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

Building and running the boot code


The example provided here is one of the simplest executable images that can be run on the target. To assemble, compile and link everything together, we can use a simple makefile that automates all the steps and allows us to focus on our software life cycle.

When the image is ready, we can transfer it to the real target, or alternatively, run it using an emulator.

The makefile

A very basic makefile to build our startup application describes the final target (image.bin) and the intermediate steps required to build it. Makefile syntax is in general very vast, and covering all the functions provided by Make is outside the scope of this book. However, the few concepts explained here should be sufficient to get up and running on automating the build process.

The typical syntax to define a target in the makefile is:

target: dependencies
    recipe

A target is the name of the output file being built, followed by :. Dependencies are input files, expected to be found,...