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Embedded System |
An embedded system is a special-purpose computer controlled electro-mechanical system in which the computer is completely encapsulated by the device it controls. An embedded system has specific requirements and performs pre-defined tasks, unlike a general-purpose personal computer. An embedded system is a computer-controlled system. The core of any embedded system is a microprocessor, programmed to perform a few tasks (often just one task). This is to be compared to other computer systems with general-purpose hardware and externally loaded software. Embedded systems are often designed for mass production.
Embedded systems reside in machines that are expected to run continuously for years without errors. Therefore the software is usually developed and tested more carefully than Software for Personal computers. Many embedded systems avoid mechanical moving parts such as Disk drives, switches or buttons because these are unreliable compared to solid-state parts such as Flash memory
Examples of embedded systems are:
Automatic teller machines.
Avionics, such as inertial guidance systems.
Cellular telephones and telephone switches.
Design of embedded systems
The electronics usually uses either a microprocessor or a microcontroller. Some large or old systems use general-purpose mainframe computers or minicomputer.
Platform
There are many different CPU architectures used in embedded designs such as ARM, MIPS, Coldfire/68k, PowerPC, X86, PIC, 8051, Atmen AVR, H8, SH, V850, FR-V, M32R etc.
Tools
Like typical computer programmers, embedded system designers use compilers, assemblers and debuggers to develop embedded system software. However, they also use a few tools that are unfamiliar to most programmers.
Software tools can come from several sources:
Software companies that specialize in the embedded market. Imported from the GNU software development tools.
Sometimes, development tools for a personal computer can be used if the embedded processor is a close relative to a common PC processor. Debugging Debugging is usually performed with an in-circuit emulator, or some type of Debugger that can interrupt the microcontroller's internal microcode. |
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