What is an embedded system? Can Mobile be considered as an embedded product?
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What is mean by embedded system?

If a system/machine or product which we are making is for multiple purposes, then can we consider it as an embedded system? Or is it that only a system dedicated for a particular task that is considered as an embedded system? Can a PC/mobile/laptop be considered as an embedded system or not?

Exfoliation answered 11/7, 2012 at 4:48 Comment(1)
stackoverflow.com/tags/embedded/infoStorer
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Generally an embedded system is one placed into operation for a specific, narrow purpose, and lacking the kind of general purpose user interfaces you would find on an ordinary desktop/laptop.

That is not to say though that an embedded system cannot have these - I've seen test equipment such as network analyzers running desktop operating systems, with mouse/keyboard ports. One could probably hack one of those to use it for general purpose computing, but it would not be cost effective.

Going the other way, you can take a general purpose computer and shove it into an embedded application. However, systems optimized for embedded use may be more robust, support better real-world I/O (often retaining legacy ports), and use parts expected to be available over longer lifetimes than used in commodity PCs (if one fails, you want to be able to replace it with the exact same thing).

Often embedded systems are smaller - 8 bit processors (even 4-bit or serial-core historically) with limited memory; though 32 bit cores such as the arm family are now inexpensive and commonplace. Nor are tens to hundreds of megabytes of memory unknown.

Older cellphones would have a lot in common with embedded systems, but rather obviously contemporary smartphones are catching up in power and versatility, though still often constrained by user interface. Software wise some "think small" habits endure - for example, Android's compact bionic C library and toolbox shell have similar design goals to embedded C libraries and busybox. In other ways though, expansive resource-gobbling user experiences are now the norm on phones. Toss tablets based on the same processors and accessorized with keyboard into the mix, run a kernel designed originally for desktop computers on them, and the real difference is between UI software stacks designed to run segregated "apps" on a touch interface, vs one designed to run more traditional programs.

Manicdepressive answered 11/7, 2012 at 5:17 Comment(0)
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This is a question that even embedded systems experts often ask and discuss. There is as with many things a spectrum, and simple definitions are difficult.

My preferred definition is: a system containing one or more computing or processing element that is not a general purpose computer.

Some systems are inarguably embedded within that definition, and include such things as washing machine controllers, telephone switches, satellite navigation equipment, marine chart-plotters, automotive ECUs, laser printers etc.

Some are less easily categorised. A first generation digital mobile phone, is probably certainly an embedded system while more modern feature and smart phones however are somehow different. They can run apps chosen and installed by end-users allowing them to perform tasks not determined by the manufacturer. With increasing capabilities they are essentially hand-held computers and the range of apps sufficient to be able to regard them as "general purpose".

With these more ambiguous systems, it is useful to ask perhaps not what is an embedded system, but rather what is embedded systems development? For example, the manufacturer of your smart-phone deployed on it an operating system, the signal processing and communications stack required for it to operate as a telephone, all the device drivers and stacks for WiFi, USB, data storage etc., and this is certainly embedded systems development. However the guys writing apps for PlayStore or AppStore etc. are writing to a defined common platform abstracted by all that embedded code - that is not embedded systems development by any definition that I would accept, unless perhaps the application were for some bespoke vertical market application - like the delivery signature apps UPS drivers have on PDAs for example - in that environment the "general-purpose" device has been re-purposed as a "special-purpose" device.

With respect to a PC; a PC can be the embedded computing element in a system that is not a general purpose computer. Industrial PCs are commonly found embedded in manufacturing and packaging machinery, CNC machine tools, medical equipment etc. Although they share hardware architecture with desktop PCs they do not necessarily look like desktop PCs and come in many different form factors of both boards, and enclosures. Even within a desktop PC however, there are many examples of embedded computing elements, and embedded software such as the BIOS responsible for bootstrapping the system, the keyboard controller and disc drive controllers for example.

Storer answered 13/7, 2012 at 21:55 Comment(0)
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An embedded system is any electronic system that uses a CPU chip, but that is not a general-purpose workstation, desktop or laptop computer. An embedded system is a special-purpose computer system designed to perform a dedicated function. Unlike a general-purpose computer, such as a personal computer, an embedded system performs one or a few pre-defined tasks, usually with very specific requirements, and often includes task-specific hardware and mechanical parts not usually found in a general-purpose computer.

Read more: http://romux-loc.com/tutorials/embedded-system#ixzz3113gchPt

Vallombrosa answered 7/5, 2014 at 8:23 Comment(0)
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Embedded system are devices that do some specific job not like our laptops which can play music, click pictures and format documents. They are devices like water filter , washing machines, vending machine etc. They are programmed for some specific work and they do that work in a super loop depending on the user input.Like the vending machine always perform same thing when you opt for coffee in it with the help of button provided in it.

So in that way mobile phone is not an embedded system because it has no super loop and it can do various general purpose things just like a computer.

An embedded system has memory constrain, timing constrain and they do things in limited space.

Cholula answered 8/7, 2019 at 10:49 Comment(0)
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Embedded system is any device that includes a programmable computer put it is not itself a general-purpose computer, so the mobile is not an embedded system because it has no super loop and it can do various general purpose things just like a computer, and an embedded system has memory constrain timing, constrain and they do things in limit space.

Heliotropin answered 30/1, 2021 at 17:9 Comment(0)
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The embedded system is a microprocessed system in which a computer is attached to the system it controls. An embedded system can perform a set of tasks that have been predefined. The system is used for specific tasks, and thus, through engineering it is possible to optimize a given product and decrease the size, as well as the computational resources and its final value.
Embedded systems are all around us, and for that reason, we are not aware of their computational capacity, since we are so involved with such mechanisms. Embedded systems operate on machines that can work for several years without stopping, and which still, in some cases, have the ability to self-correct.

An excellent example of items that use embedded systems are the famous smartphones, which perform specific functions, and which have more limited mechanisms than computers.

Check below a list with some examples that receive the application of embedded systems:

  1. Electronic ballot box
  2. Video games
  3. Calculators
  4. Printers
  5. Hospital equipment
  6. In vehicles
  7. Some home appliances
  8. Cellular apparatus
  9. Routers
Calcify answered 29/7, 2020 at 13:54 Comment(0)
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A definition that may help to get the difference. An embedded system can be considered as a system with which another embedded system cannot be developed. So presently, using a mobile phone, one cannot develop an 'embedded system'. If it is possible by the mobile device, then it should be considered as a general purpose system.

Loop answered 20/11, 2014 at 16:50 Comment(2)
I would not say than the inability to host development defines an embedded system. It may be an attribute of most, but by no meas all embedded systems, but it is not a defining attribute.Storer
In reality only the most primitive embedded systems cannot be used in a general purpose way, and most are far more capable at such than legacy computers that were used to develop for themselves and other targets. In the case of those running something like an embedded Linux, edit and compiling code on the device can be quite reasonable and potentially simpler for small tasks than dealing with the setup of a cross compiler. And the portability of tools means it's not even uncommon to use a medium-sized embedded system to develop for or at least program a smaller one (pi -> arduino etc)Manicdepressive
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An example of an "embedded system" is a chip that is inserted underneath a dog's skin for identification purposes. Words like "embedded system" have specific meanings that only specialists understand. Such ambiguities make understanding technical language difficult for ordinary people.

embedded (ɪmˈbɛdɪd) adj

  1. fixed firmly and deeply in a surrounding solid mass
  2. constituting a permanent and noticeable feature of something
  3. (Journalism & Publishing) journalism assigned to accompany an active military unit
  4. (Grammar) grammar inserted into a sentence
  5. (Computer Science) computing (of a piece of software) made an integral part of other software
Camilacamile answered 29/4, 2016 at 17:57 Comment(1)
This answer does more to confuse than to clarify. A pet ID chip is simply an RFID tag - not an embedded system. While it is "embedded" in the animal, that is not the meaning of "embedded" in this context. Equally none of the five definitions of embedded you have copy & pasted are relevant in this context either - even the last one. It is the term "embedded system" that is under discussion not the word "embedded".Storer

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