Embedded systems questions and answers
Questions
Q1. What is meant by an embedded system?
Q2. What is RAM used for in a laptop?
Q3. What is ROM used for in a laptop?
Q4. How does an embedded system differ from a laptop?
Q5. State five items in your home that has an embedded system.
Q6. What is meant by a ‘fail-safe’ system? Describe an example.
Q7. How might fail-safe systems differ from an embedded system to control the TV at home?
Q8. Design the user interface for a ‘typical’ digital alarm clock.
Q9. Who was the programming language ADA named after?
Q10. When was she born? What does she have to do with computing? Who was her father?
Answers
Q1. An embedded system is where a computer system has been integrated into the design of a machine, usually to control it.
Q2. RAM (Random Access Memory) in a laptop holds the operating system, the applications currently in use and the files currently open.
Q3. ROM (Read Only Memory) contains the programs and instructions the laptop needs to successfully boot up.
Q4. An embedded system is usually a processor with a program that reads in input data, processes it and then outputs signals to make things happen. The program is in the machine code of the processor and stored in ROM. The program is relatively simple, requiring only very specific tasks to be done. It will often be written within a loop, so that, once set, the program simply repeats itself until it ends or is aborted.
Q5. Embedded systems are found in burglar alarms, car engine management systems, microwave ovens, washing machines, DVD players, remote control handsets and any other sensible example.
Q6. A fail-safe system is one in which the system is designed to carry on, even if the main system fails. There is usually a backup system that starts automatically in the event of the main system failing. This is important in certain applications, for example, the computer systems that control certain critical operations in planes.
Q7. Fail safe systems will have a backup system that starts automatically in the event of the main system failing. If the remote control that controls the TV fails, you will have to go out and buy another one to start controlling the TV again!
Q8. A digital alarm clock may have some of the following features:
Q9. The programming language ADA was named after Ada Lovelace (also known as Augusta Ada Byron).
Q10. Ada Lovelace was born on the 10th December 1815. She was a mathematician who worked on what is considered to be the first computer, the Analytical Engine, designed by Charles Babbage. Her father was Lord Byron, the poet.