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

Low-power IoT systems


Mostly built on top of constrained microcontrollers, such as the Cortex-M0, low-power embedded systems are often little, battery-powered or energy-harvesting devices, sporadically connecting to remote services using wireless technologies. These small, inexpensive systems are often used in install-and-forget scenarios, where they can operate for years on a single integrated power source with nearly no maintenance costs.

Bare-metal architectures are still very popular in these scenarios, however, a few very lightweight operating systems have been designed to organize and synchronize tasks using as few resources as possible, while still keeping a specific focus on power saving and connectivity. The challenge for the development of this kind of operating system is to find a way to fit complex networking protocols into a few kilobytes of memory. Future-proof systems designed for the IoT services offer native IPv6 networking, often through 6LoWPAN, and fully equipped yet minimalist...