These are types of programmable electronic systems that can be programmed to have a high-level functionality. Systems typically have a small physical footprint or form-factor and can be incorporated into a piece of electronic equipment or product, requiring a high level of autonomous (embedded) functionality.

Systems are programmable, running code (i.e., C/C++) that is dedicated to performing a set of specific tasks or functions. The behaviour of these systems is analogous to the function of the ‘brain’ in humans and provides a centralised point of control generally answerable to nothing except for itself—typically untethered from any external source of intelligence, making decisions basically, performing operations independently.

Embedded systems have grown in use over the years and are now used in a variety of applications requiring standalone functionality. For instance, when a product is required to perform a multitude of functions, then it can be easier to incorporate an embedded system and write the necessary code to create these functions rather than trying to achieve required functionality by developing hardware.

The use of this type of technology has seen massive growth over the years as component sizes and counts that comprise these systems have reduced radically over time. Embedded systems are commonly found in everyday household and personal items. Examples include modern vacuum cleaners, washing machines, hairdryers (especially the Dyson models), smartphones, smart speakers, wearable tech, smart TVs, and many others.  

Alongside the microcontroller core, there are usually other devices connected to the microcontroller that are sometimes referred to as peripheral devices. These devices are the things that carry out the heavy lifting on behalf of the microcontroller, which enables it to communicate with the outside world. An example of this would be the touchscreen of your mobile phone, which serves as an interface allowing you to interact with the smartphone and access all of its features. In this case, inside the phone circuitry, there will be a dedicated peripheral—a video driver chip—which sits in between the touchscreen and the microcontroller, acting as a seamless bridge between the two devices.

The role of the driver chip is to convert the raw video data (1’s & 0’s) outputted from the microcontroller and convert it into meaningful graphical information we can see and clearly recognise. There are other dedicated peripherals for sound and touch functions, etc. You can think of the microcontroller as a conductor, rapidly orchestrating these peripheral chips into performing their specific function(s).

As chip technology has advanced over the years, systems have become much more integrated, resulting in chip designers being able to squeeze much more functionality onto a single chip, occupying a single piece of silicon. With this in mind, the natural path of evolution is to bring (integrate) the functionality of some peripheral chips into the same package as the microcontroller, allowing full systems to be created on a single chip. With this approach, many benefits are shown as follows: –

In order to work with an embedded system, it is essential to know how to write a programme often referred to as ‘coding.’.

A program is made up of a list of instructions, which are converted to 1’s and 0’s (machine code), which instructs the microcontroller on what tasks to perform to be able to create a function for its intended application. A program consists of a consecutive set of pseudo-English commands known as the computer language. There are many types of languages in existence that were all designed to serve a specific sector or application. In the world of embedded programming, the prevalent languages are C/C++ or Lynx.

For the microcontroller to interpret the language and to act out its commands, they must be converted into machine code. This code is a series of 1’s and 0’s that the microcontroller can interpret. This conversion process is known as compiling, and the tools used to perform this task are known as compilers.

When designing a system, it’s important to consider the following factors:

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