Advanced Microcontrollers

Grzegorz Budzyń
Lecture 1:
Introduction
 Plan
• Introduction
• Course requirements
• Work plan for the semester
• First lecture – Basic definitions,
Microcontroller, Microprocessor
 Introduction

• What is this course about

• What is the aim of this course
 Course requirements
• Course consists of:
– Lecture – 2h/week
– Project – 2h/week
• Course ends with an exam
• Course completion requires passing project
class and the exam
• The exam will be held during examination
period and will be oral
 Workplan for the semster
• Lecture 1
– Basic definitions. Embedded systems. Main
elements of embedded systems
• Lecture 2
– 8-bit microcontrollers: AVR family. PIC Micro
family
• Lecture 3
– 8-bit/16-bit microcontrollers: 8051 family,
MSP430 family
 Workplan for the semster
• Lecture 4
– 32-bit microcontrollers: AVR32 and PIC32 family
• Lecture 5
– 32-bit microcontrollers: ARM family. ARM7,
ARM9, ARM11, Cortex – M, R, A
• Lecture 6
– 32-bit microcontrollers: ARM based
microcontrollers: STM, NXP
 Workplan for the semster
• Lecture 7
– DSC & PSoC controllers
• Lecture 8
– DSP processors
• Lecture 9,10
– Serial interfaces: USB, RS232, SPI, I2C, CAN
 Workplan for the semster
• Lecture 11
– ADC and DAC
• Lecture 12,13
– RTOS – introduction, main parameters
• Lecture 14
– RTOS - examples
• Lecture 15
– Methods of interfacing ADC and DAC to advanced
microcontrollers
• Lecture 1
Embedded systems
Microcontrollers
Embedded systems
 Embedded systems
• Embedded system – a system designed to
perform/ control specific function in a
larger design
• Often with real time computing constraints
(i.e. with predictable response)
Embedded systems
 Embedded systems
• Because Embedded System has defined
functionality, thus it can be heavily
optimized in order to:
– Minimize total cost
– Maximize performance
– Maximize perfomance/cost ratio
 Embedded systems
• Main elements:
– Microcontrollers:
• 8-bit
• 16-bit
• 32-bit
– Digital Signal Processors
• Digital Signal Controllers
– FPGA / ASIC – programmable logic
 Embedded systems
• Embedded software architecture:
– Simple control tasks/loops:
• Used for simples applications
• Used mostly for 8-bit and 16-bit constructions
• Efficient (in assembly code even very efficient)
• Difficult to construct for more complicated tasks
 Embedded systems
• Embedded software architecture:
– Interrupt based system:
• Most common type of embedded system software
architecture
• Can be very efficient and rapid in development
even for quite complicated tasks/devices
• Functionality depends greatly on the used
microcontroller :
– Number of serviced interrupt sources
– Interrupt latency
 Embedded systems
• Embedded software architecture:
– Simple real-time operating system:
• Very usable for programming different, non-
dependent on themselves tasks
• Very usable for parallel development by a few
programmers
• Timing control & latency control worse than in
simpler systems
• Cooperative or Preemptive multitasking can be
used
 Embedded systems
• Embedded software architecture:
– Monolithic operating system:
• Large kernel gives programmers an environment
similar to a desktop operating systems like MS
Windows (WinCE, Win 8 RT), Linux or Android
• Usable in the largest applications like GPS or cell
phones
• Hardware layer controlled totally by the system –
applications isolated from the hardware
Microcontroller - basics
 Microcontrollers - basics
• Microcontroller is a combination of a
microprocessor and peripheral blocks like:
– Memory (RAM, ROM, flash)
– Serial port
– Ethernet controllers
– USB controllers
– ADC
– DAC
– etc
 Microcontrollers - basics
• Microprocessor (CPU) inside a
microcontroller (MCU) is supervising data
transfer berween peripherals over data
buses
• Main advantages of MCUs are:
– High integration scale
– Low cost
Microprocessor - operation
 Microprocessor - basics
• Microprocessor:
– is a programmable device
– accepts digital input data
– processes the data according to instructions
stored in memory
– provides results as output
– operates on symbols represented in binary
numeral system
 Microprocessor - basics
• Main elements:
– Arithmethic Logic Unit
– Status Register
– Stack Pointer
– Program Counter
– Instruction Decoder
– Registers / Scratch Memory
Microprocessor - basics
 Microprocessor - ALU
• ALU – Arithmetic Logic Unit is the heart of
microprocessor

• Width of A,B and R defines if

microprocessor is 8-, 16-, 32- or 64 bits!!!
 Microprocessor - ALU
• Functionality of ALU depends on the
paticular realisation
• Usually it offers:
– Addition
– Subtraction
– Comparison
– Logical operations
– Multiplication
– Division
 Microprocessor – Status register
• Status register – contains various flags
and control bits
• Flags in the register are modified by
different assembly code instructions
Microprocessor – Stack Pointer
• The Stack is mainly used:
– for storing temporary data
– for storing local variables
– for storing return addresses after interrupts and
subroutine calls
– The Stack Pointer Register always points to the
top of the Stack
– the Stack is implemented as growing from higher
memory locations to lower memory locations
Microprocessor – Program Counter
• Program Counter (PC) - a special register
holding the address of the instruction
currently being executed
• Program counter is automatically advanced to
point to the next instruction
• in the case of a jump, subroutine call, etc., a
new value will simply be loaded into the
program counter in order to cause a jump
Microprocessor – Instruction decoder
• Instruction decoder fetches instructions
from a proper memory
• In the next cycle the instructions are
decoded and then executed
• For faster execution pipelining is used
 Microprocessor – Registers
• Each CPU consists of a certain number of
universal registers
• They are usually used as temporary
storage of data
• In some CPUs instead of registers a
memory is used
• Access to the registers/momey is much
faster than to external memory
Microprocessor – program flow
 Microprocessor – program flow
• The program control logic and program-
address generation logic work together to
provide proper program flow
• Normally, the flow of a program is sequential:
– the CPU executes instructions at consecutive
program-memory addresses
– Discontinuities are caused by branches, function
calls or interrupts
 Microprocessor – program flow
• Program execution starts from the address
pointed by a special RESET pointer
• Instructions are in a machine code – i.e.
stream of 8-, 16- or 32b long values
• For simplicity assembly code is used:
Microprocessor – memory map
Microprocessor – addressing modes
Microprocessor – addressing modes
• Direct Single Register Addressing
• Direct Register Addressing, Two Registers
• I/O Direct Addressing
• Direct Data Addressing
• Data Indirect with Displacement
• Data Indirect Addressing
• Data Indirect Addressing with Pre-decrement
Microprocessor – addressing modes
• Data Indirect Addressing with Post-increment
• Program Memory Constant Addressing
• Program Memory Addressing with Post-
increment
• Direct Program Memory Addressing
• Indirect Program Memory Addressing
• Relative Program Memory Addressing
 Direct Single Register Addressing

• Very simple, efficient and fast addressing mode

• Usable only for access to register file
Direct Register Addressing, Two Registers

• Very simple, efficient and fast addressing mode

• Usable only for access to register file
 I/O Direct Addressing

• Easy and efficient access to I/O memory

• Access only to limited memory space (6-bit wide)
 Direct Data Addressing

• Access to whole memory space

• Instruction takes much more memory
• Instruction decoding lasts long
Data Indirect with Displacement Addressing

• Target address calculated in dependance on the

special – addressing - register (Y or Z)
 Data Indirect Addressing

• Target address take from the special –

addressing - register (X, Y or Z)
Data Indirect Addressing with Pre-decrement

• The content of an addressing register is

decremented before use
• Especially useful in higher level languages
Data Indirect Addressing with Post-increment

• The content of an addressing register is

incremented after use
• Especially useful in higher level languages
Program Memory Constant Addressing

• Access to program memory (loading with LPM

or storing with SPM instructions)
Program Memory Addressing with Post-increment

• Access to program memory (loading with LPM

or storing with SPM instructions)
• Z-register incremented after use
Direct Program Memory Addressing

• Program execution continues at the address

immediate in the instruction word
• Used in JMP and CALL instructions
Indirect Program Memory Addressing

• Program execution continues at address

contained by the Z-register (i.e., the PC is
loaded with the contents of the Zregister)
Relative Program Memory Addressing

• Program execution continues at address PC + k

+ 1. The relative address k is from -2048 to
2047.
Microprocessor - classifications
 Microprocessor classifications
• SIMD – ang. Single Instruction Multiple Data
• SISD – ang. Single Instruction Single Data
• MIMD – ang. Multiple Instruction Multiple
Data
• MISD – ang. Multiple Instruction Single Data
 Microprocessor classifications
• CISC – ang. Complex Instruction Set
Computers
• RISC – ang. Reduced Instruction Set
Computers
 Microprocessor classifications
• Architectures:
– Von Neuman
– Harvard
– Harvard modified
 Microprocessor classifications
• SISD features:
– One data stream
– One instruction stream

Source: [1]
– Simple construction
– Reduced efficiency
– Very popular
– Most microcontrollers works with this architeture
 Microprocessor classifications
• MISD features:
– Many instruction streams
– Single data stream

Source: [1]
– Parallel operation
– Many units makes the
same operation on one
data
– Rarely used
 Microprocessor classifications
• SIMD features:
– Single instruction stream
– Many data streams

Source: [1]
– Efficient parallel processing
– Different data processed in the
same way
– Used in supercomputers, vector
coprocessors and DSP
 Microprocessor classifications
• MIMD features:
– Many instruction streams
– Many data streams

Source: [1]
– Efficient parallel processing
– Many units operates
independently and
asynchronously
– Used in computation networks
 Microprocessor classifications
• CISC architecture:
– Large number of instructions
– Small optimization
– Some instructions need many clock cycles
– Existance of complex instructions
– Large number of addressing modes
– Smaller processor clocking as compared to RISC
architecture
 Microprocessor classifications
• RISC architecture:
– Reduced number of instructions (even below 30)
– Most instructions performed in one clock cycyle
– Instructions simple or very simple
– Limited access to memory
– Large number of auxiliary registers
 Microprocessor classifications
• Von Neumann architecture

Source: [2]
 Microprocessor classifications
• Harvard architecture

Source: [2]
 8-bits vs 16-bits vs 32-bits
• Some remarks:
– More bits = easier operation with large number of
data
– More bits = less problems with computation
errors
– More bits ≠ faster operation
 8-bits vs 16-bits vs 32-bits
• Some remarks:
– Simpler processors can be “overclocked” more
easily
– 32-bit processors are usually faster because that is
necessary
– Smaller processors are very often much more
efficient and simpler for programming then their
“large” brothers
 Numbers in microcontrollers
• CPUs natively support only integer
numbers – signed or unsigned
• CPU accumulator width defines size of
supported numbers:
– 8b -> [0;0xff] = [0;255]
– 16b -> [0;0xffff] = [0;65535]
– 32b -> [0;0xffffffff] = [0;4294967296]
 Numbers in microcontrollers
• Signed integers are usually written in U2
code:

i.e.
-1 = 0xff
-128 = 0x80
 Numbers in microcontrollers
• In CPUs there is problem with non-integer
numbers
• Some CPUs support fractional numbers
• Some have additional coprocessor
(Floating Point Unit – FPU) for real
numbers calculation
 Numbers in microcontrollers
• Comparison of Integer and Fractional
numbers:
 Numbers in microcontrollers
• Integer:
– 8-bit (Byte)
– 16-bit (Word)
– 32-bit (Long)
• Float:
– Single precision (float)
– Double precision (double)
 Numbers in microcontrollers
• Single precision:
S EEEEEEEE FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
01 89 31

S E −127
X = (−1) • 1.F • 2

S – sign
E – exponent bits
F - fraction
 Numbers in microcontrollers
• Double precision:
S EEEEEEEEEEE FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
01 11 12 63

S E −1023
X = (−1) • 1.F • 2
S – sign
E – exponent bits
F - fraction
 Endiannes
• Endiannes is the same as byte-order
• Big-endian = MSB goes first
• Little-endian = LSB goes first
Benchmarking
 Benchmarking
• Benchmarking is used for speed comparation
of microprocessors and microcontrollers
• Comparing microprocessors is difficult
• Comparing microcontrollers is even more
difficult – it is fairly easy to compare cores but
very hard to compare peripherals!!!
 Benchmarking
• Main measures of microcontrollers core speed
are:
– MIPS
– DMIPS
– FLOPS
 Benchmarking - MIPS
• MIPS – Millions of Instructions Per Second
• Simple algorithm usually used – speed of NOP
instruction ☺
• Comparison of processors speeds requires thorough
analysis.
• The speed of a given CPU is dependent upon many
factors:
– the type of instructions being executed,
– the execution order and
– the presence of branch instructions (pipeline!)
 Benchmarking - MIPS
• CPU instruction rates are usually different from clock
frequencies
• Each instruction usually require several clock cycles
to complete
• The number of cycles required for instructions to
complete is dependent upon the instruction being
executed
• MIPS can be useful when comparing performance
between processors made from a similar
architecture
 Benchmarking - DMIPS
• DMIPS – another name for Dhrystone type
computer speed test
• Dhrystone is a synthetic computing
benchmark intended to be representative of
system (integer) programming
• The algorithm is well documented and can be
made to work on almost any system
 Benchmarking - DMIPS
• DMIPS – shortcomings:
– it features unusual code that is not usually
representative of real-life programs
– it is susceptible to compiler optimizations
– Dhrystone's small code size may fit in the
instruction cache of a modern CPU, so that
instruction fetch performance is not rigorously
tested
 Benchmarking - FLOPS
• FLOPS - FLoating-point Operations Per Second
• Measure of floating point arithmetic
operation speed of a microcontroller
• Similar to MIPS but for floating point numbers
Thank you for your attention
 References
[1] www.wikipedia.org
[2] http://www.scribd.com/doc/1532910/Von-Neumann-
Computer-Architecture
[3] www.atmel.com