Embedded Systems Architecture

Spring 2009
EE 382N-4 Unique: 16695
Advanced Embedded Systems Architecture
NOTE: ECD Only - no auditors

Course Goals:

This course focuses on the HW/SW architectures of “System-on-a-Chip (SoC) implementations. These
SoC’s are composed of hardware and software components which must be seamlessly integrated together
to produce working “Systems-on-Chip” (SoC) or “Systems-in-Package” (SiP). These systems are becoming
increasingly complex utilizing micro-architectural features from high performance computing platforms and
operating systems such as Linux and Windows. The topics covered will remain focused on HW/SW design
of embedded systems with an added focus of design optimization across the multiple design metrics such
as power, cost, reusability, time to volume, performance, security, and robustness. This course will provide
a working knowledge in both HW and SW architectures such that the student will be able to determine
where to make multi-metric optimizations across these two domains.

Course prerequisites:

EE 360N undergraduate Computer Architecture, or an equivalent undergraduate computer architecture class.

Basic high level language programming skills such as C or C++ (not Java)
Some assembly language programming skills (ARM)
Some familiarity with Linux programming

Instructors:

Mark McDermott
Office: ENS 425
Phone: 471-3253
Office hours: Sun 14:00 - 16:00

Jacob Abraham
Steven Smith
Matt Genovese

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TAs

tbd

Course Textbook:

Wayne Wolf Computers as Components: Principles of Embedded Computing System Design, 2nd
Edition, Morgan Kaufman Publishers, 2008

Reference Books:

John Shen, Mikko Lipasti Modern Processor Design

Sreekrishnan Venkateswaran Essential Linux Device Drivers (Prentice Hall Open Source
Software Development Series)
Karim Yaghmour Building Embedded Linux Systems
Wayne Wolf, HighHigh-Performance Embedded Computing: Architectures, Applications,
and Methodologies

Course outline and schedule:

Lecture Topic Lecture Notes

Intro to Embedded Systems Architecture Lecture 1

Processor Micro-Architecture Part 1 Lecture 2

Processor Micro-Architecture Part 2 Lecture 3

Instruction Set Architecture Design Lecture 4

ARM Instruction Set Architecture Lecture 5

Monitors, Bootloaders Lecture 6

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Embedded Linux Part 1 Lecture 7

Embedded Linux Part 2 Lecture 8

Device Driver Development Lecture 9

Interrupts & Interrupt Handlers Lecture 10

Digital Signal Processor Architectures Lecture 11

Blackfin Instruction Set Architecture Lecture 12

Reconfigurable Micro-Architectures &

Lecture 13
Hardware Acceleration

FPGA Architectures Lecture 14

Exam #1

SW Library Development Lecture 15

Real Time Operating Systems Lecture 16

Embedded OS Middleware Lecture 17

Flash Memory & Flash File Systems Lecture 18

Embedded Software Optimization & Lecture 19

Power Aware Programming

I/O Subsystems Lecture 20

Networks-on-Chips Lecture 21

Intelligent Sensors Lecture 22

SOC Platform Architectures Lecture 23

Debugging Embedded Systems Lecture 24

Testing Embedded Systems Lecture 25

Grading:
Homework 10%
Labs 30%

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Exam #1 15%
Exam #2 15%
Project 30%

Late Submission Penalties:

Penalty for late submission of homework and class project:

25% per working day. (Maximum: 100%).

Computer Lab:

The computer lab is located in ENS 113A. Access will be provided by the TA

Web Resources

Linux Devices: http://www.linuxdevices.com

Embedded Linux Journal: http://embedded.linuxjournal.com
Embedded.com: http://www.embedded.com/
Embedded Systems Programming magazine
Circuit Cellar: http://www.circuitcellar.com/
Electronic Design Magazine: http://electronicdesign.com/
Berkeley Design technology, Inc.: http://www.bdti.com
DSP Guru: http://www.dspguru.com/
EEMBC: http://www.eembc.org/home.php
EE Times Magazine: http://www.eet.com/
Sensors Magazine: http://www.sensorsmag.com
Embedded Systems Tutorial: http://www.learn-c.com/
TechOnLine: http://www.techonline.com/
Collections of embedded systems resources
http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~bevans/courses/ee382c/resources/
http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~bevans/courses/realtime/resources.html

Articles that support lecture material:

M. Schlett, “Trends in embedded-microprocessor design,” IEEE Computer, vol. 31, no. 8, pp. 44-49, Aug.
1998.

J. Fridman and Z Greenfield, “The TigerSHARC DSP architecture,” IEEE Micro, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 66 -76,

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2000
Y. Lin, H. Lee, M. Woh, Y. Harel, S. Mahlke, T. Mudge, C. Chakrabarti, and K. Flautner, “SODA: A Low-
power Architecture For Software Radio,” Proceedings of the 33rd International Symposium on Computer
Architecture, pp. 89-100, June 2006.
M. J. Schulte, J. Glossner, S. Jinturkar, M. Moudgill, S. Mamidi, and S. Vassiliadis, "A Low-Power
Multithreaded Processor for Software Defined Radio," Journal of VLSI Signal Processing Systems, vol. 43,
No. 2/3, pp. 143-159, June 2006.
C. Kozyrakis, C. and D. Patterson, “Vector vs. superscalar and VLIW architectures for embedded
multimedia benchmarks,” Proceedings of the 35th Annual IEEE/ACM International Symposium on
Microarchitecture, pp. 283-293, Nov. 2002.
M. Gschwind, H. P. Hofstee, B. Flachs, M. Hopkins, Y. Watanabe, and T. Yamazaki, “Synergistic
Processing in Cell's Multicore Architecture, IEEE Micro, vol. 26, no 2, pp. 10-24, March-April 2006
B. Khailany, W. J. Dally, U. J. Kapasi, P. Mattson, J. Namkoong, J. D. Owens, B. Towles, A. Chang, and
S. Rixner, “Imagine: media processing with streams,” IEEE Micro, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 35-46, 2001
M. Adiletta, M. Rosenbluth, D. Bernstein, G. Wolrich, and H. Wilkinson, “The next generation of Intel IXP
network processors,” Intel Technology Journal, vol. 6, no. 3, August 2002.
P. Faraboschi, G. Brown, J. A. Fisher, G. Desoli, and F. Homewood. "Lx: A Technology Platform for
Customizable VLIW Embedded Processing," Proceedings of International Symposium of Computer
Architecture, pp. 203-213, June 2000.
R. E. Gonzalez, “Xtensa: a configurable and extensible processor,” IEEE Micro, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 60-70,
2000.
N. Clark, J. Blome, M. Chu, S. Mahlke, S. Biles, and K. Flautner, “An Architecture Framework for
Transparent Instruction Set Customization in Embedded Processors,” Proceedings of the 32nd
International Symposium on Computer Architecture, pp. 272-283, June. 2005.
S. Vassiliadis, S. Wong, G. N. Gaydadjiev, K. Bertels, G.K. Kuzmanov, E. Moscu Panainte, “The Molen
Polymorphic Processor,” IEEE Transactions on Computers, vol. 53, no. 11, pp. 1363- 1375, November
2004.
L. Chakrapani, J. Gyllenhaal, W. Hwu, S. Mahlke, K. Palem, and R. Rabbah, “Trimaran: An Infrastructure
for Research in Instruction-Level Parallelism,” Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer-Verlag, vol.
3602, pp. 32-41, August 2005. (trimar
R. Leupers, M. Hohenauer, J. Ceng, H. Scharwaechter, H. Meyr, G. Ascheid, and G. Braun2, “Retargetable
compilers and architecture exploration for embedded processors,” IEE Proceedings - Computers and Digital
Techniques, vol. 152, no. 2, pp. 209-223, March 2005. (retargetable-compilers-architectures.pdf)
Y. Xie, W. Wolf, H. Lekatsas, “A Code Decompression Architecture for VLIW Processors,” 34th Annual
International Symposium on Microarchitecture, pp. 66-75, 2001. (decompression.pdf)
V. J. Moone and D. M. Blough, “A hardware-software real-time operating system framework for SoCs,
IEEE Design & Test of Computers, vol. 19, no. 6, pp. 44-51, Nov/Dec 2002. (rtos-soc.pdf)
A. Finkelstein and J. Kramer. Software Engineering: A Roadmap. In The Future of Software Engineering,
Anthony Finkelstein (Ed.), pp. 5-22, ACM Press 2000.
M. Mikic-Rakic and N. Medvidovic. Architecture-Level Support for Software Component Deployment in
Resource Constrained Environments. In Proceedings of the IFIP/ACM Working Conference on Component
Deployment (CD 2002), Berlin, Germany, June 20-21, 2002.
M. Mikic-Rakic, S. Malek, and N. Medvidovic. A Style-Aware Architectural Middleware for Resource-
Constrained, Distributed Systems. Technical Report USC-CSE-2004-508, June 2004.
N. Medvidovic, M. Mikic-Rakic, N Mehta, and S. Malek. Software Architectural Support for Handheld
Computing. IEEE Computer – Special Issue on Handheld Computing, September 2003.
C. Mattmann, S. Malek, N. Beckman, M. Mikic-Rakic, N. Medvidovic, and D. Crichton. GLIDE: A Grid-
based Lightweight Infrastructure for Data-intensive Environments. Technical Report USC-CSE-2004-509,
August 2004.
E. A. Lee. Embedded Software. In Advances in Computers, Ed Zelkowitz (Ed), Academic Press, 2002.
J. A. Stankovic et al. Strategic Directions in Real-Time and Embedded Systems. ACM Computing Surveys,
vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 751-763, December 1996.

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B. Nuseibeh and S. Easterbrook. Requirements Engineering: A Roadmap. In The Future of Software

Engineering, Anthony Finkelstein (Ed.), pp. 37-46, ACM Press 2000.
R. R. Lutz. Analyzing Software Requirements Errors in Safety-Critical, Embedded Systems. In Proceedings
of the IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering, 1993.
D. Garlan. Software Architecture: A Roadmap. In The Future of Software Engineering, Anthony Finkelstein
(Ed.), pp. 93-101, ACM Press 2000.

© Copyright 2008 Mark McDermott

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