Book Image

Embedded Systems Architecture

By : Daniele Lacamera
Book Image

Embedded Systems Architecture

By: Daniele Lacamera

Overview of this book

Embedded systems are self-contained devices with a dedicated purpose. We come across a variety of fields of applications for embedded systems in industries such as automotive, telecommunications, healthcare and consumer electronics, just to name a few. Embedded Systems Architecture begins with a bird's eye view of embedded development and how it differs from the other systems that you may be familiar with. You will first be guided to set up an optimal development environment, then move on to software tools and methodologies to improve the work flow. You will explore the boot-up mechanisms and the memory management strategies typical of a real-time embedded system. Through the analysis of the programming interface of the reference microcontroller, you'll look at the implementation of the features and the device drivers. Next, you'll learn about the techniques used to reduce power consumption. Then you will be introduced to the technologies, protocols and security aspects related to integrating the system into IoT solutions. By the end of the book, you will have explored various aspects of embedded architecture, including task synchronization in a multi-threading environment, and the safety models adopted by modern real-time operating systems.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
Index

Memory layout


The linker script, as we already know, contains the instructions for the linker on how to assemble together the components of an embedded system. More specifically, it describes the sections mapped in memory and how they are deployed into the flash and the RAM of the target, as in the example provided in Chapter 2Work Environment and Workflow Optimization.

In most embedded devices, and in particular our reference platform, the.textarea, which containsall the executable code, should include the special subsection dedicated to store the IV at the very beginning of the executable image.

We integrate the linker script by adding the.isr_vectorsection at the beginning of .text area, before the rest of the code:

.text :
{
    *(.isr_vector)
    *(.text*)
    *(.rodata*)
} > FLASH

Defining a read-only section in flash which is dedicated to the vector table is the only strict requirement for our system to boot up properly, as the address of the isr_reset function is retrieved by the...