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On Embedded Systems Education and Engineering

Future of Embedded Systems Education 25jun14, USI, Lugano.

Prof. Ian Phillips Principal Staff Engineer

ARM Ltd ian.phillips@arm.com

Visiting Prof. at ...

Contribution to Industry Award

2008

Opinions expressed are my own ...

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Links to Pdf and SlideCast @ http://ianp24.blogspot.com

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The Visible Face of Electronic Systems

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The Invisible Face of Electronic Systems

Electronic Systems are the 21c version of the Embedded System

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10nm

100nm

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... x More Functionality on a Si Chip since ARM was founded (23yr)!

Embedded Systems for the 21st Centrury

“Moore’s Law” (Gordon Moore 1965. Founder of Intel)

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Electronic Systems are what People Buy Digital Design & Embedded Software Around 20 chips in an iPhone

Analogue RF, Signal Processing, Memory, A/D, etc

Mechanics, Plastics and Glass Micro-Machines (MEMs) Displays and Transducers Robotics and Test Metrology, Methodology and Tools Knowledge and Know-How Research, Education and Training Components, Sub-Systems and Systems; Design,

Assembly and Manufacture ... Many Specialists and Businesses Contributions

... Round and Round the World ... Not about individual HW and SW skills; but

about being an important part of a team delivering Systems that work!

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iPhone Control Board (a-side)

http://www.ifixit.com

Electronic Sub-Systems Visible Computing Contributors ...

Samsung: Flash Memory - NV-MOS (ARM Partner) Cirrus Logic: Audio Codec - Bi-CMOS (ARM Partner) AKM: Magnetic Sensor - MEM-CMOS Texas Instruments:Touch Screen Controller and mobile DDR - Analogue-CMOS (ARM Partner) RF Filters - SAW Filter Technology

Invisible Computing Contributors ... OS, Drivers, Stacks, Applications, GSM, Security, Graphics, Video, Sound, etc Software Tools, Debug Tools, etc

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iPhone Control Board (b-side)

GPS

Bluetooth, EDR &FM

http://www.ifixit.com

Electronic Sub-Systems More Visible Computing Contributors ...

A4 Processor. Spec:Apple, Design & Mfr: Samsung Digital-CMOS (nm) ... Provides the iPhone 4 with its GP computing power. (Said to contain ARM A8 600 MHz CPU and other ARM IP)

ST-Micro: 3 axis Gyroscope - MEM-CMOS (ARM Partner) Broadcom: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS - Analogue-CMOS (ARM Ptr) Skyworks: GSM Analogue-Bipolar Triquint: GSM PA Analogue-GaAs Infineon: GSM Transceiver - Anal/Digi-CMOS (ARM Partner)

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The Processor Chip ... 2011: Nvidea Tegra 3, 5-CPUs, Around 1Btr

NB: The Tegra 3 is similar to Apple’s A4, but is not used in the iPhone

... Designing a 1Btr chip takes a lot of Design Effort!

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The A4 SIP Package (Cross-section)

Down 3-Levels: IC Packaging The processor is the centre rectangle. The silver circles beneath it are solder balls. Two rectangles above are RAM die, offset to make room for the wirebonds. Putting the RAM close to the processor reduces latency, making RAM faster and cuts power.

Unknown Mfr (Memory) Samsung/ARM (Processor) Unknown (SIP Technology)

Source ... http://www.ifixit.com

Processor SOC Die

2 Memory Dies

Glue

Memory ‘Package’

4-Layer Platform Package’

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Lots and Lots of Designers ...

159 Tier-1 Suppliers ... Thousands of Design Engineers 10’s of thousands of Engineers Globally

... Hundreds more Tier-2 suppliers (Including ARM)

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Markets Provide the Growth Drivers

... will dominate the Volume Technology Market. But ... ... It is many things (not one); and old markets still exist!

1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020

Mill

ions

of U

nits

1st Era Select work tasks

2nd Era Broad-based computing for specific tasks

3rd Era Computing as part of our lives

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I’ve seen figures suggesting shortage of >2B engineers by 2020 Big enough to terrify; but way too big to resolve organically

Tomorrow will not be more-of-the-same ... IC design is 1000x more productive today than it was 20yrs ago! Because business cannot afford to employ 1000x engineers; It will have to be 1000x more productive in the next 20yrs ... By Improved Reuse from self and others By New Methods and Improved Tools By greater use of Abstraction

I believe, there will (still) be a moderate/severe shortage by 2020 Good for Employment and Job prospects

... Nations developing their own good Engineers/Scientists will have the best opportunity to keep, and benefit from them ... ... Don’t waste the opportunity, Plan for it!

“We need lots more Engineers and Scientists” Undoubtedly true, but the scale is not obvious

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Todays users require a pocket ‘Super-Computer’ ... Silicon Technology Provides a few-Billion transistors ARM’s Technology makes it Practical to utilise them

System-Chips Get Ever-More Complex!

• 10 Processors • 4 x A9 Processors (2x2): • 4 x MALI 400 Fragment Proc: • 1 x MALI 400 Vertex Proc. • 1 x MALI Video CoDec • Software Stacks, OS’s and Design

Tools/ • ARM Technology gives

chip/system designers ... • Improved Productivity • Improved TTM • Improved Quality/Certainty

ARM

ARM

ARM

ARM

ARM

ARM

nVidea Tegra3

... Today’s Platforms have ~20 processors

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Building Functionality on a Billion Transistors

ARM Technology drives efficient Electronic System solutions: Diverse components, including CPU and

GPU optimised for specific tasks Software increasing system efficiency

with optimized software solutions Interconnect System IP delivering

coherency and the quality of service required for lowest memory bandwidth

Physical IP for a highly optimized processor implementation

A Roadmap to support Reuse Backed by >900 Global Partners ...

An ARM-Centric Ecosystem >800 Licences; Millions of Developers

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The Right Horse for The Course ...

... Delivering ~5x speed (Architecture + Process + Clock)

About 50MTr

About 50KTr

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... Means 24 Processors in 6 Families

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Do Our Achievements Speak For Us ?

... Science and Engineering made the world we live in: Yet most people don’t see it, and have no idea what “we” do in it!

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The Science That Lets Us to Do ... Electronics is the pinnacle of

mankind’s ingenuity in the manipulation of matter. It ... Has enabled us to deliver such

wonderful things! Is Dependent on Mathematics, Physics

and Chemistry Is what humans can achieve by reusing

the ingenuity of our predecessors ... “Standing on the shoulders of giants” (Isaac Newton)

But though it is very clever ... It is not actually Magic! It is achieved by Ingenuity and Labour Its technologies continue to evolve, so its

Methods and Tools must also!

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from Magic!” ... A.C.Clarke (Science Fiction Author)

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The Threshold of Magic ... Everybody has a threshold, beyond which observed Functionality is

Indistinguishable From Magic1! Chemical Systems Biological Systems Economic Systems Electronic Systems

The Incandescent Lightbulb: is the ...

... for most non-scientific, but well-educated people!

We ALL lose the Public, does not understand the difference between Science and Magic! Our Scientific roles will not be recognised or valued Teaching and Research will go, Technology Jobs will follow

... And Our Society will be depend on the Beneficence of Others!

1: Clarke: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

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The Employers Perspective... Replacement ... A highly specific need.

100% match is improbable (but if you don’t ask you don’t get!) This can be highly misleading when it comes to Curriculum Planning

Compromise : Match Key Aspects. Plan for Training & Integration time 6 months get a new recruit productive (Frequently induction schemes) 2 yrs to start delivering their potential (Ongoing reviews and training )

Enhancement ... The needs of an evolving business. Acquisition of specific Capability Acquire Established Business/Team working together delivering a capability Targeted Recruitment (Senior Head Hunting)

Training and Re-Training (Through-life career evolution/development) Developing the ‘devil you know’

General Recruitment (Graduates). Well rounded basic science/engineering knowledge of Physics, Maths, CS and EE. Deeper knowledge/experience in a specific area (relevant to them) A Team Player with Engineering Flair and Enthusiasm Ready and willing to be shaped to particular needs!

... Ability trump Certificates every time!

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Educate Society ... Developing the supply Tell General Public about Electronic Systems and their Importance Tell about the Career Opportunities within their creation life-cycles

New Engineers ... Onto the first rung of the ladder Perversely, don’t train them as Electronic Systems Designers! Design Engineers will be working in the Electronic Systems value-network Impossible to teach people to be expert across the whole technology patch They will be working within a dispersed team, focused on a specific capability

So they Need ... To have good Scientific Background, with experience of Core-Technologies Enthusiasm and ability to learn/adapt Awareness of the Big-Picture (Systems in their context) Specialist knowledge is good, but can be option-limiting; use with care

Professional Engineers ... Climbing the ladder Technology, Methods and Tools will continue to evolve very rapidly Engineers need to re-skill and adapt throughout their careers Staying on the ladder is difficult; falling off is easy

Educating the Electronic Systems Engineer ... Surely, just Educate them in the Technologies Involved!? ...

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Elitism and the Engineer/Scientist ... Another domain where gift and prowess matters

Around 3% of the UK population has an Engineering Degree... Only ~half of this number are actually employed as Engineer/Scientist That’s around one person in a Secondary Education class (a Geek!)

<1% of them will become ‘World-Class Leaders’... The benefits they bring to local society/economy are very real The opportunity to double/treble their number is also very real

... It is foolish for countries not to stimulate the economic potential of this <0.03% of the population!

... Though it would be seen as favouring the already favoured!

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Requires a three-pronged approach ... 1. Stimulate Supply: Educate Society about Electronic Systems; our roles in

them and the career opportunities they present 2. New Engineers: Train New Engineers and Scientists in Core Scientific

Fundamentals to get them onto the Career Ladder 3. Professional Engineers: Provide through-life education requirements to

maintain/enhance their (and their host country’s) ability and credibility

Encourage Intellectual Elitism ... Offers huge regional/national, economic opportunity and leverage Politically difficult, but inherently no different to sporting elitism Important to any society wishing to realise its potential

Conclusions Educating the Embedded Systems Engineers