Embedded systems are compact, specialized computing devices that use dedicated microprocessors or microcontrollers, and typically perform very specific, pre-defined tasks designed to service specific functions or integrated within much larger and more complex devices. Examples include automotive systems, avionics, network devices, industrial controls, medical prosthetics, consumer electronics, and communication networks. Embedded devices, as the name implies, are sensors, processors, and controllers that are incorporated into objects – which in turn interact with their environment, with people, and with one another, and work in combination to support highly specialized applications and needs. Embedded technology is being used to deliver new applications and services in a variety of industries. MEGA TREND
The “pervasive electronics” mega trend is leading to increased usage of and emphasis on embedded systems. Here is a quick outline of the trend’s impact in select industries.
Consumer electronics: Increasing design complexity is driving the consumer electronics industry to greater use of embedded systems. From advanced multi-function mobile telephones to digital televisions, devices such as computers, microprocessors, and other electronic components such as FPGAs and transmission electronics are embedded within these applications. Increasingly, consumers want to integrate these devices with other products, and be able to upgrade these embedded devices as new advances become available.
Industrial electronics: Factory automation, process controls, power generation and management, and security and environmental monitoring all rely on embedded electronic systems. Business needs ranging from quality, cost reduction, efficient operations, data and information management are driving wider uses of electronic control and management systems.
Automotive: It is estimated that about 25 percent of the value of a modern car lies in the electronics. This is further estimated to increase to about 40 percent by 2010. The average new car comes with more than a dozen microprocessors inside, controlling everything from the engine to the radio. Some high-end models include more than 100 microprocessors and microcontrollers. Many are subtle, like the auto-dimming chips inside a rear-view mirror. From 8-bit controllers to 32-bit processors, automotive embedded systems provide electronic controls for anti-lock brakes, traction and stability controls, and engine management.
Avionics: Embedded electronics are widely deployed in aircrafts in areas such as cockpit instrumentation, air data, inertial systems, engine control, electrical power generation, hydraulics, fuel systems, autopilot, navigation, GPS, ILS, landing gear, flying surfaces, slats, flaps, etc. Innovations continue; for example, new fully automated adaptive rotor systems within helicopters are able to reduce noise on take-off and landing and also reduce vibration during flight.
Medical: Embedded systems are widely used for patient monitoring and diagnostics in operating rooms and within technical devices such as MRI and PET scanners. Surgical robots may soon take a place in operating rooms. SoC integrated technology has recently been used to create a chemical and biological laboratory capable of carrying out analysis at the point of care without having to wait one or two days for laboratory results. In a ‘non-technical’ application, an artificial leg employing embedded systems can operate in unison with the biological leg. The embedded system is based on scientific gait analysis and biomechanical studies, performed under microprocessor and software control based on inputs from numerous sensors.
Communications: Examples of embedded technologies abound in the communications industry, driven by the merging of traditional analog with newer digital technologies, shifts from conventional voice and time-division multiplexing (TDM) based networks toward multimedia networks integrating voice and data including video, into areas such as global positioning and tracking. Network processors are increasingly being used in switches, gateways, routers and other communications equipment such as security and control plane processors to manage performance, power consumption, traffic management, and other embedded functions. Increasingly, too, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) chips are being embedded throughout networks.
Embedded is booming in India. The India Semiconductor Association (ISA) and market research firm Frost & Sullivan have projected that the Indian semiconductor and embedded design industry will grow from $3.25 billion in 2005 to $14.42 billion in 2010 and to $43.07 billion in 2015. India’s design services market is forecast to reach $10.96 billion in 2010 (CAGR of 21.7 percent) – wherein the embedded services industry will contribute 82 percent, or $8.91 billion in revenue. More and more telecommunications, consumer, computer, industrial and automotive products evolve toward the embedded, system-on-chip design and development model. And India is poised to become a more critical link in the global electronics design chain.
India plays a major role in the embedded design starting from 4-bit to 32-bit microcontrollers, and is especially competitive in digital design, embedded software development, integration, verification, and validation. A large and growing pool of English-speaking, globally trained computer scientists and electrical engineers with technology know-how and professional network links to Silicon Valley is fuelling India's intellectual infrastructure. This also helps India move beyond simple labor-cost arbitrage to product innovation.
In addition, application domains such as mobile communications, connectivity, home entertainment, automotive electronics, identification, and medical electronics are changing rapidly. Hence, designers need to be on their toes to learn and adapt on a daily basis. Indian designers are proving to be invaluable in these fast changing domains.
KEY DESIGN AND TEST CHALLENGES
Today’s embedded designs contain a wide variety of signals – digital, analog and RF – and communication between components is achieved both through parallel and serial buses. The overarching test challenge is to be able to view all of this at a system level by monitoring a wide variety of signals, visualizing them at different levels of abstraction, and understanding their timing relationships.
One of the key test challenges faced by engineers is the ability to acquire and monitor different signals and protocols. Design engineers need to be able to generate a variety of signals to stress test the device under test (DUT) and determine how the design would behave in the real world. They need test solutions that can capture and visually reproduce these signals to verify signal integrity. They need precise timing information between multiple digital signals on a bus for troubleshooting setup-and-hold violations. In many cases, when hardware and software engineers are working together to troubleshoot the root cause of a specific problem, they require a view of information on a bus – both its electrical representation and also in a “higher level” of abstraction like the assembly code of a µP or the decoded view of a serial bus protocol.
Many designs have a large number of hardware components for executing individual specific tasks that are located on different parts of the circuit board. To ensure proper interaction between components, embedded engineers need to have a system-level view of the DUT. The challenge is to make sure that the component operations are synchronized so the test equipment must be able to provide accurate information on timing performance in addition to creating higher levels of abstraction and analysis.
In many instances during development, not all components are available for test, making it necessary to “reproduce” or simulate the signals of the missing component to test the overall operation of the device. If the signal has a complex wave shape, it can be acquired once with an oscilloscope and then replicated with an arbitrary waveform generator. In other cases, components need to be stress tested for their ability to handle impaired input signals by purposely including jitter, noise or other anomalies. To generate these signals, arbitrary/function and arbitrary waveform generators are the tools of choice.
Attaching a probe to the DUT poses another challenge. The small physical size of the devices, the large number of points on the board that need to be probed, and the fact that any probe adds capacitive loading which alters the operational characteristics of the DUT, are all factors that add to probing challenges. Probing solutions need to be designed to minimize the capacitive loading, make it easier for the engineer to connect to the DUT, and also be able to quickly ascertain which probe (or probe lead) is correlated to which trace on the screen of a test instrument.
A block diagram of a typical MP3 music player is shows in Figure 1. As is typical of many embedded computing designs, the MP3 player uses mixed signals, containing digital serial buses for USB, digital signal processors, digital parallel buses to connect to memory, digital to analog converters, and an analog amplifier.
TEST SOLUTIONS
A new generation of Tektronix measurement tools including signal sources, digital and mixed signal oscilloscopes, and logic analyzers has been designed to help engineers deal with embedded systems measurement challenges. Taken together, these next-generation instruments and application software solutions comprise an efficient test bench for embedded systems designers.
Tektronix test solutions for embedded systems increase productivity by reducing the overall development cycles. This is achieved by providing comprehensive system-level views of the embedded design, enabling an engineer to see and correlate signals on multiple parts of the design and through extensive software analysis for multiple standards and technologies, intuitive use, and the performance needed to solve the most difficult design challenges.
With companies across the globe continuing to invest in India, the country in all likelihood will emerge as a rich source of innovation in the embedded arena. Its status as an embedded design hub will grow further and it will be common sight to see local teams playing a key role in architecting and delivering next-generation products, designs and solutions in this arena. Tektronix will be there to support the evolution and help in widening the ecosystem by providing some of the most advanced testing tools besides supporting the industry through its various initiatives.Click here for the illustrations: Figure 1 |
