Embedded system

An embedded system is a special-purpose computer system designed to perform one or a few dedicated functions,often with real-time computing constraints. It is usually embedded as part of a complete device including hardware and mechanical parts. In contrast, a general-purpose computer, such as a personal computer, can do many different tasks depending on programming. Embedded systems control many of the common devices in use today.
Since the embedded system is dedicated to specific tasks, design engineers can optimize it, reducing the size and cost of the product, or increasing the reliability and performance. Some embedded systems are mass-produced, benefiting from economies of scale.
Physically, embedded systems range from portable devices such as digital watches and MP3 players, to large stationary installations like traffic lights, factory controllers, or the systems controlling nuclear power plants. Complexity varies from low, with a single microcontroller chip, to very high with multiple units, peripherals and networks mounted inside a large chassis or enclosure.
In general, "embedded system" is not an exactly defined term, as many systems have some element of programmability. For example, Handheld computers share some elements with embedded systems — such as the operating systems and microprocessors which power them — but are not truly embedded systems, because they allow different applications to be loaded and peripherals to be connected.

CPU platforms
Embedded processors can be broken into two broad categories: ordinary microprocessors (μP) and microcontrollers (μC), which have many more peripherals on chip, reducing cost and size. Contrasting to the personal computer and server markets, a fairly large number of basic CPU architectures are used; there are Von Neumann as well as various degrees of Harvard architectures, RISC as well as non-RISC and VLIW; word lengths vary from 4-bit to 64-bits and beyond (mainly in DSP processors) although the most typical remain 8/16-bit. Most architectures come in a large number of different variants and shapes, many of which are also manufactured by several different companies.
A long but still not exhaustive list of common architectures are: 65816, 65C02, 68HC08, 68HC11, 68k, 8051, ARM, AVR, AVR32, Blackfin, C167, Coldfire, COP8, eZ8, eZ80, FR-V, H8, HT48, M16C, M32C, MIPS, MSP430, PIC, PowerPC, R8C, SHARC, ST6, SuperH, TLCS-47, TLCS-870, TLCS-900, Tricore, V850, x86, XE8000, Z80, etc.

Ready made computer boards
PC/104 and PC/104+ are examples of available ready made computer boards intended for small, low-volume embedded and ruggedized systems. These often use DOS, Linux, NetBSD, or an embedded real-time operating system such as MicroC/OS-II, QNX or VxWorks.
In certain applications, where small size is not a primary concern, the components used may be compatible with those used in general purpose computers. Boards such as the VIA EPIA range help to bridge the gap by being PC-compatible but highly integrated, physically smaller or have other attributes making them attractive to embedded engineers. The advantage of this approach is that low-cost commodity components may be used along with the same software development tools used for general software development. Systems built in this way are still regarded as embedded since they are integrated into larger devices and fulfill a single role. Examples of devices that may adopt this approach are ATMs and arcade machines.

ASIC and FPGA solutions
A common configuration for very-high-volume embedded systems is the system on a chip (SoC) which contains a complete system consisting of (multiple) processors, multipliers, caches and interfaces on a single chip. SoCs can be implemented as an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or using a field-programmable gate array (FPGA).

Peripherals
Embedded Systems talk with the outside world via peripherals, such as:
Serial Communication Interfaces (SCI): RS-232, RS-422, RS-485 etc
Synchronous Serial Communication Interface: I2C, SPI, SSC and ESSI
Universal Serial Bus (USB)
Networks: Ethernet, Controller Area Network, LonWorks, etc
Timers: PLL(s), Capture/Compare and Time Processing Units
Discrete IO: aka General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO)
Analog to Digital/Digital to Analog (ADC/DAC)
Debugging: JTAG, ISP, ICSP, BDM Port, ...

Tools
As for other software, embedded system designers use compilers, assemblers, and debuggers to develop embedded system software. However, they may also use some more specific tools:
In circuit debuggers or emulators.
utilities to add a checksum or CRC to a program, so the embedded system can check if the program is valid.
For systems using digital signal processing, developers may use a math workbench such as Scilab / Scicos, MATLAB / Simulink, MathCad, or Mathematica to simulate the mathematics. They might also use libraries for both the host and target which eliminates developing DSP routines as done in DSPnano RTOS and Unison Operating System.
Custom compilers and linkers may be used to improve optimisation for the particular hardware.
An embedded system may have its own special language or design tool, or add enhancements to an existing language such as Forth or Basic.
Another alternative is to add a Real-time operating system or Embedded operating system, which may have DSP capabilities like DSPnano RTOS.
Software tools can come from several sources:
Software companies that specialize in the embedded market
Ported 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
As the complexity of embedded systems grows, higher level tools and operating systems are migrating into machinery where it makes sense. For example, cellphones, personal digital assistants and other consumer computers often need significant software that is purchased or provided by a person other than the manufacturer of the electronics. In these systems, an open programming environment such as Linux, NetBSD, OSGi or Embedded Java is required so that the third-party software provider can sell to a large market.

Debugging
Embedded Debugging may be performed at different levels, depending on the facilities available. From simplest to most sophisticated they can be roughly grouped into the following areas:
Interactive resident debugging, using the simple shell provided by the embedded operating system (e.g. Forth and Basic)
External debugging using logging or serial port output to trace operation using either a monitor in flash or using a debug server like the Remedy Debugger which even works for heterogeneous multicore systems.
An in-circuit debugger (ICD), a hardware device that connects to the microprocessor via a JTAG or NEXUS interface. This allows the operation of the microprocessor to be controlled externally, but is typically restricted to specific debugging capabilities in the processor.
An in-circuit emulator replaces the microprocessor with a simulated equivalent, providing full control over all aspects of the microprocessor.
A complete emulator provides a simulation of all aspects of the hardware, allowing all of it to be controlled and modified, and allowing debugging on a normal PC.
Unless restricted to external debugging, the programmer can typically load and run software through the tools, view the code running in the processor, and start or stop its operation. The view of the code may be as assembly code or source-code.
Because an embedded system is often composed of a wide variety of elements, the debugging strategy may vary. For instance, debugging a software- (and microprocessor-) centric embedded system is different from debugging an embedded system where most of the processing is performed by peripherals (DSP, FPGA, co-processor). An increasing number of embedded systems today use more than one single processor core. A common problem with multi-core development is the proper synchronization of software execution. In such a case, the embedded system design may wish to check the data traffic on the busses between the processor cores, which requires very low-level debugging, at signal/bus level, with a logic analyzer, for instance.

Reliability
Embedded systems often reside in machines that are expected to run continuously for years without errors, and in some cases recover by themselves if an error occurs. Therefore the software is usually developed and tested more carefully than that for personal computers, and unreliable mechanical moving parts such as disk drives, switches or buttons are avoided.
Specific reliability issues may include:
The system cannot safely be shut down for repair, or it is too inaccessible to repair. Examples include space systems, undersea cables, navigational beacons, bore-hole systems, and automobiles.
The system must be kept running for safety reasons. "Limp modes" are less tolerable. Often backups are selected by an operator. Examples include aircraft navigation, reactor control systems, safety-critical chemical factory controls, train signals, engines on single-engine aircraft.
The system will lose large amounts of money when shut down: Telephone switches, factory controls, bridge and elevator controls, funds transfer and market making, automated sales and service.
A variety of techniques are used, sometimes in combination, to recover from errors -- both software bugs such as memory leaks, and also soft errors in the hardware:
watchdog timer that resets the computer unless the software periodically notifies the watchdog
subsystems with redundant spares that can be switched over to
software "limp modes" that provide partial function
Immunity Aware Programming

High vs Low Volume
For high volume systems such as portable music players or mobile phones, minimizing cost is usually the primary design consideration. Engineers typically select hardware that is just “good enough” to implement the necessary functions.
For low-volume or prototype embedded systems, general purpose computers may be adapted by limiting the programs or by replacing the operating system with a real-time operating system.