Thoughts on System Architecture

System:

A system is defined as a set of different elements so connected or related as to perform unique function not performable by the elements alone

Architecture:

The term ‘architecture’ is widely understood and used for what it is – a top down description of the structure of the system

- System Architecture definition by Eb Rechtin

System Architect is one of the crucial jobs in embedded industry and to reach there one should have various skills required apart from solid domain level skills. The essay (link below) by Dr. Koopman covers in detail the core competency required to become System Architect, they are as follows

1. Must have an appreciation for the full breadth of complexity in the lifecycle of a system.

This would require years of experience working in various domains within a system and only then one can appreciate inherent complexities.

2. Must have experience/knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of various architectural approaches as well as ways to combine them.

This could be learned by knowing various approaches and should know when one can be used in particular system.

3. Must have the ability to cope with significant amounts of complexity while creating or modifying architecture.

This is also very difficult skill to learn, would require working knowledge of various tools and to help deal with complexity.

4. Must be able to articulate the essence of particular system architecture to others.

System Architect role is a of a leader, and excellent communication skills are expected from him. He should sell his vision and idea to the team, customers and all the stakeholders.

5. Must be able to deal with systems that are evolved/composed rather than designed from scratch.

This is important as many of the systems or products are getting evolved, no one is designing everything from scratch.

6. Must have good “taste” to create a “clean” architecture that scales well and ages gracefully in the face of unforeseeable changes.

Sometime the need comes to design entire thing from scratch, and here he has to play a crucial role.

Link:
1. Essay by Dr. Philip Koopman http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/system_architecture/00_04_system_architecture.pdf

Education in Embedded Systems - 1

MSc in Embedded Systems at Delft University of Technology (or TU – Delft)

TU – Delft is one of the college which offers MSc in Embedded Systems. The course is jointly offered by three Dutch universities; TU Delft, TU Eindhoven and TU Twente, and it’s called as 3TU program. I liked the course structure and it’s designed with a lot of thought into why there should be a separate course on Embedded Systems at first place.

The main reason for having a separate course on Embedded Systems is that in ES field an engineer is required to posses system level skills in a wide range of disciplines such as computer science, electrical engineering, real –time computing, system architecture, control engineering, signal processing, security and privacy, computer networking, mathematics, hardware, sensors and actuators. Thus to create these multidisciplinary skills it requires fundamental change in education and ES course emerged.

Course Overview:
Duration: 2 Years (120 EC)
Approximate cost for one year: Tuition Fees: € 8600 and Living expenses: € 7750

Few stages in the course,
1. Homologation
This phase is prerequisite phase, here a student from Electrical background can take CS courses and vice versa.

2. Compulsory courses
Total of 30 EC (European Credits defined through European Credits Transfer System ECTS) been allotted to 6 core courses.
a. System Validation (formal methods, model checking)
b. Software testing and Quality Engineering (testing in large Embedded Systems)
c. Real time systems
d. Performance Analysis (performance modeling of computation and communication)
e. Embedded Systems
f. Embedded Computer Architecture (contemporary embedded processor, microcontrollers)

I think the design of the course is such that it covers mainly all important areas of ES. The courses on System Validation and Testing are very important as Testing and Validation consumes around half of the resources in development life cycle.

3. Specialization
There are various tracks in which student can specialize, which are
a. Embedded Software
b. Embedded Computer Architecture
c. Embedded Circuits and Systems
d. Embedded Networking

4. MSc Thesis
And finally there is MSc thesis which is of 40 EC, which can be done either in industry or in academia.

3TU Program:
As the MSc program is jointly offered by three universities, a student joining either of the college automatically gets admitted to other two universities. The core structure of course remains same at each university but the research focus is different at each of them.

For example, Delft has more focus on Embedded Software and System level engineering rather than component level engineering which is usually done in Computer Engineering courses.

Personal Comments:
1. The course content is excellent, hard to find similar course any where in the world (believe me). From industry perspective it covers all the required subjects would help to develop a System level skills.
2. For research work, the computer engineering dept at Delft offers many projects especially in the areas of Reconfigurable computing. Also one can look at Embedded Systems Lab (ESL) at TU / e.
3. Delft is one of biggest and oldest engineering schools around and a member of prestigious IDEA group. As it’s the advantageous with all big schools, here at Delft too student can look forward to work with Aerospace dept on new satellite project (similar to Delfi) or Software engineering dept to work on Static code analyzers. Thus for a student interested in Core engineering, this is the place I would say.

Finally If any one is interested in Embedded Systems and wants to pursue higher studies in this area then this is one college not to miss applying for. Fortunately I knew about this course and I applied and received an admit too. For more information go through the links below.

Links:
1. Official site of ES dept:
http://www.tudelft.nl/live/pagina.jsp?id=11b86a67-fc3e-4daa-81e9-a1cbbda52847〈=en
2. Delft curriculum on Embedded Systems:
http://www.st.ewi.tudelft.nl/~gross/Publications/Gross_2006_WESE.pdf
3. TU Delft- Detailed Costs for M. Sc. 2009-2011:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pwxvvhp3oPpVQj1pMlcJxLg&gid=1
4. 3TU Course site:
http://www.3tu.nl/en/education/embedded_systems/
5. IDEA league site:
http://www.idealeague.org/

Basic Skills Required

Embedded Systems* is a really huge industry and a very much diversified one too. The application area varies from designing a mobile phone, set top box device to industrial control, robotics etc. and also it requires interdisciplinary skill set for development. The various application areas and skills set for each could be another topic, which I would have in future posts.

For this post, I would limit my self to skills required for a basic Software Engineer in this domain. Similar to kind of job which I am doing in Bangalore for past two years.

Kind of Job profile:
You would be working on a particular product (such as Mobile Phones, Set top box or related to automobiles), and responsible for maintaining, development of various modules in any particular domain. The domain could vary from Telecom, Video, Audio, Drivers, Multimedia or UI development. Initially domain skills are not necessary but over the years you are expected to become master in one particular domain, thus after some time you cannot easily jump over multiple domains.

Companies:
Motorola, Samsung, Qualcomm, STMicro, NXP, LG Software etc. etc. (all in Bangalore)

Basic Skills:
a. Good coding skills in C (or C++): Very good knowledge of C language is good starting point. Suggested books are K&R, Expert C programming etc. Have a good hold on pointers, memory allocations and bit manipulation.

b. Debugging and Problem solving: This is very crucial skill in this domain, as most time is spent debugging other persons code. As an good engineer, you would be having essential skills to start up with.

c. Operating Systems concepts: A basic undergraduate level course would do, better if you know about Real time system and kernels but not mandatory.

d. Computer Architecture: Especially knowledge of any RISC architecture,recommended is to know ARM architecture, as most of the embedded devices use ARM IP in their SOC.

Other Advanced skills required are based upon domain you wish to work, such as Wireless or DSP. For this its better to have understanding of Wireless Communications (mainly protocols) and DSP (Audio and Video).

Thats all for today, in future I wish to write upon detailed job profile, exact skills and how to develop and nurture career in this space.

* When I say Embedded Systems, I restrict myself to developing Embedded Products

Hello world!

embsystems is my new blog, specifically dedicated to perspectives and thoughts on Embedded Systems area. Specifically I want to cover following points,

1. Various application areas

2. List of companies active in this space (I know this is huge, but want to classify and maintain the list)

3. Graduate level education in this space, especially American and European university.

4. Types of job and skills required for it, to give a brief idea to any budding aspirant.

5. My personal experience and learnings working in this field (in past two years).