Processor Selection in Embedded System

Sharadchandra Lohokare

Non Technical

1. Price of CPU for required quantity as well as price of the CPU as compared to
overall price of the system / instrument
2. Time to learn new CPU / instruction set / tools (training)
3. Experience of development team using a particular CPU family.
4. Unwillingness to switch over to different CPU family to minimize the risk of
failure and time constraints.
5. Availability of CPU over the life span of the product
6. Reliability, market reputation of the CPU supplier / Trust on the CPU supplier
7. Availability of next upgraded CPUs in the same family required for features
additions which will require more memory, faster performance, additional
peripherals
8. Availability of the development tools
9. Price of development tools
10.

Technical

1. On chip Peripherals availability

a. ADC: number of channels, conversion method (Successive approximation,

integration, sigma/delta etc), resolution, accuracy
b. DAC: number of channels, conversion method (current / voltage type),
resolution, accuracy
c. Comparators
d. PWM outputs
e. Real time clock (RTC)
f. Timers
g. Counters
h. Watchdog timer
i. Address space: Memory
i. External memory (EPROM/ RAM)
ii. Internal memory (EPROM/RAM / EEPROM/FROM)
j. General Purpose I/O ports
k. Number of interrupt pins
l. Number of interrupt priority levels
m. Number of DMA channels
n. Bus interface
i. SPI bus
ii. I2S bus
 o. Interface modules
i. Ethernet port
ii. CAN module
iii.
p. Serial Ports
i. Synchronous
ii. Asynchronous
iii.
q. Debug port (On chip debug support OCDS) for programming chip ,
examining memory , setting breakpoints
i. Serial port
ii. JTAG
iii.

2. Performance

1. Frequency of operation (crystal frequency)

2. Low frequency operation for battery operation
3. Instruction execution speed (in terms of Dhrystone MIPS throughput)
a. No. of cycles required to execute multiply instruction
4. Interrupt Response time ( minimum latency and worst latency time)
5. Instruction set
6. Code density
7. Bits (8/16/32 etc.)
a. Peripherals’ resolution (8/16/32) decides processing data size
b. Floating point arithmetic: 32 bits or with FP processor
8. Instruction set (multiply & other instructions)
9. Voltage operation (5 / 3.3.V)
10. Supply voltage minimum
11. Supply voltage maximum
12. Power consumption normal operation (maximum supply current)
13. Low power / sleep mode / standby mode support
14. Power consumption ( max supply current) in sleep mode
15. Power consumption (max supply current) in stand by mode
16. Memory foot print / Code density
17. Package size (DIP, SMD, TQFP,PQFP

3. Support

1. RTOS support
2. Board support package development
3. Development tools
a. Compilers
b. Assemblers
c. Debugger
d. In circuit Emulators
 e. Simulators
f. Device Programmers for development and production
g. Development system, Single board computer SBC etc
4. In circuit programming support during development
a.
5. Availability of software algorithms, device drivers, application notes