Knowledge / Electronics & Embedded Systems

Embedded Systems Architecture

Hardware-software co-design, memory maps, device drivers, boot processes, peripherals, and firmware architecture.

By Siddhant Krishna · Published 2026-10-06 · Updated 2026-10-06

Boot Process

Reset establishes an initial processor state.
Startup code initializes low-level hardware.
Memory and runtime environments are prepared.
A bootloader may validate and select application firmware.
The application begins execution.

Memory Mapping

Embedded processors commonly expose peripherals and memory through defined address spaces. Firmware accesses registers to configure hardware and exchange information with peripherals.

Device Drivers

A device driver abstracts hardware-specific behavior behind reusable software interfaces. Drivers commonly configure registers, service interrupts, manage buffers, and expose higher-level operations to application code.

References

Arm Developer documentation covering Cortex-M microcontroller architectures and embedded processor resources.
https://developer.arm.com/Processors/Cortex-M
NIST guidance and research concerning cybersecurity, device identity, lifecycle security, and connected embedded systems.
https://www.nist.gov/internet-things

MicrocontrollersSelf-contained computing devices integrating a processor core, memory, peripherals, timers, communication interfaces, and GPIO.Firmware EngineeringThe software layer that directly controls embedded hardware and peripherals.

Boot Process

Memory Mapping

Device Drivers

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