ABSTRACT
This chapter presents embedded computing devices, present and future, with a focus on the attributes that differentiate embedded computing from general-purpose computing. It discusses common metrics and methods used to compare devices and the anatomy of a programmable high performance embedded computer, focuses on computing devices—the computational engines that drive these systems. The chapter explores the anatomy of embedded computing devices, present and future, with a focuses on the attributes that differentiate embedded computing from general-purpose computing. It also discusses common metrics in order to provide a framework for the comparison of devices and describes a methodology for evaluating microprocessor performance in the context of the real-time computing requirements of the embedded application. The metric most commonly used is the computation rate, and for signal processing applications it is typically expressed as the number of arithmetic operations to be executed per unit time.
