The number of computer-controlled systems has increased dramatically in our daily life. Processors and microcontrollers are embedded in most of the devices we use every day, such as mobile phones, cameras, media players, navigators, washing machines, biomedical devices, and cars. The complexity of such systems is increasing exponentially, pushed by the demand of new products with extra functionality, higher performance requirements, and low energy consumption. To cope with such a complex scenario, many embedded systems are adopting more powerful and highly integrated hardware components, such as multi-core systems, network-on-chip architectures, inertial subsystems, and special purpose co-processors. However, developing, analyzing, and testing the application software on these architectures is not easy, and new methodologies are being investigated in the research community to guarantee high predictability and efficiency in next generation embedded devices. This chapter presents some recent approaches proposed within the real-time research community aimed at achieving predictability, high modularity, efficiency, and adaptability in modern embedded computing systems.
Microprocessors KOMDIV for High Performance Embedded Systems