**8. References**


**15** 

*1Egypt 2Japan* 

**Potential of Grid Technology for** 

Mona Abo El-Dahb1,2 and Yoichi Shiraishi2

*Faculty of Engineering, Helwan University, Cairo, 2Department of Production Science and Technology, Graduate School of Engineering, Gunma University,* 

*1Department of Computer Science,* 

**Embedded Systems and Applications** 

First, this chapter offers a brief introduction for the grid computing and its potential in the embedded system design, embedded system definition the difference between the embedded system and the general purpose computer, embedded systems classification and the design challenges. Next, an embedded system design for inverter power supply is described as a case study. An embedded system can be simply defined as a combination of hardware (microprocessor) and software that is built into a product for purposes such as controlling, monitoring and communication without human intervention. Furthermore, embedded system is a special-purpose computing device designed to perform dedicated functions. The hardware includes a microprocessor or microcontroller with additional external memory, I/O, and other components such as sensors, keypad, LEDs, LCDs, and any kind of actuators. The embedded software is the driving force of the embedded system design. Once it is loaded, the embedded software will never be changed unless it needs to be reloaded or replaced (Turley, 2010 & Henzinger and Sifakis, 2006 & Hongxing and Thomas, 2006). Nowadays, embedded systems can be found in devices ranging from from digital watches to communication systems, transportation navigation systems, medical systems, and financial systems. Figure 1 shows some examples of the applications of embedded systems. The number of the embedded systems has increased rapidly in the last few decades

An embedded system is usually classified as a system that has a set of predefined, specific functions to be performed and in which the resources are constrained (Stepner et al., 1999). For example, the mobile phone is an embedded system and it has several readily apparent functions as follows: the main function is to call and receive phone calls, along with perhaps several other functions such as a stopwatch, time-keeper, alarm, and camera and so on. A mobile phone also has several resource constraints as follows: firstly, the processor that is

**1. Introduction** 

to meet modern life demands.

**2. Embedded system versus general-purpose system** 

*4th Southern Conference on Programmable Logic (SPL 2008)* ; San Carlos de Bariloche (Argentina), 2008


Petalogix Inc. (2010), "Petalinux User Guide"

http://www.petalogix.com/resources/documentation/petalinux/userguide Altera Inc. (2010) "Nios Forum: Operative Systems"

http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=38

Lattice Inc. (2010) "uCLinux for LatticeMico32"

http://www.latticesemi.com/products/intellectualproperty/ipcores/mico32/mico 32uclinux.cfm

	- http://www.debian.org/ports/sparc/index.en.html

http://www.OpenCores.org

Xilinx Inc. (2009) "ISE Design Suite Software Manuals and Help" http://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/sw\_manuals/xilinx11/

manuals.pdf


http://www.arm.com/products/solutions/AMBA\_Spec.html

V. Medina, I. Gomez, E. Dorronzoro, D. Oviedo, S. Martin, J. Benjumea, G. Sanchez, 2009, "IEC-60870-5 application layer for an Open and Flexible Remote Unit" *IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Electronics (ISIE 2009)* ; Seoul Olympic Parktel, Seoul, Korea July 5-8, 2009
