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The document introduces embedded systems, highlighting their use in consumer devices like mobile phones and automobiles, where microcontrollers perform dedicated tasks. It emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of the field, covering electronics, software, and mechanical engineering, and encourages students to engage in research and discussion. Additionally, it includes exercises to test knowledge on microcontroller families, storage technologies, and operating systems used in embedded systems.

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3 views

11.embed-intro

The document introduces embedded systems, highlighting their use in consumer devices like mobile phones and automobiles, where microcontrollers perform dedicated tasks. It emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of the field, covering electronics, software, and mechanical engineering, and encourages students to engage in research and discussion. Additionally, it includes exercises to test knowledge on microcontroller families, storage technologies, and operating systems used in embedded systems.

Uploaded by

vishnuks
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Introduction to the study of embedded systems

October 7, 2011

1 Introduction
Many modern consumer devices (a good example: your mobile phone) have some
kind of a microprocessor (not really a microprocessor - these are usually micro-
controllers. A microcontroller is a sort of single chip computer - it integrates
a microprocessor with additional devices like RAM, ROM, Input/Output ports,
timers, serial ports etc to get a complete working system in a single low-cost
integrated circuit package!) inside them - this processor is usually dedicated to
a single set of tasks (unlike the PC which is much more general purpose). For
example, there are processors within a modern automobile which control vari-
ous aspects of the fuel injection process. The science of building such systems
involves study of a broad range of disciplines including electronics and electrical
engineering, software construction and mechanical engineering. The professional
opportunities (both in the industry as well as research) provided by this dis-
cipline are immense - this course will lay the foundation on which interested
students can build up the skills required to program embedded systems!
The objective of this lesson is to get you started by doing some research on
the net. This is an exercise only lesson! Please use the course forum actively
to know more about the ideas you gather from the net.
Some References:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embedded_system

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcontroller

3. http://www.howstuworks.com/microcontroller.htm

2 Exercises
1. Which of the following is NOT the name of a processor/controller family?

(a) AVR

(b) PIC

(c) ARM

1
(d) SPIM

2. Which of the following is NOT the name of a storage technology?

(a) NOR Flash

(b) NAND Flash

(c) XOR Flash

3. Which of the following is most likely to be the maximum speed of a mi-


crocontroller you purchased for 150Rs in the local market?

(a) 10Khz

(b) 1KHz

(c) 80MHz

(d) 4MHz

4. Which of the following things is most unlikely to be done using a micro-


controller you purchased for 250Rs in the local market?

(a) Use the controller to build a device that can read data from a USB
thumb drive (without using any additional device for USB interfac-
ing)

(b) Use the controller to build a device that can work like a very low
capacity USB thumb drive (without using any additional device for
USB interfacing)

(c) Use the controller to control a seven-segment LED display

5. Which of the following is not an operating system typically used in em-


bedded systems?

(a) VxWorks

(b) RTEMS

(c) QNX

(d) Irix

6. Which of the following peripherals is most unlikely to be present in a low


cost microcontroller?

(a) UART

(b) WiFi

(c) ADC

(d) Timer

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