LECTURE - 1

Introduction to Low Power Embedded Systems

Atul Lele, Ramakrishna Reddy K, MSP430 Design, Texas Instruments India Pvt Ltd.

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Acknowledgements
Prof.C.R.Venugopal, Chairman, Board of Studies, VTU for giving us this opportunity Dr.C.P.Ravikumar, Director, University Program at Texas Instruments for co-ordinating this event with VTU My Managers, Venu, Neeraj and Padmini for giving much needed time and support My colleagues at TI for answering most of trivial queries
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About me
Education
Diploma in Electronics and Instrumentation, Government Polytechnic College, Kothagudem (19992002) B.Tech in Electronics and Instrumentation, VNR VJIET (affiliated to JNTU), Hyderabad (2002-2005) M.Tech in Instrument Technology, IIT Delhi (20052007)

Professional (July 2007 till date)

Digital and analog-mixed signal (AMS) verification of MSP430 University talks

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Course Contents
Introduction to Low Power Embedded Systems MSP430 Architecture and Families Interrupts and Low Power Modes (LPM) Programming MSP430 using Code Composer Studio (CCS) MSP430 Peripherals Case studies of applications using MSP430

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Outline of todays session

Quick recap of important definitions Agenda for this session
Embedded systems Embedded system design cycle Need for Low-Power embedded systems Power Aware Architecture Power saving techniques

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Choosing a suitable microcontroller Wrap-Up MSP430 Resources Q&A

Quick recap of important definitions

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Important terms
Microprocessor Microcontroller Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) Von-Neumann architecture Harvard architecture

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Microprocessor(uP)
CPU
Fetch Decode and Execute logic Accumulator Memory ALU Temporary Registers

Peripherals

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Microcontroller(uC)
CPU
Fetch Decode and Execute logic Accumulator Memory ALU Temporary Registers

Peripherals

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RISC Characteristics
Small set of general purpose instructions Large bank of general purpose registers Load-store architecture Single-cycle execution

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Von-Neumann architecture
Also called the Princeton architecture
Data Bus
MDB

ROM RAM Single memory Space

CPU
MAB

Address Bus
CPU = Central Processing Unit ROM = Read-Only Memory 15-09-2011 RAM = Random-Access Memory
Source: MSP430 Microcontroller Basics, John H. Davies

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Harvard architecture

Data Bus

Data Bus
MDB

Code Memory

MDB

CPU
MAB MAB

Data Memory
Address Bus

Address Bus

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Source: MSP430 Microcontroller Basics, John H. Davies

Embedded Systems

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Embedded Systems(1 of 4)
Definition
An Embedded system is one which has both embedded software and hardware which is dedicated for an application or a specific part of an application or part of a larger system

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Source: Embedded Systems, Raj amal

Embedded Systems(2 of 4)
Challenges
Hardware(HW) Software(SW) HW/SW partition or co-design Time requirements
Throughput Latency
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Embedded Systems(3 of 4)
Challenges (continued)
Choice of HW
ASIC, FPGA requirement Cost involved

Power requirements Functional versus non-functional requirements

Functional output(o/p) as function of input (i/p)
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Embedded Systems(4 of 4)
Challenges (continued)
Non-Functional
Time required to compute output Size, weight (Cant make 10kg digital camera/laptop) Power consumption Reliability

Top-down or Bottom-up

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Embedded system design cycle

Market Requirements Functional Specification Architecture Component Design System Integration Testing
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Source: Lecture of Prof Santanu Chaudhury

Embedded System Block Diagram

Memory S S A F E A D C SPI I2C UART USB D A C GPIO Final Control Element
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Embedded System

Environment
S

CPU

Actuator

Sensor

AFE = Analog Front End

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Need for Low-Power embedded systems

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Need for Low-Power embedded systems

Why Low-Power is important Example low power applications
RFID based Chipko Structural monitoring Wildlife habitat monitoring

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Why Low-Power is important

Longer battery life Smaller products Simpler power supplies Less EMI simplifies PCB Permanent battery Environmental Stewardship Reduced Liability

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Example #1: RFID based - eChipko

Chipko movement started in the Uttarakhand Forest department refused to allow forest dwellers to fell ash trees for making agricultural tools The same patch of land was allotted to a sports manufacturer for commercial use Enraged villagers protested against the move of the government The struggle soon spread to many parts of the country against ecological and economic exploitation
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Source : NCERT
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Courtesy : Sumeendranath (Sumir) and the Chipko team at Texas Instruments (TI) India, 2008

Example #2: Structural monitoring

Assume strain gauges, vibration monitors attached to a structure like the Golden Gate Bridge. Wirelessly correlate this data and observe the health of the structure We will be able to maintain it at a minimal expense.

Structural monitoring (motion)

Changing batteries on huge structures like these is not easily Source : www.cs.berkeley.edu/~binetude/ggb/ possible 15-09-2011 25
Courtesy : Maria Cortez at Texas Instruments (TI) Dallas, 2008

Example #3: Wildlife habitat monitoring

Low power very important, especially when there is highrisk in tranquillising for replacing the batteries
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Source : The Hindu, 8th and 11th July 2011.

Power Aware Architecture

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Power Aware Architecture

Sources of power consumption Trade-off between power and speed. Power saving techniques

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Source : Digital Integrated Circuits, Jan Rabaey et al.

Sources of power consumption

Dynamic power
Charging and discharging of capacitors and on switching activity

Short circuit power Leakage - leaking diodes and transistors

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Source : Digital Integrated Circuits, Jan Rabaey et al.

Dynamic Power (0
CL gets charged through PMOS Part of the energy is dissipated in PMOS transistor Remaining is stored on load capacitor, CL
1 CLV2dd 2

1 transition)
Vdd ON

icharge
0 Vout

OFF

CL

Energy stored in capacitor,

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EL =

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Source : Digital Integrated Circuits, Jan Rabaey et al.

Dynamic Power (1
The charge stored on load capacitor, CL gets discharged through the NMOS transistor

0 transition)
Vdd OFF

Vout

ON

idis
CL

Average power dissipation for a switching cycle, Pav = CLV2dd (assuming at 1Hz) If the frequency at which switching happens is f,
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Pav =

CLV2dd f

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Source : Digital Integrated Circuits, Jan Rabaey et al.

Short-Circuit Power
Vdd

Vin Vin isc Vout isc

Ipeak

CL

tsc

Psc = tscVddIpeak f = CscV2dd f

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Source : Digital Integrated Circuits, Jan Rabaey et al.

Leakage Power
Ideally, the static current of a CMOS inverter is ZERO In reality, a small leakage current flows through the reverse biased diode junctions of transistors, located between the source or drain and the substrate
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Vdd Vdd

Drain Leakage Current

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Source : Digital Integrated Circuits, Jan Rabaey et al.

Trade-off between power and speed(1 of 2)

Power consumption of CMOS circuits (ignoring leakage)
P = CLV2dd f
switching activity load capacitance supply voltage frequency Where, = CL = Vdd = f =

Decreasing voltage reduces power consumption (quadratically)

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Source : Digital Integrated Circuits, Jan Rabaey et al.

Trade-off between power and speed(2 of 2)

Propagation delay of CMOS circuits(Inverter)
tp
CLVdd (Vdd VTE)

Where, VTE = Vt + VDSAT/2 is a technology parameter ranges from 1 to 2, typically 1.25

Higher supply voltages reduce delay but increase power consumption (due to quadratic relation) All of the above leads to the need for power saving techniques
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Source : Digital Integrated Circuits, Jan Rabaey et al.

Power saving techniques

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Power saving techniques(1 of 3)

Trade-off performance to save power
Reduce power supply voltage Reduce frequency

Structural power saving techniques

Disable peripheral when not in use (E.g. Clock Gating) Disconnect modules from power supply when not in use (E.g. Power Gating)

Note : Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling (DVFS) uses both voltage and frequency scaling for power conservation
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Power saving techniques(2 of 3)

Clock gating Deactivate clocks to unused registers
Registers in unused serial communication

Signal gating Deactivate signals that cause activity if not in use

Address and data buses for non-memory instructions

Power gating Deactivate Vdd for unused HW blocks

Floating Point Unit (FPU) for integer program

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Power saving techniques(3 of 3)

CPUs provide multiple power down modes e.g. MSP430 LPM modes
Start-up time, it should be fast enough to wake-up quickly and finish the job.

More details on how MSP430 achieves low power consumption will be discussed in the Low power modes section of the course

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Choosing a suitable microcontroller

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Choosing a suitable microcontroller

MSP430

Meets the functional requirements

Speed
throughput latency

Peripherals on chip Power consumption and Cost

Ease of availability
Availability of development/evaluation boards/IDE Availability from multiple suppliers/companies

Availability of support
Code libraries 15-09-2011 Community support
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Wrap-Up

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Wrap-Up
Discussed important terminology related to embedded systems Understood the need for low power embedded systems An overview of different power saving techniques

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MSP430 Resources
Users Guides Datasheets TI Community Forum 100+ Application Reports 1000+ Code Examples Product Brochure MCU Selection Tool Latest Tool Software 3rd Party Listing

Silicon Errata

www.ti.com/msp430
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Extensive Community Support

E2E Community
Videos, Blogs, Forums Extensive community support and idea exchange Global customer support http://e2e.ti.com

Processor Wiki
Growing collection of technical wiki articles Tips & tricks, common pitfalls, and design ideas http://wiki.msp430.com

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BOOKS

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References
Introduction to Embedded Systems, by Prof. Santanu Chaudhury, NPTEL Video lecture Power Aware Architecture, by Prof. Santanu Chaudhury, NPTEL Video lecture MSP430 Microcontroller Basics, John H. Davies, Newnes, 2010 Embedded Systems, Raj Kamal, Tata McGrawHill, 2008 Digital Integrated Circuits, A Design Perspective, Jan M.Rabaey, Anantha Chandrakasan, Borivoje Nikolic, Pearson Education, 2003
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