Embedded Systems

Unit I
Part A (2 Marks )
1.What is an embedded system?
An embedded system employs a combination of hardware & software
(acomputational engine) to perform a specific function; is part of a larger
system that may not be a computer; works in a reactive and time-constrained
environment.
2.What are the typical characteristics of an embedded system
T ypical characteristics:
perform a single or tightly knit set of functions; increasingly high-performance
& real-time constrained; power, cost and reliability are often important
attributes that influence design;
Application specific processor design can be a significant component of some
embedded systems.
3.What are the advantages of embedded system
Advantages:
Customization yields lower area, power, cost, ...
4.What are the disadvantages of embedded system

Disadvantages:
Higher HW/software development overhead design, compilers, debuggers, ...
may result in delayed time to market!
5.What are the applications of an embedded system
Embedded Systems:Applications:
Consumer electronics, e.g., cameras, camcorders, ....
Consumer products, e.g., washers, microwave ovens, ...
Automobiles (anti-lock braking, engine control, ...)
Industrial process controllers & avionics/defense
applications
Computer/Communication products, e.g., printers, FAX
machines, ...
Emerging multimedia applications & consumer electronics
6.What are the various embedded system designs
Modelling
Refining (or partitioning)

HW-SW partitioning
7.What are the complicating factors in embedded design
Complicating factors in the design of embedded systems
Many of the subtasks in design are intertwined.
Allocation depends on the partitioning, and scheduling presumes a certain
allocation.
Predicting the time for implementing the modules in hardware or software is
not very easy, particularly for tasks
that have not been performed before.
8.What are the realtime requirements of an embedded system? Hard-real time
systems: where there is a high penalty for missing a deadline
e.g., control systems for aircraft/space probes/nuclear reactors; refresh rates
for video, or DRAM. Soft real-time systems: where there is a steadily
increasing
penalty if a deadline is missed.
e.g., laser printer: rated by pages-per-minute, but can take differing times to
print a page (depending on the \"complexity\" of the page) without harming the
machine
or the customer.

9.What are the characteristics of an embedded system

Characteristics of Embedded Systems
Application specific
Digital signal processing in ECS
Reactive
Real-time
Distributed
10.Explain digital signal processing in embedded system Continued
digitization of signals increasing the role of DSP in ES
signals are represented digitally as sequence of samples
ADCs are moving closer to signals
11. Give the reactivities in embedded system
Closed systems
execution indeterminacy confined to one source
causal relations are easily established.
Open systems

 indeterminacy from multiple sources, not controllable or observable by the

programmer not possible to infer causal relations
12.Explain distributed systems
Consist of components that may necessarily be physically distributed.
Consist of communicating processes on multiple processors and/or
dedicated hardware connected by Communication links.
Motivation:
o economical
o multiple processors to handle multiple time-critical tasks o physically
distributed
o devices under control may be physically distributed.
13.What are the functional requirements of embedded system
Data Collection
Sensor requirements
Signal conditioning
Alarm monitoring
Direct Digital Control
Actuators

Man-Machine Interaction
informs the operator of the current state of the controlled object
assists the operator in controlling the system.
14.What are the various embedded sysyem requirements
Types of requirements imposed by embedded applications:
R1 Functional requirements
R2 Temporal requirements
R3 Dependability requirements
15.What are the temporal requirements
Tasks may have deadlines
Minimal latency jitter
Minimal error detection latency
Timing requirements due to tight software control loops
Human interface requirements.
16.Givethe classification of embedded system
Multi-dimensional classifications

 Hard versus software systems

Fail-safe versus fail-operational systems
Guaranteed-response versus best-effort
Resource-adequate versus resource-inadequate
Event-triggered versus time-triggered.
17. What are the types of programmable logic. PLDs,CPLDs,FPGAs
18.Explain the VLSI design Flow.
The design process, at various levels, is usually evolutionary in nature. It
starts with a given set of requirements. Initial design is developed and tested
against the requirements. When requirements are not met, the design has to
be improved. If such improvement is either not possible or too costly, then the
revision of requirements and its impact analysis must be considered. The Ychart (first
introduced by D. Gajski) shown in Fig. 1.4 illustrates a design flow for most
logic chips, using design activities on three different axes (domains) which
resemble the letter Y.
19.Give the VLSI design hierarchy
The use of hierarchy, or divide and conquer technique involves dividing a
module into sub- modules and then repeating this operation on the submodules until the complexity of the smaller parts becomes manageable. This
approach is very similar to the software case where large programs are split
into smaller and smaller sections until simple subroutines,

20.What are embedded cores?

More and more vendors are selling or giving away their processors and
peripherals in a form that is ready to be integrated into a programmable logicbased design. They either recognize the potential
for growth in the system-on-a-chip area and want a piece of the royalties or
want to promote the use of their particular FPGA or CPLD by providing
libraries of ready-to-use building blocks. Either way, you will gain with lower
system costs and faster time-to-market.
21.What are hybrid chips?
. The vendors of hybrid chips are betting that a processor core embedded
within a programmable logic device will require far too many gates for typical
applications. So they\'ve created hybrid chips that are part fixed logic and part
programmable logic. The fixed logic contains a fully functional processor and
perhaps even some on-chip memory. This part of the chip also interfaces to
dedicated address and data bus pins on the outside of the chip. Applicationspecific peripherals can be inserted into the programmable logic portion of the
chip, either from a library of IP cores or the customer\'s own designs.
22.What do you meant by gatecounts?
The gate count by itself is almost useless. Different vendors use different
measures: number of available gates, equivalent number of NAND gates,
equivalent number of gates in a PLD, equivalent number of gates in an ASIC,
etc. You simply can\'t compare these numbers across vendors. A better
comparison can be made in terms of numbers of registers (flip-flops) and I/O
pins
23.What is prototyping

Many times a CPLD or FPGA will be used in a prototype system. A small

device may be present to allow the designers to change a board\'s glue logic
more easily during product development and testing. Or a large device may be
included to allow prototyping of a system-on-a-chip design that will eventually
find its way into an ASIC. Either way, the basic idea is the same: allow the
hardware to be flexible during product development. When the product is
ready to ship in large quantities, the programmable device will be replaced
with a less expensive, though functionally equivalent, hard- wired alternative
24.Give the programmable logic design process.
25.Give the internal structure of FPGA
The development of the FPGA was distinct from the PLD/CPLD evolution just
described. This is apparent when you look at the structures inside. Figure 2
illustrates a typical FPGA architecture. There are three key parts of its
structure: logic blocks, interconnect, and I/O blocks. The I/O blocks form a ring
around the outer edge of the part. Each of these provides individually
selectable input, output, or bi-directional access to one of the general-purpose
I/O pins on the exterior of the FPGA package. Inside the ring of I/O blocks lies
a rectangular array of logic blocks. And connecting logic blocks to logic blocks
and I/O blocks to logic blocks is the programmable interconnect wiring.
Figure 2. Internal structure of an FPGA
26.Define FPGAs
Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) can be used to implement just
about any hardware design. One common use is to prototype a lump of
hardware that will eventually find its way into an ASIC. However, there is
nothing to say that the FPGA can\'t remain in the final product. Whether or not
it does will depend on the relative weights of development cost and production

cost for a particular project. (It costs significantly more to develop an ASIC, but
the cost per chip may be lower in the
long run.
27.Give the internal structure of CPLD
28.Define PLDs
At the low end of the spectrum are the original Programmable Logic Devices
(PLDs). These were the first chips that could be used to implement a flexible
digital logic design in hardware. In other words, you could remove a couple of
the 7400-series TTL parts (ANDs, ORs, and NOTs) from your board and
replace them with a single PLD. Other names you might encounter for this
class of device are Programmable Logic Array (PLA), Programmable Array
Logic (PAL), and Generic Array Logic (GAL).
29.What are dependability requirements of an embedded system
Safety
critical failure modes certification Maintainability
MTTR in terms of repairs per hour
Availability
A = MTTF / (MTTF + MTTR) Security
30.Give the diversity of embedded computing
Diversity in Embedded Computing

Pocket remote control RF transmitter

100 KIPS, crush-proof, long battery life
Software optimized for size
Industrial equipment controller
1 MIPS, safety-critical, 1 MB memory
Software control loops
Military signal processing
1 GFLOPS, 1 GB/sec IO, 32 MB
Part B (16 Marks )
1.What is the need for IDE in an Embedded Architeture? Discuss
2.Explain the VLSI design Circuits
3.Explain the software embedded systems
4.Explain the components of exemplary embedded systems
5.Describe the architecture of a typical micro controller with a neat diagram
6.Explain the basic processors and hardware units in the embedded system
7.Explain how software is embedded into a system

8.With a neat diagram ,explain the architecture of Motorola ,highlighting

theiraddressing modes
9.Discuss the various addressing modes and the instruction set of a mocrocontroller
10.Explain the methods used in the embedded system on a chip

Unit II
Part A (2 Marks )
1.Give the summary of I/O devices used in embedded system
Program, data and stack memories occupy the same memory space. The total
addressable memory size is 64 KB.
Program memory - program can be located anywhere in memory. Jump,
branch and call instructions use 16-bit addresses, i.e. they can be used to
jump/branch anywhere within 64 KB. All jump/branch instructions use absolute
addressing.
Data memory - the processor always uses 16-bit addresses so that data can
be placed anywhere. Stack memory is limited only by the size of memory.
Stack grows downward.
First 64 bytes in a zero memory page should be reserved for vectors used by
RST instructions. I/O ports -256 Input ports -256 Output ports

Registers- Accumulator or A register is an 8-bit register used for arithmetic,

logic, I/O and load/store operations.
2. Give the general registers used in embedded system. General registers:
8-bit B and 8-bit C registers can be used as one 16-bit BC register pair.
When used as a pair the C
register contains low-order byte. Some instructions may use BC register as a
data pointer.
8-bit D and 8-bit E registers can be used as one 16-bit DE register pair.
When used as a pair the E
register contains low-order byte. Some instructions may use DE register as a
data pointer.
8-bit H and 8-bit L registers can be used as one 16-bit HL register pair. When
used as a pair the L register contains low-order byte. HL register usually
contains a data pointer used to reference memory addresses.
Stack pointer is a 16 bit register. This register is always
incremented/decremented by 2.
3.Give the instruction sets of 8080 processor
8080 instruction set consists of the following instructions:
Data moving instructions.
Arithmetic - add, subtract, increment and decrement.

 Logic - AND, OR, XOR and rotate.

Control transfer - conditional, unconditional, call subroutine, return from
subroutine and restarts.
Input/Output instructions.
Other - setting/clearing flag bits, enabling/disabling interrupts, stack
operations,
4.Give the addressing modes of 8080. Addressing modes
Register - references the data in a register or in a register pair.
Register indirect - instruction specifies register pair containing address, where
the data is located. Direct.
Immediate - 8 or 16-bit data.
5.Define bus.
Buses: The exchange of information.
Information is transferred between units of the microcomputer by collections of
conductors called buses.
There will be one conductor for each bit of information to be passed, e.g., 16
lines for a 16 bit address bus. There will be address, control, and data buses
6.Define interrupts.

The processor supports maskable interrupts. When an interrupt occurs the

processor fetches from the bus one instruction, usually one of these
instructions:
One of the 8 RST instructions (RST0 - RST7). The processor saves current
program counter into stack and branches to memory location N * 8 (where N
is a 3-bit number from 0 to 7 supplied with the RST instruction).
CALL instruction (3 byte instruction). The processor calls the subroutine,
address of which is specified in the second and third bytes of the instruction
7.What are maskable interrupts
Maskable Interrupts
The processor can inhibit certain types of interrupts by use of a special
interrupt mask bit. This mask bit is part of the condition code register, or a
special interrupt register. If this bit is set, and an interrupt request occurs on
the Interrupt Request input, it is ignored
8.What are non maskable interrupts
Non-Maskable Interrupts
There are some interrupts which cannot be masked out or ignored by the
processor. These are associated with high priority tasks which cannot be
ignored (like memory parity or bus faults). In general, most processors support
the Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI). This interrupt has absolute priority, and
when it occurs, the processor will finish the current memory cycle, then branch
to a special routine written to handle the interrupt request.
9.Give the advantages of interrupts

The Use of Interrupts

The use of interrupts generally falls into the following categories,
Input/Output data transfers for peripheral devices
Input signals to be used for timing purposes
Emergency situations (power-down)
Real-Time-executives/Multitasking
Event driven programs
10. What are the steps involved in interrupt processing. The Basic steps
involved in interrupt processing are
1. Enable interrupts
2. Request an interrupt
3. Call and perform the interrupt service routine
4. Return to the previous program
11.Give the steps for accomplishing input output data transfer
ACCOMPLISHING INPUT/OUTPUT DATA TRANSFER
There are three main methods used to perform/control input/output data
transfers. They are,

 software programming (scanning or polling)

interrupt controlled
direct memory access (DMA)
12.Explain software polling.
13. Give the limitations of polling technique. The polling technique, however,
has limitations.
it is wasteful of the processors time, as it needlessly checks the status of all
devices all the time.
it is inherently slow, as it checks the status of all I/O devices before it comes
back to check any
given one again.
when fast devices are connected to a system, polling may simply not be fast
enough to satisfy the
minimum service requirements. priority of the device is determined
14.What do you meant by bus arbitration. Bus Arbitration
Most processors use special control lines for bus arbitration, ie, controlling the
use of the address and data bus,
an input which the DMAC uses to request the bus
an output(s) indicating the bus status

 an output indicating acceptance of the DMAC\'s bus request

15.What do you mean by asynchronous communication
The most basic way of sharing data is by copying the data in question to each
server. Of course, this will only work if the data is changed infrequently, and
always by someone with administrative access to all the servers in the cluster.
16.Give the conventions used on schematic
Signals are not always shown as cotinous lines
Each signal is given a name; if two lines on the schematic have the same
name,they r connected,even though it is not explicitly shown
For eg: if one of the address line coming out of the microproceesor is labeled
A15 then every other
line labeled A15 is that same address signal..
The actual pin numbers on the parts that will be used in the finished circuit
are shown next to each
signal coming out of each part..
17.What do you meant by high speed device interfaces
Fail-over clustering would not be practical without some way for the redundant
servers to access remote storage devices without taking a large performance
hit, as would occur if these devices were simply living on the local network.
Two common solutions to this problem are double-ended SCSI and fibrechannel.

18.What do you meant by timer frequency.

A timer counts up a value every two clock cycles, and can be setup to count
from an arbitrary value (Time) up to it\'s maximum value (256 in an 8-bit
timer). The timer input clock is prescaled by N from the System Clock,
meaning that N system cycles correspond to one timer clock cycle. Thus, the
formula for base timer frequency in an 8-bit timer is Clk/2*N*(256-Time).
19.What is an IDE
An integrated development environment (IDE) (also known as an integrated
design environment and integrated debugging environment) is computer
software to help computer programmers develop software.
20.Define Object oriented interfacing
In general, an interface is a device or a system that unrelated entities use to
interact. According to
this definition, a remote control is an interface between you and a television
set, the English language is an interface between two people, and for eg
protocol of behavior enforced in the military is the interface between people of
different ranks.
21. Give the internal structure of a trap gate entry.
22. What are software interrupts
Software interrupts are still widely used by protected-mode operating systems
in order to publish their internal services to the external world. However, most
of these interfaces are now wrapped by functions and cannot be accessed
directly (although it\'s possible, it\'s not recommended). For instance, Windows
NT uses the undocumented interrupt 2Eh to allow control transfers between its

user mode and kernel mode components. Whenever a non-privileged

Windows application issues a call to an API function, the system routes the
call until it reaches an INT 2Eh instruction.
23.What are hardware interrupts
Hardware interrupts in protected-mode behave in the same manner as
described in the real-mode section. The only major difference is that when
executing in protected-mode, the processor consults its IDT rather than
searching the real-mode IVT for the address of the interrupt handler.
24.What is a decoder.
Basically, the opposite of a mux.
Note the ``3\'\' with a slash, which signifies a three bit input. This notation
represents three (1-bit)
wires.
A decoder with n input bits, produces 2^n output bits.
View the input as ``k written an n-bit binary number\'\' and view the output as
2^n bits with the k-th bit set and all the other bits clear.
Implement on board with AND/OR.
Part B( 16 Marks )
1.Describe the functions of a typical parallel I/O interface with a neat diagram
2.Explain high speed I/O interfacing in detail

3.Write short notes on

(i) Analog to digital converter
(ii) UART
4.Explain the functions of various buses used during transfer
5.Explain the synchronous and asynchronous communications from serial
devices
6.Explain the various timer and counting devices
7.Explain the various bus structures used in embedded systems
8.Explain the sophisticated interfacing features in devices /ports
1.What is a cross combiler.

Unit III
Part A(2 Marks )
A Cross-Compiler is a computer program that translates a computer program
written in one computer language (called the source language) into an
equivalent program written in another computer language (called the output or
the target language) as in a normal compiler.
A cross-compiler is distinguished by producing output in a form to be used by
a Computer_architecture other than the one hosting the cross-compiler. The

output of a cross-compiler is usually the native machine language of the target

system
2. Give the recursion concept in embedded C
Recursion simply means applying a function as a part of the definition of that
same function. Thus the definition of GNU (the source of much free software)
is said to be recursive..
The key to making this work is that there must be a terminating condition such
that the function branches to a non-recursive solution at some point.
A simple example. The mathematical factorial function is defined as being the
product of all the numbers up to and including the argument, and the factorial
of 1 is 1. Thinking about this, we see that another way to express this is that
the factorial of N is equal to N times the factorial of (N-1).
3. Give the debugging strategies.
Integration and testing of software is difficult, and embedded systems provide
the additional challenges of limited manipulation and visibility of the system
through a small number of inputs and outputs. Abnormal system states, in
particular, are difficult to test, because the system must be driven into the state
before its behavior in that state can be determined.
This introduces the idea of instrumentation code injected into the
implementation of UML models for the purposes of increasing the
controllability, observability, and testability of the system. The instrumentation
is used in both the development and the target environments, and allows
interactive system debugging at the model level. In batch mode, the
instrumentation serves as the basis for data collection, initialization, and test
automation.

4.Give the embedded concept in UML

The effective application of UML models to software engineering for
challenging applications- especially in the embedded context-requires a
development process that will ensure:
Models are rigorous and complete
The resulting system implementation can be optimized without impacting the
models
The overall architecture of the system is maintained by the process through
multiple releases and
requirement evolution
5.What is single system domain testing.
6. What are hybrid chips?
The vendors of hybrid chips are betting that a processor core embedded
within a programmable logic device will require far too many gates for typical
applications. So they\'ve created hybrid chips that are part fixed logic and part
programmable logic. The fixed logic contains a fully functional processor and
perhaps even some on-chip memory. This part of the chip also interfaces to
dedicated address and data bus pins on the outside of the chip. Applicationspecific peripherals can be inserted into the programmable logic portion of the
chip, either from a library of IP cores or the customer\'s own designs.
7.Explain interrupt handling
Connect one of the STK500 buttons to one of the AVR\'s external interrupt
pins and write a simple routine to handle that IRQ. You must configure this

external interrupt in order that a button release (a rising edge on the interrupt
pin) triggers an event (e.g. prints a bit pattern in the STK500\'s leds).
void main(void)
{
int_handler(BUTTON, &button_handler);
int_enable();
while(1);
}
void button_handler(void) ISR
{
leds_on(buttons_chk());
}
8.What is an assembler.
An assembler is a computer program for translating assembly language
essentially, a mnemonic representation of machine language into object
code. A cross assembler (eg:cross compiler) produces code for one type of
processor, but runs on another.
9.Define task scheduling.

Most RTOSs do their scheduling of tasks using a scheme called \"prioritybased preemptive scheduling.\" Each task in a software application must be
assigned a priority, with higher priority values representing the need for
quicker responsiveness. Very quick responsiveness is made possible by
the \"preemptive\" nature of the task scheduling. \"Preemptive\" means that the
scheduler is allowed to stop any task at any point in its execution, if it
determines that another task needs to run immediately
10.Explain Boolean algebra. Boolean algebra
Certain logic functions (i.e. truth tables) are quite common and familiar.
We use a notation that looks like algebra to express logic functions and
expressions involving them. The notation is called Boolean algebra in honor of
George Boole.
A Boolean value is a 1 or a 0.
A Boolean variable takes on Boolean values.
A Boolean function takes in boolean variables and produces boolean values.
11. What do you meant by bus arbitration. Bus Arbitration
Most processors use special control lines for bus arbitration, ie, controlling the
use of the address and data bus,
an input which the DMAC uses to request the bus
an output(s) indicating the bus status
an output indicating acceptance of the DMAC\'s bus request

12.Give the various simulators..

Scheduling Simulator
Deadlocking Simulator
Memory Management Simulator
File System Simulator
13.What are scheduling simulator. Scheduling simulators
The scheduling simulator illustrates the behavior of scheduling algorithms
against a simulated mix of process loads. The user can specify the number of
processes, the mean and standard deviation for compute time and I/O
blocking time for each process, and the duration of the simulation. At the end
of the simulation a statistical summary is presented.
14.What are the various embedded sysyem requirements
Types of requirements imposed by embedded applications:
R1 Functional requirements
R2 Temporal requirements
R3 Dependability requirements
15.What are the temporal requirements
Tasks may have deadlines

 Minimal latency jitter

Minimal error detection latency
Timing requirements due to tight software control loops
Human interface requirements.
16.Givethe classification of embedded system
Multi-dimensional classifications
Hard versus software systems
Fail-safe versus fail-operational systems
Guaranteed-response versus best-effort
Resource-adequate versus resource-inadequate
Event-triggered versus time-triggered.
17. What are the types of programmable logic. PLDs,CPLDs,FPGAs
18.Explain the VLSI design Flow.
The design process, at various levels, is usually evolutionary in nature. It
starts with a given set of requirements. Initial design is developed and tested
against the requirements. When requirements are not met, the design has to
be improved. If such improvement is either not possible or too costly, then the
revision of requirements and its impact analysis must be considered. The Ychart (first

introduced by D. Gajski) shown in Fig. 1.4 illustrates a design flow for most
logic chips, using design activities on three different axes (domains) which
resemble the letter Y.
20.Define Object oriented interfacing
In general, an interface is a device or a system that unrelated entities use to
interact. According to
this definition, a remote control is an interface between you and a television
set, the English language is an interface between two people, and for eg
protocol of behavior enforced in the military is the interface between people of
different ranks.
21. Give the internal structure of a trap gate entry.
22. What are software interrupts
Software interrupts are still widely used by protected-mode operating systems
in order to publish their internal services to the external world. However, most
of these interfaces are now wrapped by functions and cannot be accessed
directly (although it\'s possible, it\'s not recommended). For instance, Windows
NT uses the undocumented interrupt 2Eh to allow control transfers between its
user mode and kernel mode components. Whenever a non-privileged
Windows application issues a call to an API function, the system routes the
call until it reaches an INT 2Eh instruction.
23.What are hardware interrupts
Hardware interrupts in protected-mode behave in the same manner as
described in the real-mode section. The only major difference is that when
executing in protected-mode, the processor consults its IDT rather than
searching the real-mode IVT for the address of the interrupt handler.

24. Give the reactivities in embedded system

Closed systems
execution indeterminacy confined to one source
causal relations are easily established.
Open systems
indeterminacy from multiple sources, not controllable or observable by the
programmer
not possible to infer causal relations
25.Explain Object Orientedconcept in embedded C
In general, an interface is a device or a system that unrelated entities use to
interact. According to
this definition, a remote control is an interface between you and a television
set, the English language is an interface between two people, and for eg
protocol of behavior enforced
26.Define FPGAs
Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) can be used to implement just
about any hardware design. One common use is to prototype a lump of
hardware that will eventually find its way into an ASIC. However, there is
nothing to say that the FPGA can\'t remain in the final product. Whether or not
it does will depend on the relative weights of development cost and production

cost for a particular project. (It costs significantly more to develop an ASIC, but
the cost per chip may be lower in the long run.
27.Give the internal structure of CPLD
28.Define PLDs
At the low end of the spectrum are the original Programmable Logic Devices
(PLDs). These were the first chips that could be used to implement a flexible
digital logic design in hardware. In other words, you could remove a couple of
the 7400-series TTL parts (ANDs, ORs, and NOTs) from your board and
replace them with a single PLD. Other names you might encounter for this
class of device are Programmable Logic Array (PLA), Programmable Array
Logic (PAL), and Generic Array Logic (GAL).
29.What are dependability requirements of an embedded system
Safety
critical failure modes certification Maintainability
MTTR in terms of repairs per hour
Availability
A = MTTF / (MTTF + MTTR) Security
30 Explain how to optimize codes
This operation is best performed with the help of a DMAC. The operating
system can load the DMAC chip with the required information, ie,
track/sector(s) information, load address, and then instruct the DMAC to

perform the transfer. When the transfer is complete, the DMAC will provide a
signal to the processor. The processor can then check the status of the DMAC
to ensure the operation was performed correctly.
Part B( 16 Marks )
1.Explain the concepts of embedded programming
2.Explain the features of assemblers ,combilers and cross combilers used in
embedded systems
3.Explain Interrupt service routine Queues
4.What is an interrupt? What are the types of interrupts ? Explain
5.What is interrupt latency ? Explain
6.Explain the C.Program elements ,macros and functions used in embedded
systems..
7.Explain the use of function calls in embedded programming
8.Explain how to optimize memory codes
9.Explain the various multiple function calls in Embedded C
10.Discuss the scheduling architecture and the algorithms used in embedded
software development
11.Give the difference between programming in assembly language (ALP) and
high level language

Unit IV
Part A (2 Marks )
1. What is a thread?
A thread otherwise called a lightweight process (LWP) is a basic unit of CPU
utilization, it comprises of a thread id, a program counter, a register set and a
stack. It shares with other threads belonging to the same process its code
section, data section, and operating system resources such as open files and
signals.
2. What are the benefits of multithreaded programming?
The benefits of multithreaded programming can be broken down into four
major categories: Responsiveness
Resource sharing
Economy
Utilization of multiprocessor architectures
3.Compare user threads and kernel threads. User threads Kernel threads
User threads are supported above the kernel and are implemented by a thread
library at the user level
Kernel threads are supported directly by the operating system

Thread creation & scheduling are done in the user space, without kernel
intervention. Therefore they are fast to create and manage Thread creation,
scheduling and management are done by the operating system. Therefore
they are slower to create & manage compared to user threads
Blocking system call will cause the entire process to block If the thread
performs a blocking system call, the kernel can schedule another thread in the
application for execution
4.Define thread cancellation & target thread.
The thread cancellation is the task of terminating a thread before it has
completed. A thread that is to be cancelled is often referred to as the target
thread. For example, if multiple threads are concurrently searching through a
database and one thread returns the result, the remaining threads might be
cancelled.
5.What are the different ways in which a thread can be cancelled?
Cancellation of a target thread may occur in two different scenarios:
Asynchronous cancellation: One thread immediately terminates the target
thread is called asynchronous cancellation.
Deferred cancellation: The target thread can periodically check if it should
terminate, allowing the target thread an opportunity to terminate itself in an
orderly fashion.
6.Define CPU scheduling.
CPU scheduling is the process of switching the CPU among various
processes. CPU scheduling is the basis of multiprogrammed operating
systems. By switching the CPU among processes, the operating system can
make the computer more productive.

7.What is preemptive and nonpreemptive scheduling?

Under nonpreemptive scheduling once the CPU has been allocated to a
process, the process keeps the CPU until it releases the CPU either by
terminating or switching to the waiting state. Preemptive scheduling can
preempt a process which is utilizing the CPU in between its execution and
give the CPU to another process.
8.What is a Dispatcher?
The dispatcher is the module that gives control of the CPU to the process
selected by the short-term scheduler. This function involves:
Switching context
Switching to user mode
Jumping to the proper location in the user program to restart that program.
9.What is dispatch latency?
The time taken by the dispatcher to stop one process and start another
running is known as dispatch latency.
10.What are the various scheduling criteria for CPU scheduling? The various
scheduling criteria are
CPU utilization Throughput Turnaround time Waiting time
Response time
11.Define throughput?

Throughput in CPU scheduling is the number of processes that are completed

per unit time. For long processes, this rate may be one process per hour; for
short transactions, throughput might be 10 processes per second.
12.What is turnaround time?
Turnaround time is the interval from the time of submission to the time of
completion of a process. It is the sum of the periods spent waiting to get into
memory, waiting in the ready queue, executing on the CPU, and doing I/O.
13.Define race condition.
When several process access and manipulate same data concurrently, then
the outcome of the execution depends on particular order in which the access
takes place is called race condition. To avoid race condition, only one process
at a time can manipulate the shared variable.
14.What is critical section problem?
Consider a system consists of n processes. Each process has segment of
code called a critical section, in which the process may be changing common
variables, updating a table, writing a file. When one process is executing in its
critical section, no other process can allowed to execute in its critical section.
15.What are the requirements that a solution to the critical section problem
must satisfy? The three requirements are
Mutual exclusion
Progress
Bounded waiting

16.Define entry section and exit section.

The critical section problem is to design a protocol that the processes can use
to cooperate. Each process must request permission to enter its critical
section. The section of the code implementing this request is the entry
section. The critical section is followed by an exit section. The remaining code
is the remainder section.
17.What is semaphores?
A semaphore S is a synchronization tool which is an integer value that, apart
from initialization, is accessed only through two standard atomic operations;
wait and signal. Semaphores can be used to deal with the n-process critical
section problem. It can be also used to solve various synchronization
problems.
The classic definition of wait
wait (S)
{
while (S<=0)
;
S--;
}
The classic definition of signal

signal (S)
{ S++;
}
18. When the error will occur when we use the semaphore?
i. When the process interchanges the order in which the wait and signal
operations on the semaphore mutex.
ii. When a process replaces a signal (mutex) with wait (mutex).
iii. When a process omits the wait (mutex), or the signal (mutex), or both.
19.Define deadlock.
A process requests resources; if the resources are not available at that time,
the process enters a wait state. Waiting processes may never again change
state, because the resources they have requested are held by other waiting
processes. This situation is called a deadlock.
20.What is the sequence in which resources may be utilized?
Under normal mode of operation, a process may utilize a resource in the
following sequence: Request: If the request cannot be granted immediately,
then the requesting process must wait until
it can acquire the resource.
Use: The process can operate on the resource. Release: The process
releases the resource.

21.What are conditions under which a deadlock situation may arise?

A deadlock situation can arise if the following four conditions hold
simultaneously in a system:
1. Mutual exclusion
2. Hold and wait
3. No pre-emption
4. Circular wait
Part B( 16 Marks )
1.Explain how thread an process are used in embedded system.
2.Explain process management amd memory management in embedded
system
3.Explain file system organization and implementation
4.Explain how interrupt routines handled in embedded system
5.Explain round robin scheduling
6.Explain the real time operating systems
7.Explain cyclic scheduling with time slicing
8.Explain how critical section in handled by a pre-emptinve scheduler

9.Explain interprocess communication ams synchronization

10.Explain interprocess communicvations using signals
11.Give the functions for message Queues and mail boxes
12.Explain remote procedure call with an example
13.Explain the various RTOS Task scheduling models .
1.Define RTOS.

Unit V
Part A (2 Marks)
A real-time operating system (RTOS) is an operating system that has been
developed for real-time applications. It is typically used for embedded
applications, such as mobile telephones, industrial robots, or scientific
research equipment.
2.Define task and task rates.
An RTOS facilitates the creation of real-time systems, but does not guarantee
that they are real-time; this requires correct development of the system level
software. Nor does an RTOS necessarily have high throughput rather they
allow, through specialized scheduling algorithms and deterministic behavior,
the guarantee that system deadlines can be met. That is, an RTOS is valued
more for how quickly it can respond to an event than for the total amount of

work it can do. Key factors in evaluating an RTOS are therefore maximal
interrupt and thread latency
3.Explain memory allocation in embedded system.
Memory allocation is even more critical in a RTOS than in other operating
systems.Firstly, speed of allocation is important. A standard memory
allocation scheme scans a linked list of indeterminate length to find a suitable
free memory block; however, this is unacceptable as memory allocation has to
occur in a fixed time in a RTOS.
Secondly, memory can become fragmented as free regions become
separated by regions that are in use. This can cause a program to stall,
unable to get memory, even though there is theoretically enough available.
Memory allocation algorithms that slowly accumulate fragmentation may work
fine for desktop machineswhen rebooted every month or sobut are
unacceptable for embedded systems that often run for years without rebooting
4.Explain multi task and their fuctions in embedded system.
This system implements cooperative and time-sliced multitasking, provides
resource locking and mailbox services, implements an efficient paged memory
manager, traps and reports errors, handles interrupts, and autostarts your
application at system startup. By following some simple coding practices as
shown in the documented coding examples, you can take advantage of these
sophisticated features without having to worry about the implementation
details.
5.Explain memory allocation functions
Determinism of service times is also an issue in the area of dynamic allocation
of RAM memory. Many general-computing non-real-time operating systems
offer memory allocation services from what is termed a \"Heap.\" The

famous \"malloc\" and \"free\" services known to C-language programmers

work from a heap
6.What do you meant by high speed message passing.
Intertask message communication is another area where different operating
systems show different timing characteristics. Most operating systems actually
copy messages twice as they transfer them from task to task via a message
queue
7.What is a fixed time task switching.
The time it takes to do task switching is of interest when evaluating an
operating system. A simple general-computing (non-preemptive) operating
system might do task switching only at timer tick times, which might for
example be ten milliseconds apart. Then if the need for a task switch arises
anywhere within a 10-millisecond timeframe, the actual task switch would
occur only at the end of
the current 10-millisecond period. Such a delay would be unacceptable in
most real-time embedded systems
8.Give the queue related function for embedded system.
To connect a message queue, or create it if it doesn\'t exist. The call to
accomplish this is the msgget() system call:
int msgget(key_t key, int msgflg);
msgget(): returns the message queue ID on success, or -1 on failure (and it
sets errno, of course.) The first, key is a system-wide unique identifier
describing the queue you want to connect to (or create). Every other process
that wants to connect to this queue will have to use the same key.

9.Give the fuction for sending a queue.

Each message is made up of two parts, which are defined in the template
structure struct msgbuf, as defined in sys/msg.h:
struct msgbuf { long mtype; char mtext[1];
};
The field mtype is used later when retrieving messages from the queue, and
can be set to any positive number. mtext is the data this will be added to the
queue
10.Give a function for recieving a message from a queue
A call to msgrcv() that would do it looks something like this:
#include
key_t key;
int msqid;
struct pirate_msgbuf pmb; /* where L\'Olonais is to be kept */
key = ftok(\"/home/beej/somefile\", \'b\');
msqid = msgget(key, 0666 | IPC_CREAT);
msgrcv(msqid, &pmb, sizeof(pmb), 2, 0); /* get him off the queue! */
11.Give the steps to destroy a message queue. There are two ways:

1. Use the Unix command ipcs to get a list of defined message queues, then
use the command ipcrm to delete the queue.
2.Write a program to do it for you
12.Give the needs for memory management]
Each new model of computer seems to come with more main memory than
the last, but, since the memory requirements of the software rise just as fast,
memory is always a precious commodity, hence the need for memory
management .
Memory is allocated to a process when needed
Memory is deallocated when no longer in use
Swapping allows the total memory used by all the running processes to
exceed main memory
Virtual memory makes it possible to run a single program that uses more
memory than the main
memory (normally RAM) available on the system. Virtual memory is normally
divided into pages .
Programs refer to parts of memory using addresses . In a virtual memory
system, these are virtual
addresses
The virtual address is mapped onto a physical addresses by a memory
management unit (MMU)

13.Explain file system.

A file system is where the user stores his/her data. The operating system aims
to:
make storing and retrieving files as easy as possible for the user
provide good performance
make efficient use of the hardware
14,.What do you meant by extended memory
The extra memory beyond the first megabyte is known as extended memory.
The primary difference between EMS and extended memory is that EMS
memory will work with any Intel processor including the 8088. Extended
memory is only available for computers based on the 286 and later chips.
Then there is the question of usefulness. Until recently, few DOS programs
used extended memory. This situation is changing, though, as more programs
support extended memory through XMS (the eXtended Memory Standard).
XMS allows programs to share extended memory.
15.Give the timer delay functions. typedef struct Timer Timer;
typedef void (*TimerAction)(Timer *t);
struct Timer {
App * app; /* associated App */

int milliseconds; /* interval between actions */ int remaining; /* time until action
*/ TimerAction action; /* user-defined action */ void * data; /* user-defined data
*/
int value; /* user-defined value */
};
16.What is a semaphore.
Semaphores -- software, blocking, OS assistance solution to the mutual
exclusion problem
basically a non-negative integer variable that saves the number of wakeup
signals sent so they are not lost if the process is not sleeping
another interpretation we will see is that the semaphore value represents the
number of resources available
17.Give the semaphore related functions.
A semaphore enforces mutual exclusion and controls access to the process
critical sections. Only one process at a time can call the function fn.
SR Program: A Semaphore Prevents the Race Condition.
SR Program: A Semaphore Prevents Another Race Condition.
18.What are the various shared data operating system services.
explain how operating systems provide abstraction from the computer
hardware.

 describe the meaning of processes, threads and scheduling in a multitasking

operating system.
describe the role of memory management explaining the terms memory
swapping, memory paging,
and virtual memory.
contrast the way that MS-DOS and unix implement file systems
compare the design of some real operating systems.
Part B ( 16 Marks )
1.Give the RTOS system level functions
2.Explain the various time delay functions
3.Explain detaily about Memory allocation related functions
4.Explain briefly about mailbox related functions
5.Explain Queue related functions
6.Explain multiple tasks and their functions
7.Give the steps for creating list of tasks
8.Give the exemplary coding techniques
9.List and explain the various task service functions

10.Explain how IPCs are used in embedded system.

11. Explain the various multiple function calls in Embedded C