Ebook: Embedded Systems Handbook

Embedded Systems Handbook edited by Richard Zurawski (Industrial Information Technology: CRC Press) Embedded systems are nearly ubiquitous, and books on individual topics or components of embedded systems are equally abundant. Unfortunately, for those designers who thirst for knowledge of the big picture of embedded systems, there is not a drop to drink. Until now. The Embedded Systems Handbook is an oasis of information, offering a mix of basic and advanced topics, new solutions and technologies arising from the most recent research efforts, and emerging trends to help you stay current in this ever-changing field.
With preeminent contributors from leading industrial and academic institutions around the globe, this authoritative handbook presents timely tutorials, surveys, and technological overviews spanning the range of issues and technologies involved in embedded systems. Many of the technology developments, deployments, and trends are made available in this book for the first time. Six sections provide coherence to the presentation, detailing:
A broad introduction to embedded systems
System- and network-on-chip (SoC/NoC) design
Testing of embedded core-based integrated circuits
Networked embedded systems
Sensor networks, and
Automotive, industrial automation, and intelligent sensor applications
With concise yet comprehensive coverage of the latest developments, solutions, tools, products, and research results, the Embedded Systems Handbook is ideal for both novices and seasoned engineers looking to enhance and expand embedded systems capabilities.
Detailing the latest advances and technologies, this monumental work:
Discusses real-time issues, methods, and trends along with design, modeling, software, and power-aware embedded computing
Provides broad coverage of IC technologies, embedded security, and networked embedded systems
Explores safety-critical embedded systems, synchronous languages and software, and fault-tolerance
Delves extensively into sensor networks
Anchors the discussion with several practical, real-world embedded system applications
The purpose of the Embedded Systems Handbook is to provide a reference useful to a broad range of professionals and researchers from industry and academia involved in the evolution of concepts and technologies, as well as development and use of embedded systems and related technologies.
The book provides a comprehensive overview of the field of embedded systems and applications. The emphasis is on advanced material to cover recent significant research results and technology evolution and developments. It is primarily aimed at experienced professionals from industry and academia, but will also be useful to novices with some university background in embedded systems and related areas. Some of the topics presented in the book have received limited coverage in other publications either owing to the fast evolution of the technologies involved, or material confidentiality, or limited circulation in the case of industry-driven developments.
The book covers extensively the design and validation of real-time embedded systems, design and verification languages, operating systems and scheduling, timing and performance analysis, power aware computing, security in embedded systems, the design of application-specific instruction-set processors (ASIPs), system-on-chip (SoC) and network-on-chip (NoC), testing of core-based ICs, network embedded systems and sensor networks, and embedded applications to include in-car embedded electronic systems, intelligent sensors, and embedded web servers for industrial automation.
The book contains 46 contributions, written by leading experts from industry and academia directly involved in the creation and evolution of the ideas and technologies treated in the book.
The material presented is in the form of tutorials, surveys, and technology overviews. The contributions are grouped into sections for cohesive and comprehensive presentation of the treated areas. The reports on recent technology developments, deployments, and trends frequently cover material released to the profession for the first time.
The book can be used as a reference (or prescribed text) for university (post)graduate courses: Section I (Embedded Systems) provides "core" material on embedded systems. Selected illustrations of actual applications are presented in Section VI (Embedded Applications). Sections 11 and III (System-on-Chip Design, and Testing of Embedded Core-Based Integrated Circuits) offer material on recent advances in system-on-chip design and testing of core-based ICs. Sections IV and V (Networked Embedded Systems, and Sensor Networks) are suitable for a course on sensor networks.
The handbook is designed to cover a wide range of topics that comprise the field of embedded systems and applications. The material covered in this volume will be of interest to a wide spectrum of professionals and researchers from industry and academia, as well as graduate students, from the fields of electrical and computer engineering, computer science and software engineering, as well as mechatronic engineering.
It is an indispensable companion for those who seek to learn more about embedded systems and applications, and those who want to stay up to date with recent technical developments in the field. It is also a comprehensive reference for university or professional development courses on embedded systems.
Embedded systems is a vast field encompassing numerous disciplines. Not every topic, however important, can be covered in a book of reasonable volume without superficial treatment. Choices need to be made with respect to the topics covered, balance between research material and reports on novel industrial developments and technologies, balance between so-called "core" topics and new trends, and other aspects. The "time-to-market" is another important factor in making those decisions, along with the availability of qualified authors to cover the topics.
One of the main objectives of any handbook is to give a well-structured and cohesive description of fundamentals of the area under treatment. It is hoped that the section Embedded Systems has achieved this objective. Every effort was made to make sure that each contribution in this section contains introductory material to assist beginners with the navigation through more advanced issues. This section does not strive to replicate or replace university level material, but, rather, tries to address more advanced issues, and recent research and technology developments.
To make this book timely and relevant to a broad range of professionals and researchers, the book includes material reflecting state-of-the-art trends to cover topics such as design of ASIPs, SoC communication architectures including NoC, design of heterogeneous SoC, as well as testing of core-based integrated circuits. This material reports on new approaches, methods, technologies, and actual systems. The contributions come from the industry driving those developments, industry-affiliated research institutions, and academic establishments participating in major research initiatives.
Application domains have had a considerable impact on the evolution of embedded systems, in terms of required methodologies and supporting tools, and resulting technologies. A good example is the accelerated evolution of the SoC design to meet demands for computing power posed by DSP, network and multimedia processors. SoCs are slowly making inroads into the area of industrial automation to implement complex field-area intelligent devices which integrate the intelligent sensor/actuator functionality by providing on-chip signal conversion, data and signal processing, and communication functions. There is a growing tendency to network field-area intelligent devices around industrial communication networks. Similar trends appear in the automotive electronic systems where the Electronic Control Units (ECUs) are networked by means of safety-critical communication protocols such as ElexRay, for instance, for the purpose of controlling vehicle functions such as electronic engine control, anti-locking break system, active suspension, etc. The design of this kind of networked embedded system (this also includes hard real-time industrial control systems) is a challenge in itself due to the distributed nature of processing elements, sharing a common communication medium and safety-critical requirements. With the auto-motive industry increasingly keen on adopting mechatronic solutions, it was felt that exploring, in detail, the design of in-vehicle electronic embedded systems would be of interest to the readers of this book. The applications part of the book also touches the area of industrial automation (networked control systems) where the issues are similar. In this case, the focus is on the design of wet) servers embedded in the intelligent field-area devices, and the security issues arising from internetworking.
Sensor networks are another example of networked embedded systems, although, the "embedding" factor is not so evident as in other applications; particularly for wireless and self-organizing networks where the nodes may be embedded in the ecosystem, battlefield, or a chemical plant, for instance. The area of
wireless sensor networks has now evolved into a relative maturity. Owing to novelty, and growing importance, it has been included in the book to give a comprehensive overview of the area, and present new research results which are likely to have a tangible impact on further developments and technology.
The specifics of the design automation of integrated circuits have been deliberately omitted in this book to keep the volume at a reasonable size and in view of the publication of another