The embedded system design process is a structured approach used to conceptualize, design, and build electronic systems that perform dedicated functions, often within a larger mechanical or electrical system. It involves several distinct phases, transforming initial customer needs into a functional, reliable, and efficient final product.
Key Stages in Embedded System Design
Designing an embedded system is a multifaceted effort that typically follows a systematic workflow. While variations exist, common stages include understanding needs, defining system behavior, creating the architecture, developing hardware and software, integrating them, and rigorously testing the final product.
According to insights from "Embedded System Design Process" on ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in [32], the initial stages are critical for laying a solid foundation:
1. Requirement Gathering
This is the foundational step where information is first collected and refined. This involves interacting with stakeholders (like customers) to understand what the system needs to do, its performance expectations, constraints (cost, power, size, speed), and environmental conditions. The goal is to gather all necessary details to define the problem the embedded system will solve.
- Activities:
- Meeting with customers and users.
- Defining functional requirements (what the system must do).
- Defining non-functional requirements (how well it must do it - performance, reliability, security).
- Identifying constraints (cost budget, power limits, size restrictions, development time).
- Refining collected information to remove ambiguities and inconsistencies.
2. Specification
Using the refined information gathered during the Requirement phase, the Specification uses the refined information to describe the functions of the system which accurately reflects the customer's requirements. This document serves as a detailed blueprint, outlining the system's behavior, inputs, outputs, timing constraints, and interfaces. It is a crucial document that also serves as the contract between the customer and the designer, ensuring mutual understanding of what will be delivered.
- Key Elements:
- Detailed functional description.
- Performance metrics and benchmarks.
- Hardware and software interface definitions.
- Operational modes and behavior.
- Error handling and recovery procedures.
- Test criteria.
Subsequent Design Stages
Following the initial requirement and specification phases, the process continues with detailed design and implementation:
- Architecture Design: Defining the high-level structure, including the choice of processor, memory organization, peripherals, and software layers. This stage considers how hardware and software will interact.
- Hardware-Software Co-design: This involves the parallel or iterative design of both the hardware platform and the software that will run on it, optimizing the overall system performance and resource usage.
- Implementation: This stage involves building the actual hardware (designing schematics, PCBs) and writing the software code.
- Testing and Debugging: Rigorously verifying that the implemented system meets the specifications. This involves unit testing, integration testing, system testing, and often field testing.
- Deployment: Releasing the finished system to the intended environment or market.
- Maintenance and Updates: Providing support for the system in the field, addressing bugs, and potentially adding new features.
Each stage builds upon the previous one, with potential feedback loops for revisions if issues or new requirements emerge. The iterative nature of the process helps ensure that the final embedded system is robust, meets all requirements, and is delivered on time and within budget.
