Unit – I
1. Embedded systems have grown in popularity but not in complexity. True/False ?
2. The new designer must have a unified view of hardware and software while designing Embedded systems. True/False ?
3. Implementation options vary in design metrics such as _______, ___________, _________, _________ and ___________.
4. What important trends have made a unified view possible?
a. _________________________________
b. _________________________________
c. _________________________________
5. Which of the above trends makes separation of hardware from software near impossible ?
6. What is the contribution of the second and third trends to the design effort ?
7. Largest share of computing systems is taken by personal computers, laptops, workstations, mainframes and servers. True/False ?
8. Define an embedded computing system.
9. Where does one find an embedded system ?
10. Which of the following is NOT an embedded system ? TV set-top box, Television, Life-support systems, Battery chargers, Disk drives.
11. A car can have more than 40-50 embedded computers today. True/False ?
12. What are the common characteristics that distinguish Embedded Systems from other systems ?
13. When an ES is tightly constrained , it can only execute a specific program repeatedly. True/False ?
14. Embedded systems are not allowed to run different programs in different modes. True/False ?
15. Embedded systems can upgrade their programs to newer versions. True/False ?
16. What is a design metric ? Why is it very important in Embedded System design ?
17. Brake sensors are used in real-time applications. True/False ?
18. System failure occurs due to delayed computations in real-time systems. True/False ?
19. Pick any device which is an Embedded system , draw its block diagram, list various parts, briefly explain the functionality of each part, connect the functionality to a common characteristic of Embedded Systems and show how it becomes an Embedded System. (hint: Use the digital camera example in the text).
20. Explain how a digital camera can be treated as an Embedded System.
21. What are the tight constraints in a digital camera ?
22. Are there any real-time constraints in digital camera ?
23. What is the difficult challenge for an Embedded System designer while constructing an implementation that fulfills a desired functionality ?
24. Define design metric.
25. Give the appropriate names for the following design metrics :
a. This is measured in bytes for software and gates/transistors for hardware :______
b. This cost does not depend on the number of units manufactured : ___________
c. Marginal cost for each copy :__________________.
d. This metric determines the lifetime of the battery:____________
e. This metric influences the functionality of the system:_______________
f. Time taken to make a working version of the system :__________________
g. This metric is a function of design, manufacturing and testing times: ___________
h. Modifications after the system is released:___________________
i. Implementation of system’s functionality :_____________________
j. Harm probability :_______________________
26. What is the problem with improving a metric ?
27. Why should a designer have the ability to migrate from one technology to another ?
28. Which is the demanding design metric lately ?
29. What is a market window ? How is it (unit of measurement) measured for Embedded System ?
30. Why are designers asked to do more in less time today ?
31. How is percentage revenue loss calculated ? Explain with an example.
32. Total cost is a function of non recurring costs, unit cost and the number of units. True/False ?
33. Total cost is not dependent on volumes. True/False ?
34. Why is the performance metric often the most abused one ? Justify with examples.
35. A system with lower clock frequency cannot have a higher response time compared to another system with higher clock frequency. True/False ?
36. Define latency ,throughput and speedup.
37. Define technology.
38. What technologies are central to Embedded Systems ?
39. Which technology focuses on the architecture of the computation engine used to implement a system’s desired functionality?
40. Differentiate general purpose, application-specific and single- purpose processors.
41. Time to market metric and design metric suffer with ES design using general purpose processors. True/False ?
42. Why is power large in systems using general purpose processors ?
43. Coprocessor, accelerator and peripheral are some other names for _____________.
44. What are the drawbacks in single purpose processors ?
45. An _______________ processor is a compromise between general and specific purpose processors.
46. An ASIP is a processor optimized for a particular application. True/False ?
47. Why do designers have to write in ALP when exploiting features of ASIPs ?
48. Name two well-known types of ASIPs.
49. ASIPs can be designed to perform math intensive operations. True/False ?
50. Differentiate microcontrollers from Digital Signal Processors.
51. __________________ excel in bit-level operations.
52. A _________ includes special hardware to fetch sequential data memory location in parallel.
53. What is an integrated circuit ?
54. Is there any difference between IC technology and processor technology ?
55. Define layer, mask and feature size in an IC.
56. Extremely performance-critical applications use ___________ IC technology.
57. Upper layers are left unfinished in _____________ IC technology.
58. ASICs are lower in NRE but still take ________to manufacture.
59. What do you understand by ‘programming’ a PLD ?
60. What is the difference between PAL and PLA ?
61. What flexibility is offered by architectures using array logic versus block logic ?
62. Which technology offers rapid prototyping : PLA/PAL or FPGA ?
63. What is the disadvantage of PLA/PAL over FPGA ?
64. What is Moore’s law ? When was it predicted ?
65. What is a pyramid scheme ? Compare growth rates in IC technology to automobile technology and highlight the amazing growth in the former.
66. What is design technology ?
67. What is a design process ? What approach is suitable for ES design ?
68. What are specifications in a design ? What are system specifications ? behavioral specifications ? RT specifications ? logic specifications ?
69. The designer must ________ the system through several ____________ levels.
70. System specifications, when refined, become _______________ specifications.
71. What are the three main approaches to improve the design process for increased productivity ?
72. Are there any other approaches ?
73. Is a particular design approach applicable at any abstraction level ?
74. What do you understand by the following :
a. Logic synthesis
b. RT synthesis
c. Behavioral synthesis
d. System synthesis
75. What is the productivity enhancement when libraries are used ?
76. What do the following libraries contain :
a. Logic-level library
b. RT level library
c. Behavioural-level library
77. What is a core ? Why is the term IP used ?
78. What is test/verification ? How does it help ?
79. What is the most common method of testing for correct functionality ?
80. What simulators exist at various layers and what do they do ?
81. What is a cosimulator ?
82. System level abstract simulation is dependent on processor technology. True/False ?
83. What is the objective behind system level simulation ?
84. What is the argument for using model checkers ?
85. Justify standards.
86. What are the common standards ?
87.
