Today

Advanced embedded systems

The point of the course
Hardware stuff
Software stuff
Ariane 5 Details
What happened? Need to look into the flight
software
Horizontal bias converted from 64-bit float to
a 16-bit integer
Software reused from Ariane 4 a slower vehicle
The 16-bit int overflowed, throwing an
exception
Uncaught exception shut down the guidance
computer
and the backup computer
Rocket became unguided
Started to disintegrate due to aerodynamic forces
Then destructed
Mars Pathfinder
Lands on Mars July 4 1997
Mission is successful
Behind the scenes
Sporadic total system resets on the rover
Debugged on the ground, fixed by software patch
Pathfinder Details
Software run on vxWorks a multitasking
RTOS
Vehicle control running at high priority
Lots of stuff running at medium priority
Meteorological science running at low priority
Problem:
1. Low priority software grabs a thread lock
2. High priority software blocks on the lock
3. Medium priority software runs for a long time
4. Total reboot triggered by watchdog timer
This is priority inversion
Solutions exist, but you have to know when and
how to use them
CS 7962 Lab 3
ARM7 boards
16364 total bytes of RAM
1024 bytes available for main stack
128 bytes available for interrupt stack
Students used iprintf() call for debugging
Prints a string to serial port
Uses up to about 2 KB of stack memory
Most groups called iprintf() from both the
main context and interrupt context
Result
Unpredictable operation due to memory
corruption
Software crashes
Stack Problems
The students
Knew about stack overflow problems
Knew the stack requirements of iprintf()
And still made the mistake
The Point #1
Easy: Hack up some embedded software
that seems to work
Hard:
Make a rocket take off, fly to Mars, land a rover,
drive it around, report back to Earth
1 bug == total mission failure
Write control software thats going to run on 25 M
hybrid vehicles
1 bug == product recall (at best)
Make a pacemaker that operates correctly for 10
years in every person using one
1 bug == lost lives, product recall, irreparable
damage to company reputation
The Point #2
Embedded system isnt just a collection of
isolated parts
Many design decisions have implications
for the whole system are we using:
Threads?
Interrupts?
Heap allocation?
Address spaces?
Many important system properties are
global
Stack and heap memory usage
Effects of failures and bugs
Energy usage
Real-time deadlines
The Point #3
Making a good embedded system isnt just
hacking
All of these are just as important:
Understanding the requirements
Understanding the application domain
Platform choice
Toolchain choice
Software architecture
Timing analysis
Memory usage analysis
Fault vulnerability analysis
Testing
Certification
The Point #4
Reading the reference manual is easy
PWM, ADC, DAC, SCI, SPI, UART, I2C, CAN, LIN,
802.15.4,

Seeing the big picture is hard
Main goal of my class: Help you see the
bigger picture
Lab Hardware







Philips LPC 2129
Serial port for programming
JTAG port for debugging
Philips LPC2xxx
Basic idea: Philips licenses the ARM7TDMI-S
core from ARM, adds lots of cool external
stuff, manufactures the chips
LPC21xx
64 pins
LQFP64 package 1cm x 1cm
No external bus
LPC22xx
144 pins
LQFP144 package 2cm x 2cm
External bus
LPC2129
Cost: $6.75 in large quantities
Designed for automotive and control
applications
Memory
16 KB on-chip SRAM
256 KB on-chip flash
This has to suffice since theres no external bus!
2 CAN channels
CAN == Controller Area Network
LAN for control applications
Primarily used in automobiles
Why 2 channels?
More LPC2129
4 10-bit ADC channels
A/D: Convert voltage in 0-3v range into a 10-bit
integer
A/D is slow typically interrupt on completion
4 external interrupt lines
Lots of general-purpose I/O lines
Shared with other functionality
I2C and SPI
Standard embedded serial busses
Generally used in master-slave mode
Of course, serial protocols can also be
implemented through bit-banging
More LPC2129
2 UARTs
Point-to-point serial communication
Lots of convenient features to reduce CPU usage
FIFOs
Buffer overrun detection
Interrupts
2 timers
32-bit timers with 32-bit prescalers
Lots of features!
Real-time clock
Keeps calendar time
More LPC2129
PWM
Pulse width modulation
Sort of a cheapo D/A converter
Rapidly switch between low and high voltage,
rely on external circuitry to average out
Watchdog timer
Reboot wedged processor
PLL phase locked loop
Converts external 10-25 MHz clock into 10-60
MHz internal clock
MAM memory accelerator module
Prefetches instructions
Exploits multiple banks of flash memory
Solves the problem of core outrunning the flash
More LPC2129
JTAG support
Provide visibility and controllability into the
processor used for debugging and testing
Power management
Idle mode
Processor core shuts down until interrupt or
reset arrives
Peripherals keep running
Power down mode
RAM and registers saved
Peripherals shut down
Extremely low power consumption
ARM Stuff
32-bit RISC
Designed to be a compiler target
Lots of registers
Conditional execution
Most instructions can use barrel shifter
Multiple processor modes
We use ARM7TDMI
Bottom end of the ARM family
No caches or memory protection hardware
Runs below 100 MHz
High end ARMs are pretty fast
~1 GHz
Example: GCD
int gcd (int i, int j)
{
while (i != j) {
if (i>j) {
i -= j;
} else {
j -= i;
}
}
return i;
}
GCD in ARM Assembly
000000d4 <gcd>:
d4: e1510000 cmp r1, r0
d8: 012fff1e bxeq lr
dc: e1510000 cmp r1, r0
e0: b0610000 rsblt r0, r1, r0
e4: a0601001 rsbge r1, r0, r1
e8: e1510000 cmp r1, r0
ec: 1afffffa bne dc <gcd+0x8>
f0: e12fff1e bx lr
Labs
1. Get started with the board
2. Data acquisition angle measurement
3. Analysis and measurement of stack depth
and interrupt latency
4. Audio input using ADC
5. Audio output using PWM
6. Audio DSP
7. CAN bus networking
8. Feedback control
9. Distributed control
Thats All
Class is supposed to be fun
Offered Fall 2006
Talk to current students
I hope youll take it