Overview of Embedded Processor Development

If the emergence of single-chip microcomputers in the late 1970s is regarded as the starting point of the development of embedded system technology, its development process is almost synchronized with China's social reform and opening up, and it has gone through 30 years. Unlike the computer platform dominated by Windows operating system and Intel processor, the development of embedded system technology presents a situation of a hundred schools of thought, and design engineers can choose a variety of different hardware platform solutions and operating system software according to their target requirements.

From the perspective of embedded processors, from the initial 4-bit processors, the 8-bit microcontrollers that are still widely used, to the increasingly popular 32-bit MCUs, and the higher-performance 64-bit embedded processors, there are now more than a thousand processors with embedded functional characteristics and dozens of commonly used architectures. The broad market application prospects have attracted a large number of semiconductor companies to participate in the competition, including ASIC, MCU, DSP, FPGA, and convergent processors that have emerged in recent years because of the combination of MCU and DSP advantages. The processor speed is getting faster and the performance is getting stronger, while the power consumption and price are getting lower and lower. At present. A wealth of embedded processors have been widely used in almost all industries and fields, from defense, industry, automobiles to medical equipment and consumer electronics.

Convergent Processors Solve Technical Challenges of Embedded Design

Although embedded design has developed over decades and has a wide range of choices in core processor hardware platforms, embedded operating systems and development tools, as market competition intensifies and systems become increasingly complex, target applications are increasingly demanding on system functionality, performance and cost. The design challenges faced by engineers do not seem to have decreased with the development of semiconductor technology, and are even increasing. Engineers must correctly evaluate the challenges faced by applications when selecting solutions.

The processing power requirements are getting higher and higher. The complex functions of the system itself, the friendly interface design requirements, various interfaces and communication requirements all require a large amount of MIPS processing power. A single traditional MCU or ASIC is often difficult to meet the system's high processing power requirements. Two-chip or even three-chip solutions are increasing, but the resulting high design complexity, power consumption and BOM (bill of materials) costs make the solutions lack competitiveness. In addition, the current embedded system design, especially some new products and embedded product designs with complex functions, has become unrealistic and cost-effective to implement the design completely from scratch under the condition of a very limited design cycle. Therefore, whether a complete development tool kit, necessary software modules, mature reference designs, system design support, and whether there is a complete design ecosystem are very critical to whether the system design can be completed on time and with high quality.

The diversity and uncertainty of standards bring concerns about product upgrades. Currently, various industries are facing some innovative applications, such as smart meters and smart video surveillance. These applications are groundbreaking and there is no or no unified industry standard. How to seize the market window and ensure that the current design meets the changing market and technical needs in the future must consider the scalability and performance margin of the solution.

The requirements for low power consumption are becoming increasingly stringent. The processor performance requirements are getting higher and higher, while the system power consumption requirements are getting lower and lower, which almost forms a contradiction. However, in the actual design process, engineers have to face this almost contradictory demand. With the improvement of semiconductor process technology, embedded processor architecture optimization and design technology, low power design technology is changing with each passing day, and voltage and operating frequency adaptive adjustment technology, multi-operating mode energy-saving technology, digital power management technology, and the latest low-power semiconductor process technology applications are emerging in an endless stream. Selecting a system solution that meets the design power budget requirements among many solutions is also one of the key factors for the success of system design.

It is very important to choose a solution that supports a wide range of embedded systems. There are many embedded operating systems available, each with its own advantages. The hardware platform solution's support for these operating systems is one of the key points to consider when selecting a solution.

Hardware platform solutions with MCU or ASIC as core devices are facing challenges in solving the above-mentioned embedded system design requirements. Limited processing power is usually difficult to meet the high processing power requirements of many applications, or lacks the design flexibility for functional expansion and product upgrades. Some designs add DSP or coprocessors to meet the system's processing power requirements, which increases the system's complexity, power consumption and cost.

Convergent processors that combine the performance advantages of MCU and DSP are one of the effective solutions to the above design challenges, and ADI's Blackfin processor is the only convergent processor product on the market. Typical applications of convergent processors include smart meters for power applications, video surveillance for security applications, portable atrial fibrillation monitors for medical equipment, and 3D Level Scanner three-dimensional surface measuring instruments for industrial applications.