Embedded Systems Designs

  An interrupt is a signal that is sent to the processor to temporarily halt the execution of the current task and handle a higher-priority task. Interrupts are an important aspect of real-time embedded systems , where it is essential to respond to events quickly and efficiently. An interrupt controller is a hardware component that manages interrupts in an embedded system. There are many types of interrupt controllers depending upon the different configurations in the interrupt controller hardware. Below are the most common types of interrupt controllers: Generic Interrupt Controller (GIC): It is designed to be compatible with multiple processors or architectures. It provides a standard interface for handling interrupts, which allows it to be used with different types of processors without needing to modify the software. This makes it a flexible and cost-effective solution for embedded systems that use different processors or architectures. Nested Vector Interrupt Controller (N...

  In an Embedded System , a Microcontroller or Microprocessor uses the Input/Output pins to interact with the outer world and the other devices. Output pins take the data or information out and input pins to read the data or information. Software on the microprocessor runs at a very high speed than the hardware interactions. A few milliseconds of delay with the hardware could be thousands of instructions for the software. So for optimal hardware and software interaction, there is a mechanism called interrupts. An interrupt is a signal that temporarily halts the normal execution of a program and directs the MCU to execute a specific piece of code, called an interrupt handler or interrupt service routine (ISR) . Interrupts are typically triggered by external events, such as a button press, a sensor reading, or a timer expiration. Interrupt Sources can be classified into two main categories : Internal interrupt: sources are generated by the MCU itself, such as a timer overflow or...