Lesson 3:

Embedded
Programming
Concepts

1 © William Kim 2019 Introduction to Embedded Systems

 Lecture Outline

• Embedded Programming Languages

• The Compile Process
• Data Types
• Registers
• Bit Manipulation

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 An Embedded Program…

• Optimally use resources

• Creates efficient program code
• Satisfies real-time constraints

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 Embedded Programming
Languages
• Some programming languages, in
order of popularity:
o C
o C++
o Java
o Python
o Ada
• This lecture will focus on Embedded
C
4 © William Kim 2019 Introduction to Embedded Systems
 Why C?
• A “middle level” language
o Not quite Assembly and not quite C++
o Provides direct access to hardware without sacrificing the
benefits of higher level languages
• Compact, Fast and Efficient
o Simple without any of the added overhead of higher level
language features
o “Loose type checking” allows for easily and efficiently passing
around data
• Scalable for large projects
o Although some would prefer Object Oriented of C++
• Fairly portable as it is processor
independent
o The compiler is what maps the code to the processor

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 Why / Why Not C++?
• Contains all of the core features of C plus some
extras
• More secure than C
o Type checking
o String Literals, enumerated constants, etc
• Possibly more scaleable than C
o Object Oriented nature
o Overloaded functions and constructors
o Data Abstraction
• Not ideal for highly resource constrained
systems
o The added features have some overhead and reduce efficiency
o With modern technology this may not be as much of a concern
anymore

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 Dangers (Advantages) of C
• The C language assumes that the
programmer knows what they are doing
o Provides direct access to the hardware
• Memory
• Registers
• I/O
• Interrupts
o Allows pointers to be passed around and casted without type
checking
• Unmanaged and extremely efficient
o No exception handling
• Promotes safe coding practices to prevent exceptions from
occurring in the first place
o Multi-threading
• The programmer has to be very careful if developing a multi-
threaded application
7 © William Kim 2019 Introduction to Embedded Systems
 The Embedded Compile
Process
• A compiler translates programs written in some
human-readable language into an equivalent set of
opcodes for a particular processor.
o The compiler is specific to the target processor
• A linker combines the compiled object files and
resolves all symbols
o The object files are incomplete by themselves
o Some of the internal variable and function references have not yet been
resolved.
• A locator assigns physical memory addresses to each
of the code and data sections within the relocatable
program
o Requires information about the memory on the target board as input
o Produces an output file that contains a binary memory image that can be
loaded into the target

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 The Embedded Compile
Process
• Each source file is
compiled or assembled
into an object file.
• The object files are linked
together to produce a
single object file, called
the relocatable program.
• Physical memory
addresses are assigned to
the relative offsets within
the relocatable program
(relocation).
• A binary executable is
created to be loaded onto
the target platform
9 © William Kim 2019 Introduction to Embedded Systems
 Data Types
• The following Data Types are defined
in C:

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 Optimized Data Types
• The compilers job is to generate the most
efficient code possible
o For this reason, declaring something as simple as an int
can be 8, 16, 32, or 64 bits depending on the most efficient
size for the processor
o As a result, multiple compilers could use different sizes for
the same code
• In embedded programming, the compiler
“helping” can actually do the opposite
o In many circumstances the data size actually matters
o Bit manipulations, copying memory, etc…

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 Fixed Data Types
• To solve the Size Signed Unsigned
optimized data type 8 Bits int8_t uint8_t
problem it is 16 Bits int16_t uint16_t
recommended to 32 Bits int32_t uint32_t
define specific data 64 Bits int64_t uint64_t
types for specific
sizes on a processor
o C99 actually requires it to be
identified in the compiler
o Otherwise the user should
define it using typedefs of
char, short, long, long long (if
applicable)

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 Registers
• A register is used by the CPU to store
information on a temporary basis
o Store data to be processed
o Store address pointing to the data which is to be fetched
o Usually located within processors memory space or I/O
space
o Because of the location registers are generally very fast
• There are two main types of registers
o General Purpose Registers
o Special Purpose Registers

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 General Purpose
Registers
• Used to hold data values before and
after calculations
• These are used by the compiler for
loading and storing data and/or
addresses as well as performing
calculations

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 Special Purpose Registers
• Special Purpose Registers are designed
for a specific task.
• Contain the state of the program
• Includes the following:
o Instruction Register – holds instruction being executed
o Memory Data Register – holds data fetched from memory
o Memory Address Register – next address of memory to
fetch
o Program Counter – location of next instruction to execute
o Control/Status Register(s) – used to control various CPU
functionalities and check the status

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 Special Purpose Registers:
Memory Mapped I/O
• Device drivers communicate with
peripheral devices using device registers
o Sends commands / data to the device
o Retrieves status / data from the device
• Memory Mapped I/O maps device
registers to fixed addresses in memory
o This allows registers to be accessed in the same manner
on would access any location in memory
o Programs can use ordinary assignment operators to write /
read from the registers

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 Bit Manipulation
• Bit manipulation is used to manipulate
data and the contents of registers
o Particularly used for configuring and reading the status of
hardware
o Keep in mind that bit manipulation works on just that, bits
• So a uint8_t would execute on all 8 bits
• Supported bitwise operators
o AND (&)
o OR (|)
o NOT (~)
o XOR (^)
o Left Shift (<<)
o Right Shift (>>)

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 Bit Manipulation Examples
• Testing Bits A 0110 1001
o The AND operator is used to test if a bit is set B 1100 0011
• Setting Bits
o The OR operator is used to set a bit A&B 0100 0001
• Clearing Bits
o The AND and NOT operators are used to clear A|B 1110 1011
bits
• Toggling Bits A & ~B 0010 1000
o The XOR operator is use to toggle a bit
• Shifting Bits A^B 1010 1010
o The SHIFT operators are used to shift bits left
or right
• Bitmasks A >> 1 0011 0100
o Used to operate on bits in a field A >> 2 0001 1010
o For example – to only operate I the lowermost
2 bits of an 8 bit field are set A << 1 1101 0010
• #define LOWER_2_BITS 0x3 A << 2 1010 0100
• If ( ( val & LOWER_2_BITS ) ==
LOWER_2_BITS ) { do something }

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 Homework & Quiz #3
• Review the registers for the STM32
board and its peripherals
• Homework Assignment #3 will
consist of:
o STM32 Registers
o Bit Manipulation
• This weeks quiz will focus on:
o Data Types
o STM32 Registers
o Bit Manipulation

19 © William Kim 2019 Introduction to Embedded Systems