An embedded system is a combination of hardware and software that is designed to do a specific function or functions. You may think of an embedded system as a controller that is part of a larger design.
What are they used for?
Embedded Systems are used to control many devices or certain parts of the devices that are in common use today, such as TVs, household appliances, printers, digital cameras, automobiles, medical equipment, airplanes the list goes on and on.
How do they work?
Modern embedded systems are often based on microcontrollers, microprocessors, System on Chip (SoC), or FPGAs. These are integrated circuits (IC’s) that are designed to carry out some computations within the embedded system. Embedded systems work by taking in an analog or digital input. The input is then processed based on how the software of the system was programmed. This will result on providing some sort of output.
Some embedded systems may have a user input such as an optical mouse that takes pictures of the surface while you (the user) move the mouse. It stores the pictures in memory and compares them to determine x/y locations which are outputted to the PC.
Even though an optical mouse is a peripheral to the PC, the PC itself isn’t considered an embedded system because it is multifunctional. In your PC you can have multiple software’s that perform various tasks or you can create new software in the PC, which is contradictory to an embedded system.
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