INTERNATIONAL

International Journal JOURNAL Engineering

of Electronics and Communication OF ELECTRONICS AND ISSN 0976 –
& Technology (IJECET),
6464(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6472(Online) Volume 3, Issue
COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY (IJECET) 2, July-September (2012), © IAEME

ISSN 0976 – 6464(Print)

ISSN 0976 – 6472(Online)
Volume 3, Issue 2, July- September (2012), pp. 369-374
IJECET
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LOW POWER ARM PROCESSOR BASED EMBEDDED SYSTEM

Raj Kumar Tiwari1, Santosh Kumar Agrahari2*

1
Dept. of Physics & Electronics, Dr. RML Awadh University, Faizabad, UP, India
2
Dept. of Electronics & Instrumentation Engineering, Hindustan College of Science &
Technology, Mathura, UP, India,
rktiwari2323@yahoo.co.in, santoshfriday@yahoo.co.in*
*Corresponding author
ABSTRACT

The embedded systems are widely available in portable devices. The portable
devices are required to be efficient in the operation and faster computing for bulk data.
Portable devices are also required to be used for longer time duration efficiently without
degrading its functionality. Thus, the requirements of low power consumption of the
embedded systems are desirable. This paper describes the approach used for reducing the
power consumption of embedded system with the availability of ARM processor using
multiple powers required at various levels, making the system low power embedded
system.

Key words:

Embedded system, ARM processor, low power consumption, RISC architecture, multiple
operating voltages.

1. INTRODUCTION

The embedded systems are those systems, which are automated by some
processors. The automation can be done using microcontroller, microprocessor, ASIC
chips, FPGA etc. In current era of system automation, microcontroller plays a big role
because of its lower cost, smaller size, enriched with on-chip peripherals & easy
availability as well as programmability [1, 2].

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6464(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6472(Online) Volume 3, Issue 2, July-September (2012), © IAEME

Microcontroller is a reliable and versatile device. The user according to purpose

can program it. Microcontroller is a smart device and today is a world of digital devices.
The microcontrollers are available with varying features like 4-bit to 64-bit, 0 to few
GHZ frequency and many more. Various manufacturer providing microcontrollers are
Intel, Atmel, Philips, AVR, Microchip Technology, ST Microelectronics, Texas
Instruments etc. These manufacturers have various specific advantages in each of them,
like Intel is standard microcontrollers, Atmel is low cost, Philips is better technology,
AVR from Atmel is lower pin count, Microchip is true RISC architecture etc [3, 4].

1.1 Background

The history of automation is with the appearance of human being. The human is
always trying to make new ways to do better things & comfortably. The embedded
systems are the application used to perform the various task automatically. Most of the
embedded systems use microcontrollers as heart of the system which is controlling all the
operations from receiving various input signals from sensors, processing the data as well
as controlling the output devices and displays.

Nowadays, most of the embedded systems use 8-bit microcontrollers. These

microcontrollers have following features:

Data handling capacity: 8-bit

Memory capacity: up to 64 KB
I/O ports: up to 32/64
Frequency of operation: 0-40 MHz

Using these microcontrollers, various embedded systems are developed. As the

system complexity increases, these features will become bottle neck. The need of larger
data handling, faster processing, and more space requirement for storage enables to think
beyond the 8-bit microcontrollers.

1.2 Goals

The limitations of the 8-bit microcontrollers lead to think for better performance of
microcontroller. As the complex system development needs powerful microcontrollers
with larger data handling capacity, faster processing and bigger memory space, the 32-bit
ARM microcontroller plays great role [5]. The 32-bit ARM microcontroller has become
the widely used microcontroller. This project is intended to observe the power
requirement for embedded system using ARM microcontroller.
1.3 Scope

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6464(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6472(Online) Volume 3, Issue 2, July-September (2012), © IAEME

By getting the knowledge of ARM processor based embedded system enables us

to apply previous expertise of 8-bit microcontroller. In comparison to 8-bit
microcontroller based embedded systems, if the ARM processor based system has lower
power consumption then we may able to design and develop ARM processor based
complex systems as well [5,6]. Thus with the same or even lower power, the embedded
system based on ARM processor will have better performance, and cheaper cost.

2. HARDWARE DESCRIPTION

The development of embedded system requires selecting various components.

Depending upon the application, the selection of components varies. As the feature of
microcontroller varies in terms of memory, I/O ports, ADC, UART and many more,
selecting a microcontroller depends on the requirement of these features in particular
application [3,4]. In general, microcontroller is the first and most important component
for embedded system. After selecting a microcontroller, other components like
sensor/transducer, display devices, switches etc has to be selected according to the need
of application.

For this project we are using a 32-bit ARM microcontroller. The various features
and architecture are explained below:

2.1 ARM processor architecture & features

The Advanced RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) Machine named as

ARM microcontroller is a 32-bit microcontroller. ARM was founded in 1990 as
Advanced RISC Machines Ltd., a joint venture of Apple Computer, Acron Computer
Group and VLSI Technology. In 1991, ARM introduced the ARM6 processor family and
VLSI became the initial licensee. Subsequently, additional companies, including Texas
Instruments, NEC, Sharp and ST Microelectronics, licensed the ARM processor designs
[7, 8, 9].

Nowadays, ARM partners ship in excess of 2 billion ARM processors each year.
Unlike many semiconductor companies, ARM does not manufacture processors or sell
the chips directly. Instead it licenses the processor designs to business partners. This
business model is commonly called intellectual property (IP) licensing.

Since the ARM processor uses the features of RISC architecture, it provides
load/store architecture, fixed length 32-bit instructions, 3-address instruction format. The
ARM uses single cycle execution of all instructions. It features reduced power
consumption, high code density, cost sensitive, reduced die size and on-chip hardware
debug technology.

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6464(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6472(Online) Volume 3, Issue 2, July-September (2012), © IAEME

The ARM uses pipelining feature which is a mechanism the RISC processor uses
to execute instructions. Using the pipeline speeds up execution by fetching the next
instruction while other instructions are being decoded and executed. ARM7 uses three
stages pipelining while ARM9 uses five stages and ARM10 uses six stages.
The ARM processor modes determine which register are active and the access
rights to the CPSR register. The different modes switch on exceptions occurred. Various
processor modes are Privileged modes (Abort, Fast Interrupt Request, Interrupt Request,
Supervisor, System) and Non-Privileged modes (Undefined, User).

The ARM processor has three instruction set formats: ARM 32-bit, Thumb 16-
bit and Jazelle JAVA state. Also in latest ARM Cortex-M processors have Thumb-
2 instruction formats are used where 16 & 32-bit instructions are mixed to provide high
code density.

2.2 Block diagram of embedded system

The block diagram of embedded system for automation is shown below:

Input sensors ARM Output

Processor devices
LM35
Temperature Stellaris Lights
sensor Guru Board Fan
AC

To develop any applications, we need the ARM Processor development board,

some input sensors to detect input parameters like LM35 temperature sensor, LDR sensor
etc. and output devices like lights, fan, AC, microwave oven etc.

The Stellaris Guru board has ARM processor Cortex M3 family [8,10]. The
features of the board are as follows:

• Microcontroller LM3S608 from Texas Instruments Stellaris 600 family

• Push buttons and ultra bright LEDs, both unicolour and RGB
• LM35 temperature sensor
• Thumbwheel potentiometer
• Microphone amplifier with high gain and sensitivity
• Ambient light sensor using a LED operated in reverse bias.
• 20-pin JTAG connector
• Arduino compatible interface connector

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6464(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6472(Online) Volume 3, Issue 2, July-September (2012), © IAEME

• Programmable through UART using preinstalled boot loader

• USB interface for all communication and power.

Using this board, we are able to develop interfacing of various digital input/output
devices, reading temperature by LM35 sensor connected to ADC Channel, using
potentiometer to measure analog voltage connected to another ADC channel of
microcontroller.

3. POWER REQUIREMENT IN ARM PROCESSOR BOARD

The ARM processor operates at multiple power supply. The ARM processor
operates at 3.3V, 1.8V and 0.9V. The external peripherals are interfaced with ARM
processor at 3.3V. The internal on-chip peripherals operate at 1.8V. And the processor
processes at 0.9V. By having multiple operating voltages, the power requirement for
three layers of system can be managed differently. The system power can be minimized
by supplying multiple powers to different level. Also the system can be designed to
improve the performance by supplying same power to different level. Since the power
consumption of the system is proportional to the frequency of operation. Therefore, lower
the operating voltage, higher the operating frequency. So, at 0.9V the system can perform
400% faster than the 3.3V. The system can be designed to operate at higher frequency in
internal processor, moderate frequency at internal peripherals and slower frequency at
external peripherals.

4. FUNCTIONAL TEST RESULTS

The developed hardware circuits for home automation systems interfaced with
different ARM boards are tested for their functionality. The project has made us to learn
various ARM microcontroller families. The LPC2478 ARM7TDMI processor used in
MCB2470 board, programming is simpler as compared to Texas Instrument’s LM3S608
ARM Cortex-M3 processor. But the advantage of LM3S608 processor is the use of
programming tool chains which are freely available without limitations on code size. It
has been observed in experimental setups that the power required in 8-bit microcontroller
based embedded system are higher than the power required for ARM processor based
systems.

5. SCALABILITY TEST RESULTS

The development of ARM processor based embedded systems using these kits are
for testing the functionality of the system. Now, application based specific hardware

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6464(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6472(Online) Volume 3, Issue 2, July-September (2012), © IAEME

circuit can be tailored to customize for minimum hardware and optimum power
requirements. Because of multiple power requirement in ARM processor, the developed
systems have power requirement as low as possible, but limited to the complexity of the
system.
6. CONCLUSION
This project has been completed for the development of ARM processor based
embedded system for automation of electrical appliances. Varieties of ARM processor
based development boards are available in the market. Any of them can be used for
development of the applications. The ARM Cotex-M3 processor features for embedded
system with miniaturized size and Thumb2 instruction set for higher code density. These
32-bit ARM processors have very high operating frequency makes faster processing of
complex systems at the same time power consumption are low. Thus various portable
devices are available to operate for longer duration making the efficient system.

7. REFERENCES
1. Milne, G.; Khan, A.; Rayne, S.; Christensen, J., “Microcontroller design advantages for
portable computing” Micro, IEEE Volume: 17, Issue: 4, 1997
2. Rui Wang Shiyuan Yang Dept. of Autom., Tsinghua Univ., Beijing, China “The design of a
rapid prototype platform for ARM based embedded system”, Consumer Electronics, IEEE
Transactions on, 50, 746 – 751, 2004.
3. Raj Kumar Tiwari and Santosh Kumar Agrahari, “Web-controlled Embedded System using
Mobile” International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering ISSN 0974-
2166 Volume 4, Number 3 (2011), pp. 313-321.
4. Santosh Kumar Agrahari, “Wireless application in embedded system: SMS Remote
Controller”, National Conference on Wireless Communication, HCST Mathura, 1-2
September, 2006.
5. Neagoe, T.; Karjala, E.; Banica, L., “Why ARM processors are the best choice for embedded
low-power applications?” IEEE 16th International Symposium for Design and Technology in
Electronic Packaging (SIITME), 253 – 258, 2010,
6. Weihai Chen ; Li Li ; Jianglei Qin, “Development of ARM-based Embedded System for
Robot Applications” Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics, 2006 IEEE Conference on,
Dec. 2006.
7. Andrew N. Sloss, Dominic Symes, Cris Wright “ARM System Developers Guide:
Designing and Optimizing System Software”.
8. Dhananjay Gadre “Stellaris guru kit mannual” Centre for Electronics Design and Technology,
Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology, New Delhi.
9. www.arm.com
10. www.ti.com/stellaris

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