System Perspective in Digital System Design
In digital system design, understanding key terminologies and adopting a system perspective is crucial. Below are important aspects:
System Specifications:
- This encompasses the overall specifications for the design, including objectives, application, components, electrical characteristics, and information about external interfaces.
System Components:
- Various components involved in designing digital systems, such as microprocessors, IO devices, memory devices, sensors, power supply units, serial devices, ADCs, DACs, keyboards, and displays, must be identified based on design needs.
Design Considerations:
- Important considerations during system design include compatibility, fanout, load, propagation delay, power, and speed. System designers must understand these factors to create efficient digital systems.
Power Requirements and Backup Strategies:
- Evaluating the overall power requirements for the system and designing an efficient power supply network is critical. Backup strategies, especially for volatile memories and programmable logic devices, need to be in place.
External Memories and Management:
- Given that processors or microcontrollers have limited memory capacity, system designers should comprehend the need for external memories. Efficient and flexible memory management and interfaces are crucial.
External IO or Peripheral Devices:
- Understanding the requirement for external IO devices is key to better IO selections and management.
Multiple Power Domain Strategies:
- Many systems have multiple power domains, such as isolating analog and digital grounds in systems with analog and digital components.
Mechanical Assembly:
- Designing the mechanical assembly is essential. A separate team should focus on creating compact products.
System designers must consider all these aspects to achieve the main goals: designing a compact, long-lasting, user-friendly, and flexible system with minimal power dissipation and maximum area coverage. The holistic approach involves ensuring the efficient interaction of various components and considerations for optimal system performance.