Peter Marwedel – författare

Until the late eighties, information processing was associated with large mainframe computers and huge tape drives. During the nineties, this trend shifted towards information processing with personal computers, or PCs. The trend towards miniaturization continues. In the future, most of the information processing systems will be quite small and embedded into larger products such as transportation and fabrication equipment. Hence, these kinds of systems are called embedded systems. It is expected that the total market volume of embedded systems will be significantly larger than that of traditional information processing systems such as PCs and mainframes. Embedded systems share a number of common characteristics. For example, they must be dependable, efficient, meet real-time constraints and require customized user interfaces (instead of generic keyboard and mouse interfaces). Therefore, it makes sense to consider common principles of embedded system design.

EmbeddedSystem Design  starts with an introduction into the area and a survey of specification languages for embedded systems. A brief overview is provided of hardware devices used for embedded systems and also presents the essentials of software design for embedded systems. Real-time operating systems and real-time scheduling are covered briefly. Techniques for implementing embedded systems are also discussed, using hardware/software codesign. It closes with a survey on validation techniques.

Embedded System Design can be used as a text book for courses on embedded systems and as a source which provides pointers to relevant material in the area for PhD students and teachers. The book assumes a basic knowledge of information processing hardware and software.

Fast, Efficient and Predictable Memory Accesses presents techniques for designing fast, energy-efficient and timing predictable memory systems. By using a careful combination of compiler optimizations and architectural improvements, we can achieve more than what would be feasible at one of the levels in isolation. The described optimization algorithms achieve the goals of high performance and low energy consumption. In addition to these benefits, the use of scratchpad memories significantly improves the timing predictability of the entire system, leading to tighter worst case execution time bounds (WCET). The WCET is a relevant design parameter for all timing critical systems. In addition, the book covers algorithms to exploit the power down modes of main memories in SDRAM technology, as well as the execute-in-place feature of Flash memories. The final chapter considers the impact of the register file, which is also part of the memory hierarchy.

Informationsverarbeitende Systeme werden immer kleiner und zunehmend in komplexe Produkte eingebettet – daher der Name "eingebettete Systeme". Es wird erwartet, dass ihre wirtschaftliche Bedeutung diejenige von traditionellen informationsverarbeitenden Systemen wie PCs und Großrechnern deutlich übersteigen wird. Dieses Buch betrachtet gemeinsame Eigenschaften solcher Systeme wie Verlässlichkeit, Effizienz, Echtzeitanforderungen sowie anwendungsspezifische Benutzerschnittstellen.

Neben Spezifikationssprachen werden Hard- und Software eingebetteter Systeme sowie Echtzeitbetriebssysteme und Scheduling betrachtet. Zur Implementierung eingebetteter Systeme wird Hardware-/Software-Codesign verwendet. Das Buch schließt mit einem Überblick über Validierungstechniken.

Dieses Buch eignet sich als Begleitbuch zu einem Kurs über eingebettete Systeme, ist aber auch eine Informationsquelle für Doktoranden und Lehrende. Grundwissen über Hard- und Software in der Informationsverarbeitung wird vorausgesetzt.

For real-time systems, the worst-case execution time (WCET) is the key objective to be considered. Traditionally, code for real-time systems is generated without taking this objective into account and the WCET is computed only after code generation. Worst-Case Execution Time Aware Compilation Techniques for Real-Time Systems presents the first comprehensive approach integrating WCET considerations into the code generation process. Based on the proposed reconciliation between a compiler and a timing analyzer, a wide range of novel optimization techniques is provided. Among others, the techniques cover source code and assembly level optimizations, exploit machine learning techniques and address the design of modern systems that have to meet multiple objectives.

Using these optimizations, the WCET of real-time applications can be reduced by about 30% to 45% on the average. This opens opportunities for decreasing clock speeds, costs and energy consumption of embedded processors. The proposed techniques can be used for all types real-time systems, including automotive and avionics IT systems.