ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that in many digital system applications, the use of microprocessor or microcontroller as the processing and execution unit represents an advantage. Selecting the design flow and the type of top-down model represents one of the decisions that the designer engineer has to decide at the beginning of the design process. Requirements analysis involves a detailed examination of the needs of the end user — the problem to be solved. Once the functional design has been completed then the implementation can be performed. In large systems the designer has to use well defined techniques and tools to convert the specifications in a systematic way to system architecture. Based on the requirements definition, the essential functions of, and operational constraints for, the system are determined. From the functional specification, the overall architecture or framework of the system is developed in a top down fashion. The architecture is broken down into manageable functional elements.
