Skip to main content

Anatomy of embedded Linux system



Linus Torvalds released 1st version of Linux kernel in 1991.  Much lower used as desktops and mainly used for embedded applications. In embedded systems, Linux has been ported to many architectures including ARM. It’s an open software, and some pros of open source software - reduces software costs, full control of source code, wide usage of components can improve quality, easy to evaluate new software.

In the anatomy of embedded Linux system, these 4 items are very important - Tool chain, Boot loader, Kernel and File system.

This is the basic diagram- we have 2 main components Host and Target.  Tool chain indicates the tools and software required for developing software on the target platform. Example compiler, Binutils, C library, debugger, kernel headers etc.  If we have to debug kernel headers, serial debugger can be used. If CPU wants to be debugged,  JTAG debugging tool must be used.  Please refer below image. 


Binutils is a collection of utility programs for working with target binary files. It includes compilation tools like assembler and linker, Binary files, library generation files, etc. 

U-Boot is a multi-platform open source boot loader with comprehensive image management support. 
The main features are - Kernel and/or file system image loading,  updating images, memory utilities and interactive shell.  

Linux kernel is responsible for process management, memory management, inter-process communication, timers, file systems, networking, power management, device drivers for hardware resources, manage hardware resources, manage usage of hardware and provide APIs to access system hardware. 

Thank you for reading this article, hope it is useful. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction to latest technologies such as IoT, IoE, IIoT,WoT

Hi Everyone, Now-a-days, we are hearing terms such as IoT, IoE, IIoT, WoT. In this article i am trying to explain what exactly these terms means.  Let me start with fancy word called IoT (Internet Of Things). Its a world of things (such as vehicles, home appliances, any physical device) connected.  These devices embedded with firmware, software, electronics, sensors, actuators and connectivity which makes any physical device intelligent, so that they can talk with each other. Do you want to know why? I will be explaining more details in my next article. IIoT is Industrial IoT, i.e using IoT in manufacturing industries. This brings brilliant machines together, advanced analytics and many more. It has great potential to change the way how the Industry works and it enables M2M machine-to-machine communication. Next article i will tell some real time applications of this. IoE is Internet of Everything where people, process, data and things(these are ...
2 comments
Read more

Introduction to Deep Learning

Deep Learning is a type of machine learning in which a model learns to perform classification tasks directly from images, text or sound. Its usually implemented using a neural network architecture. Here deep refers to the "Number of layers in the network" i.e the more layers, the deeper the network. Traditional neural network contain only 2-3 layers, but in deep network contains hundreds of layers. Deep learning example is  A self-driving vehicle slows down as it approaches a pedestrian network . Deep learning is especially well-suited to identification applications such as face recognition, text translation, voice recognition and advanced driver assistance systems and traffic sign recognition etc. Deep learning is growing faster because it really works.  What is the Difference Between Deep Learning  and Machine Learning? Deep learning is a sub-type of machine learning. For example with machine  learning, you manually extract the relevant features of...
Post a Comment
Read more

Introduction to IoT ecosystem

Basics of IoT IoT (Internet of Things) refers to a network where devices communicate to devices and devices communicate to software applications over the internet . This web-enabled devices/internet enabled devices will usually collect data, send and act upon data from their surrounding environment. •       The IoT network consists of Edge side (sensors, actuators and controllers connected to the internet) and Cloud side. •       The devices on the Edge side can either connect to the internet directly or using an Edge (IoT) gateway . The Edge gateway is used for: •        Providing a connection to the internet for devices that cannot connect to the internet on their own. These devices don’t have feature to connect to the Internet. •        Local functionality/control that must work even without internet availability •       ...
Post a Comment
Read more