMSangam,
, KSSEMAsst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE Page 16
Embedded System Design-BEC601

 In a DFG model, a data path is the data flow path from input to output.
 A DFG model is said to be acyclic DFG (ADFG) if it doesn't contain multiple values
for the input variable and multiple output values for a given set of input(s).
• Feedback inputs (Output is fed back to Input), events, etc. are examples for non-
acyclic inputs.
 A DFG model translates the program as a single sequential process execution.
Control Data Flow Graph/Diagram (CDFG) Model
 The DFG model is a data driven model in which the execution is controlled by data
and it doesn't involve any control operations (conditionals).
 The Control DFG (CDFG) model is used for modelling applications involving
conditional program execution.
 CDFG models contains both data operations and control operations. The CDFG uses
Data Flow Graph (DFG) as element and conditional (constructs) as decision makers.
 CDFG contains both data flow nodes and decision nodes, whereas DFG contains only
data flow nodes.
 Consider the implementation of the CDFG for the following requirement.
 = 1, = + ; = − ;
 This requirement contains a decision making process.
 The CDFG model for the same is given in the figure.
 The control node is represented by a 'Diamond' block which is the decision making
element in a normal flow chart based design.
 CDFG translates the requirement, which is modelled to a concurrent process model.
 The decision on which process is to be executed is determined by the control node.

 A real world example for modelling the embedded application using CDFG is
capturing and saving of the image to a format set by the user in a digital still camera.
 The decision on, in which format the image is stored (formats like JPEG, TIFF, BMP,
etc.) is controlled by the camera settings, configured by the user.
State Machine Model

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 17
Embedded System Design-BEC601

 The State Machine Model is used for modelling reactive or event-driven embedded
systems whose processing behaviour are dependent on state transitions.
• Embedded systems used in the control and industrial applications are typical
examples for event driven systems.
 The State Machine model describes the system behaviour with 'States', 'Events',
'Actions' and 'Transitions’.
• State is a representation of a current situation.
• An event is an input to the state.
▪ The event acts as stimuli for state transition.
• Transition is the movement from one state to another.
• Action is an activity to be performed by the state machine.
Finite State Machine (FSM) Model
 A Finite State Machine (FSM) model is one in which the number of states are finite.
• The system is described using a finite number of possible states.
 As an example, let us consider the design of an embedded system for driver/passenger
'Seat Belt Warning' in an automotive using the FSM model.
 The system requirements are captured as,
• When the vehicle ignition is turned on and the seat belt is not fastened within
10 seconds of ignition ON, the system generates an alarm signal for 5 seconds.

The Alarm is turned off when the alarm time (5 seconds) expires or if the driver/passenger
fastens the belt or if the ignition switch is turned off, whichever happens first.
Here the states are • 'Alarm Off’
• 'Waiting’
• 'Alarm On’
The events are • 'Ignition Key ON’
• 'Ignition Key OFF’
• 'Timer Expire’
• 'Alarm Time Expire’
• 'Seat Belt ON’
Using the FSM, the system requirements can be modelled as given in figure.

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviMSangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 18
Embedded System Design-BEC601

 The 'Ignition Key ON' event triggers the 10 second timer and transitions the state to
'Waiting’.
 If a Seat Belt ON’ or 'Ignition Key OFF' event occurs during the wait state, the state
transitions into 'Alarm Off’.
 When the wait timer expires in the waiting state, the event 'Timer Expire' is generated
and it transitions the state to 'Alarm On' from the 'Waiting' state.
 The 'Alarm On' state continues until a 'Seat Belt ON' or 'Ignition Key OFF' event or
'Alarm Time Expire' event, whichever occurs first.
 The occurrence of any of these events transitions the state to 'Alarm Off’.
 The wait state is implemented using a timer:
o The timer also has certain set of states and events for state transitions
o Using the FSM model, the timer can be modelled as shown in the figure.

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviMSangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 19
Embedded System Design-BEC601

 As seen from the FSM, the timer state can be either 'IDLE' or 'READY' or
'RUNNING’.
 During the normal condition when the timer is not running, it is said to be in the
'IDLE' state.
 The timer is said to be in the 'READY’ state when the timer is loaded with the count
corresponding to the required time delay.
 The timer remains in the 'READY' state until a 'Start Timer' event occurs.
 The timer changes its state to 'RUNNING' from the 'READY' state on receiving a
'Start Timer' event and remains in the 'RUNNING' state until the timer count expires
or a 'Stop Timer' even occurs.
 The timer state changes to 'IDLE' from 'RUNNING' on receiving a 'Stop Timer' or
'Timer Expire' event.
FSM Model – Example 1
Design an automatic tea/coffee vending machine based on FSM model for the following
requirement.
• The tea/coffee vending is initiated by user inserting a 5 rupee coin.
• After inserting the coin, the user can either select 'Coffee' or 'Tea' or press 'Cancel' to cancel
the order and take back the coin.
Solution:
The FSM Model contains four states namely,
• 'Wait for coin’
• 'Wait for User Input’
• 'Dispense Tea'
• 'Dispense Coffee'

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 20
Embedded System Design-BEC601

 The event 'Insert Coin' (5 rupee coin insertion), transitions the state to 'Wait for User
Input’.
 The system stays in this state until a user input is received from the buttons 'Cancel',
'Tea' or 'Coffee' (Tea and Coffee is the drink select button).
 If the event triggered in 'Wait State' is 'Cancel' button press, the coin is pushed out and
the state transitions to 'Wait for Coin’.
 If the event received in the 'Wait State' is either 'Tea' button press, or 'Coffee' button
press, the state changes to 'Dispense Tea' and 'Dispense Coffee' respectively.
 Once the coffee/tea vending is over, the respective states transition back to the 'Wait
for Coin' state
FSM Model – Example 2
Design a coin operated public telephone unit based on FSM model for the following
requirements.
• The calling process is initiated by lifting the receiver (off-hook) of the telephone unit.
• After lifting the phone the user needs to insert a 1 rupee coin to make the call.
• If the line is busy, the coin is returned on placing the receiver back on the hook (on-hook).
• If the line is through, the user is allowed to talk till 60 seconds and at the end of 45th
second, prompt for inserting another 1 rupee coin for continuing the call is initiated.
• If the user doesn't insert another 1 rupee coin, the call is terminated on completing the 60
seconds time slot.
• The system is ready to accept new call request when the receiver is placed back on the hook
(on-hook).
• The system goes to the 'Out of Order' state when there is a line fault.

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviMSangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 21
Embedded System Design-BEC601

Sequential Program Model

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

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 22
Embedded System Design-BEC601

Sequential Program Model for Seat Belt Warning System

Concurrent/Communicating Process Model

 The concurrent or communicating process model models concurrently executing
tasks/processes.
 It is easier to implement certain requirements in concurrent processing model than the
conventional sequential execution. • Sequential execution leads to a single sequential

Dr.
[Link]
BhargaviMSangam,
, KSSEMAsst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE Page 23
Embedded System Design-BEC601

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

Object-Oriented Model
 The object-oriented model is an object based model for modelling system
requirements.

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviMSangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 24
Embedded System Design-BEC601

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

Embedded Firmware Design and Development

Introduction to Embedded Firmware Design
 The embedded firmware is responsible for controlling the various peripherals of the
embedded hardware and generating response in accordance with the functional
requirements.
 Firmware is considered as the master brain of the embedded system.
 Imparting intelligence to an embedded system is a onetime process and it can happen
at any stage.
• It can be immediately after the fabrication of the embedded hardware or at a later
stage.
 For most of the embedded products, the embedded firmware is stored at a permanent
memory (ROM) and they are non-alterable by end users.
• Some of the embedded products used in the Control and Instrumentation domain are
adaptive.
 Designing embedded firmware requires understanding of the particular embedded
product hardware, like various component interfacing, memory map details, I/O port
details, configuration and register details of various hardware chips used and some
programming language.
 Embedded firmware development process starts with the conversion of the firmware
requirements into a program model using modelling tools.
 Once the program model is created, the next step is the implementation of the tasks
and actions by capturing the model using a language which is understandable by the
target processor/controller.

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 25
Embedded System Design-BEC601

Embedded Firmware Design Approaches

The firmware design approaches for embedded product is purely dependent on the
complexity of the functions to be performed, the speed of operation required, etc.
Two basic approaches are used for embedded firmware design:
• Super Loop Based Approach (Conventional Procedural Based Design)
• Embedded Operating System (OS) Based Approach

Super Loop Based Approach

 The Super Loop based firmware development approach is adopted for applications
that are not time critical and where the response time is not so important.
 It is very similar to a conventional procedural programming where the code is
executed task by task.
 The task listed at the top of the program code is executed first and the tasks just below
the top are executed after completing the first task.
 In a multiple task based system, each task is executed in serial in this approach.
 The firmware execution flow for this will be
• Configure the common parameters and perform initialisation for various
hardware components memory, registers, etc.
• Start the first task and execute it
• Execute the second task
• Execute the next task
• :
• :
• Execute the last defined task
• Jump back to the first task and follow the same flow
The order in which the tasks to be executed are fixed and they are hard coded in the code
itself.
• Also the operation is an infinite loop based approach.
We can visualise the operational sequence listed above in terms of a 'C' program code as

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 26
Embedded System Design-BEC601

Almost all tasks in embedded applications are non-ending and are repeated infinitely
throughout the operation.
• This repetition is achieved by using an infinite loop.
• Hence the name 'Super loop based approach’.
The only way to come out of the loop is either a hardware reset or an interrupt assertion.
Advantage of Super Loop Based Approach: • It doesn't require an operating system
• There is no need for scheduling which task is to be executed and assigning priority to each
task.
• The priorities are fixed and the order in which the tasks to be executed are also fixed.
• Hence the code for performing these tasks will be residing in the code memory without an
operating system image.
Applications of Super Loop Based Approach:
• This type of design is deployed in low-cost embedded products and products where
response time is not time critical.
• Some embedded products demands this type of approach if some tasks itself are sequential.
For example, reading/writing data to and from a card using a card reader requires a sequence
of operations like checking the presence of card, authenticating the operation,
reading/writing, etc.
It should strictly follow a specified sequence and the combination of these series of tasks
constitutes a single task-namely data read/write.

A typical example of a 'Super loop based’ product is an electronic video game toy containing
keypad and display unit.
• The program running inside the product may be designed in such a way that it reads the
keys to detect whether the user has given any input and if any key press is detected the
graphic display is updated.
• The keyboard scanning and display updating happens at a reasonably high rate.

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviMSangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 27
Embedded System Design-BEC601

• Even if the application misses a key press, it won't create any critical issues; rather it will be
treated as a bug in the firmware.

Drawbacks of Super Loop Based Approach:

• Any failure in any part of a single task will affect the total system.
• If the program hangs up at some point while executing a task, it will remain there
forever and ultimately the product stops functioning.
• Watch Dog Timers (WDTs) can be used to overcome this, but this, in turn, may
cause additional hardware cost and firmware overheads.
• Lack of real timeliness.
• If the number of tasks to be executed within an application increases, the time at
which each task is repeated also increases.
• This brings the probability of missing out some events.

Embedded Operating System (OS) Based Approach

The Embedded Operating System (OS) based approach contains operating systems, which
can be either a General Purpose Operating System (GPOS) or a Real Time Operating System
(RTOS) to host the user written application firmware.
The General Purpose OS (GPOS) based design is very similar to a conventional PC based
application development where the device contains an operating system
(Windows/Unix/Linux, etc. for Desktop PCs) and you will be creating and running user
applications on top of it.
• Example of a GPOS used in embedded product development is Microsoft Windows XP
Embedded.
• Examples of Embedded products using Microsoft Windows XP OS are Personal Digital
Assistants (PDAs), Hand held devices/Portable devices and Point of Sale (POS) terminals.

Use of GPOS in embedded products merges the demarcation of Embedded Systems and
general computing systems in terms of OS.
For developing applications on top of the OS, the OS supported APIs are used.
Similar to the different hardware specific drivers, OS based applications also require 'Driver
software' for different hardware present on the board to communicate with them.
Real Time Operating System (RTOS) based design approach is employed in embedded
products demanding Real-time response. • RTOS responds in a timely and predictable
manner to events.
Real Time operating system contains a Real Time kernel responsible for performing pre-
emptive multitasking, scheduler for scheduling tasks, multiple threads, etc.
A Real Time Operating System (RTOS) allows flexible scheduling of system resources like
the CPU and memory and offers some way to communicate between tasks. 'Windows CE',
'pSOS', 'VxWorks', 'ThreadX', 'MicroC/OS-II’, 'Embedded Linux', 'Symbian’, etc. are
examples of RTOS employed in embedded product development.

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 28
Embedded System Design-BEC601

Mobile phones, PDAs (Based on Windows CE/Windows Mobile Platforms), handheld

devices, etc. are examples of 'Embedded Products' based on RTOS.

Embedded Firmware Development Languages

For embedded firmware development, we can use either
• a target processor/controller specific language (Generally known as Assembly language or
low level language) or
• a target processor/controller independent language (Like C, C++, JAVA, etc. commonly
known as High Level Language) or
• a combination of Assembly and High level Language.

Assembly Language Based Development

 Assembly language is the human readable notation of 'machine language’ • ‘Machine
Language' is a processor understandable language.
 Machine language is a binary representation and it consists of 1s and 0s.
 Machine language is made readable by using specific symbols called 'mnemonics’.
 Hence machine language can be considered as an interface between processor and
programmer.
 Assembly language and machine languages are processor/controller dependent and an
assembly program written for one processor/controller family will not work with
others.
 Assembly language programming is the task of writing processor specific machine
code in mnemonic form, converting the mnemonics into actual processor instructions
(machine language) and associated data using an assembler.
 Assembly Language program was the most common type of programming adopted in
the beginning of software revolution.
 Even today also almost all low level, system related, programming is carried out using
assembly language.
 In particular, assembly language is often used in writing the low level interaction
between the operating system and the hardware, for instance in device drivers.
 The general format of an assembly language instruction is an Opcode followed by
Operands.
 The Opcode tells the processor/controller what to do and the Operands provide the
data and information required to perform the action specified by the opcode.
For example: MOV A, #30
• Here MOV is the Opcode and A, #30 is the operands
 The Assembly language program written in assembly code is saved as .asm
(Assembly file) file or an .src (source) file (also. s file).
 Any text editor like ‘Notepad' or 'WordPad' from Microsoft or the text editor provided
by an Integrated Development (IDE) tool can be used for writing the assembly
instructions.

Dr.
[Link]
BhargaviM , KSSEM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE Page 29
Embedded System Design-BEC601

 Similar to 'C' and other high level language programming, we can have multiple
source files called modules in assembly language programming.
• Each module is represented by an '.asm' or '.src' file.
This approach is known as 'Modular Programming’.
 Modular programming is employed when the program is too complex or too big.
• In 'Modular Programming', the entire code is divided into submodules and
each module is made re-usable.
Modular Programs are usually easy to code, debug and alter.

Source File to Object File Translation

 Translation of assembly code to machine code is performed by assembler.
• The assemblers for different target machines are different.
• A51 Macro Assembler from Keil software is a popular assembler for the 8051
family microcontroller.
 The various steps involved in the conversion of a program written in assembly
language to corresponding binary file/machine language are illustrated in the figure.

 Each source module is written in Assembly and is stored as .src file or .asm file.
 Each file can be assembled separately to examine the syntax errors and incorrect
assembly instructions.

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 30
Embedded System Design-BEC601

 On successful assembling of each .src/.asm file a corresponding object file is created

with extension '.obj’.
 The object file does not contain the absolute address of where the generated code
needs to be placed on the program memory and hence it is called a re-locatable
segment.
 It can be placed at any code memory location and it is the responsibility of the
linker/locater to assign absolute address for this module.
Library File Creation and Usage
 Libraries are specially formatted, ordered program collections of object modules that
may be used by the linker at a later time.
• Library files are generated with extension '. lib’.
 When the linker processes a library, only those object modules in the library that are
necessary to create the program are used.
 Library file is some kind of source code hiding technique.
• For example, 'LIB51' from Keil Software is an example for a library creator and it is
used for creating library files for A51 Assembler/C51 Compiler for 8051 specific
controllers.
Linker and Locator
 Linker and Locater is another software utility responsible for "linking the various
object modules in a multi-module project and assigning absolute address to each
module".
 Linker generates an absolute object module by extracting the object modules from the
library, if any, and those obj files created by the assembler, which is generated by
assembling the individual modules of a project.
 It is the responsibility of the linker to link any external dependent variables or
functions declared on various modules and resolve the external dependencies among
the modules.
 An absolute object file or module does not contain any re-locatable code or data.
 All code and data reside at fixed memory locations.
 The absolute object file is used for creating hex files for dumping into the code
memory of the processor/controller.
• 'BL51' from Keil Software is an example for a Linker & Locater for A51
Assembler/C51 Compiler for 8051 specific controller.

Object to Hex File Converter

 This is the final stage in the conversion of Assembly language (mnemonics) to
machine understandable language (machine code).
 Hex File is the representation of the machine code and the hex file is dumped into the
code memory of the processor/controller.
 The hex file representation varies depending on the target processor/controller make.
 HEX files are ASCII files that contain a hexadecimal representation of target
application.

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 31
Embedded System Design-BEC601

 Hex file is created from the final 'Absolute Object File' using the Object to Hex File
Converter utility.
• 'OH51' from Keil software is an example for Object to Hex File Converter utility for
A51 Assembler/C51 Compiler for 8051 specific controller.
Advantages of Assembly Language Base Development
 Efficient Code Memory and Data Memory Usage (Memory Optimisation)
1. Since the developer is well versed with the target processor architecture and
memory organisation, optimised code can be written for performing operations.
2. This leads to less utilisation of code memory and efficient utilisation of data
memory.
 High Performance
1. Optimised code not only improves the code memory usage but also improves the
total system performance.
2. Through effective assembly coding, optimum performance can be achieved for a
target application.
 Low Level Hardware Access
1. Most of the code for low level programming like accessing external device
specific registers from the operating system kernel, device drivers, and low level
interrupt routines, etc. are making use of direct assembly coding since low level
device specific operation support is not commonly available with most of the
high-level language cross compilers.
 Code Reverse Engineering
1. Reverse engineering is the process of understanding the technology behind a
product by extracting the information from a finished product.
2. Reverse engineering is performed by 'hawkers' to reveal the technology behind
'Proprietary Products’.
3. Though most of the products employ code memory protection, if it may be
possible to break the memory protection and read the code memory, it can easily
be converted into assembly code using a dis-assembler program for the target
machine.
Drawbacks of Assembly Language Based Development
 High Development Time
1. Assembly language is much harder to program than high level languages.
2. The developer must pay attention to more details and must have thorough knowledge
of the architecture, memory organisation and register details of the target processor in
use.
3. Learning the inner details of the processor and its assembly instructions is highly time
consuming and it creates a delay impact in product development.
4. Also more lines of assembly code are required for performing an action which can be
done with a single instruction in a high-level language like 'C'.

 Developer Dependency

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviMSangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 32
Embedded System Design-BEC601

1. Unlike high level languages, there is no common written rule for developing assembly
language based applications.
2. In assembly language programming, the developers will have the freedom to choose
the different memory location and registers.
3. Also the programming approach varies from developer to developer depending on
his/her taste.
4. For example, moving data from a memory location to accumulator can be achieved
through different approaches.
5. If the approach done by a developer is not documented properly at the development
stage, he/she may not be able to recollect why this approach is followed at a later
stage or when a new developer is instructed to analyse this code, he/she also may not
be able to understand what is done and why it is done.
6. Hence upgrading an assembly program or modifying it on a later stage is very
difficult.

 Non-Portable
1. Target applications written in assembly instructions are valid only for that particular
family of processors (e.g. Application written for Intel x86 family of processors) and
cannot be re-used for another target processors/controllers (Say ARM11 family of
processors).
2. If the target processor/controller changes, a complete re-writing of the application
using the assembly instructions for the new target processor/controller is required.

High Level Language Based Development

 Any high level language (like C, C++ or Java) with a supported cross compiler for the
target processor can be used for embedded firmware development.
 The most commonly used high level language for embedded firmware application
development is 'C’.
• ‘C’ is well defined, easy to use high level language with extensive cross platform
development tool support.
 Nowadays cross-compilers for C++ is also emerging out and embedded developers
are making use of C++ for embedded application development.
 The various steps involved in high level language based embedded firmware
development is same as that of assembly language based development except that the
conversion of source file written in high level language to object file is done by a
cross-compiler.
 In Assembly language based development it is carried out by an assembler.
 The various steps involved in the conversion of a program written in high level
language to corresponding binary file/machine language is illustrated in the figure.

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviMSangam,
, KSSEMAsst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE Page 33
Embedded System Design-BEC601

 The program written in any of the high level languages is saved with the
corresponding language extension (.c for C, .cpp for C++ etc).
 Any text editor like ‘Notepad' or 'WordPad' from Microsoft or the text editor provided
by an Integrated Development (IDE) tool can be used for writing the program.
 Most of the high level languages support modular programming approach and hence
we can have multiple source files called modules written in corresponding high level
language.
 The source files corresponding to each module is represented by a file with
corresponding language extension.
 Translation of high level source code to executable object code is done by cross-
compiler. Each high level language should have a cross-compiler for converting the
high level source code into the target processor machine code.
C51 Cross-compiler from Keil software is an example for Cross-compiler used for 'C'
language for the 8051 family of microcontroller.
 Conversion of each module's source code to corresponding object file is performed by
the cross-compiler.
 Rest of the steps involved in the conversion of high level language to target
processor's machine code are same as that of the steps involved in assembly language
based development.

Advantages of High Level Language Based Development

 Reduced Development Time

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 34
Embedded System Design-BEC601

• Developer requires less or little knowledge on the internal hardware details and
architecture of the target processor/controller.
• Bare minimal knowledge of the memory organisation and register details of the
target processor in use and syntax of the high level language are the only pre-
requisites for high level language based firmware development.
• With high level language, each task can be accomplished by lesser number of lines
of code compared to the target processor/controller specific assembly language based
development.
 Developer Independency
• The syntax used by most of the high level languages are universal and a program
written in the high level language can easily be understood by a second person
knowing the syntax of the language.
• High level languages always instruct certain set of rules for writing the code and
commenting the piece of code.
• If the developer strictly adheres to the rules, the firmware will be 100% developer
independent.
 Portability

• Target applications written in high level languages are converted to target

processor/controller understandable format (machine codes) by a cross-compiler.

• An application written in high level language for a particular target processor can easily be
converted to another target processor/controller specific application, with little or less effort
by simply re-compiling/little code modification followed by recompiling the application for
the required target processor/controller, provided, the cross-compiler has support for the
processor/controller selected.

• This makes applications written in high level language highly portable.

• Little effort may be required in the existing code to replace the target processor specific
files with new header files, register definitions with new ones, etc.

• This is the major flexibility offered by high level language based design.

Limitations of High Level Language Based Development

 Poor Optimization by Cross-Compilers

• Some cross-compilers available for high level languages may not be so efficient in
generating optimised target processor specific instructions.

• Target images created by such compilers may be messy and non- optimised in terms
of performance as well as code size.

• The time required to execute a task also increases with the number of instructions.

 Not Suitable for Low Level Hardware

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviMSangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 35
Embedded System Design-BEC601

• High level language based code snippets may not be efficient in accessing low level
hardware where hardware access timing is critical (of the order of nano or micro
seconds).
 High Investment Cost
• The investment required for high level language based development tools
(Integrated Development Environment incorporating cross-compiler) is high
compared to Assembly Language based firmware development tools.

Mixing Assembly and High Level Language

Certain embedded firmware development situations may demand the mixing of high level
language with Assembly and vice versa.

High level language and assembly languages are usually mixed in three ways:

• Mixing Assembly Language with High Level Language

• Mixing High Level Language with Assembly Language

• Inline Assembly programming

Mixing Assembly Language with High Level Language

 Assembly routines are mixed with 'C' in situations where

• the entire program is written in 'C' and the cross compiler in use do not have a built
in support for implementing certain features like Interrupt Service Routine functions
(ISR) or
• if the programmer wants to take advantage of the speed and optimised code offered
by machine code generated by hand written assembly rather than cross compiler
generated machine code.
 When accessing certain low level hardware, the timing specifications may be very
critical and a cross compiler generated binary may not be able to offer the required
time specifications accurately.
• Writing the hardware/peripheral access routine in processor/controller specific
Assembly language and invoking it from 'C' is the most advised method to handle
such situations.
 Mixing 'C' and Assembly is little complicated.
• The programmer must be aware of how parameters are passed from the 'C' routine to
Assembly and values are returned from assembly routine to 'C' and how 'Assembly
routine' is invoked from the 'C' code.
 Passing parameter to the assembly routine and returning values from the assembly
routine to the caller 'C' function and the method of invoking the assembly routine
from 'C' code is cross-compiler dependent.

Consider an example Keil C51 cross compiler for 8051 controller.

 The steps for mixing assembly code with ‘C’ are:

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 36
Embedded System Design-BEC601

• Write a simple function in C that passes parameters and returns values the way you want
your assembly routine to.

• Use the SRC directive (#PRAGMA SRC at the top of the file) so that the C compiler
generates an .SRC file instead of an .OBJ file.

• Compile the C file. Since the SRC directive is specified, the .SRC file is generated. The
.SRC file contains the assembly code generated for the C code you wrote.

• Rename the .SRC file to .A51 file.

• Edit the .A51 file and insert the assembly code you want to execute in the body of the
assembly function shell included in the . A51 file.

Mixing High Level Language with Assembly Language

 Mixing the code written in a high level language like 'C' and Assembly language is
useful in the following scenarios:
• The source code is already available in Assembly language and a routine
written in a high level language like 'C' needs to be included to the existing
code.
• The entire source code is planned in Assembly code for various reasons like
optimised code, optimal performance, efficient code memory utilisation and
proven expertise in handling the Assembly, etc. But some portions of the code
may be very difficult and tedious to code in Assembly. For example, 16-bit
multiplication and division in 8051 Assembly Language.
• To include built in library functions written in 'C' language provided by the
cross compiler. For example, Built in Graphics library functions and String
operations supported by 'C’.
 Most often the functions written in 'C' use parameter passing to the function and
returns value/s to the calling functions.
 Parameters are passed to the function and values are returned from the function using
CPU registers, stack memory and fixed memory.
 Its implementation is cross compiler dependent and it varies across cross compilers.

Inline Assembly Programming

 Inline assembly is a technique for inserting target processor/controller specific

Assembly instructions at any location of a source code written in high level language
'C’.
• This avoids the delay in calling an assembly routine from a 'C' code.
 Special keywords are used to indicate that the start and end of Assembly instructions.
• The keywords are cross-compiler specific.

[Link]
Dr. BhargaviM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE
, KSSEM Page 37
Embedded System Design-BEC601

 C51 uses the keywords #pragma asm and #pragma endasm to indicate a block of code
written in assembly.

‘C’ vs. ‘Embedded C’

Compiler vs. Cross-Compiler

Dr.
[Link]
BhargaviM , KSSEM
Sangam, Asst. Professor, Dept. Of ECE Page 38