Embedded System Design

byWriter •September 12, 2022

1

Embedded System Design

Introduction

An embedded system can be thought of as a computer hardware system having software embedded in it. An embedded system may be a standalone unit or a component of a larger system. A system built on a microcontroller or microprocessor and intended to carry out a certain function is called an embedded system. A fire alarm, for instance, is an embedded device that only detects smoke.

There are three parts to an embedded system:

Hardware.
It has software for applications.
Its Real Time Operating System (RTOS) manages the application software and offers a framework to let the processor operate a task in accordance with scheduling by adhering to a plan to control latencies. RTOS defines the way the system works. It sets the rules during the execution of application program. A small scale embedded system may not have RTOS. So we can define an embedded system as a Microcontroller based, software driven, reliable, real-time control system.

Control Systems for Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning

Basic Structure of an Embedded System

Sensor − It measures the physical quantity and converts it to an electrical signal which can be read by an observer or by any electronic instrument like an A2D converter. A sensor stores the measured quantity to the memory.
A-D Converter − An analog-to-digital converter converts the analog signal sent by the sensor into a digital signal.
Processor & ASICs − Processors process the data to measure the output and store it to the memory.
D-A Converter − A digital-to-analog converter converts the digital data fed by the processor to analog data
Actuator − An actuator compares the output given by the D-A Converter to the actual (expected) output stored in it and stores the approved output.