Best Practices in Embedded Systems Design
                     Best Practices in Embedded Systems Design
Anil Janardhanan
Writes for Gadgeon.com, embedded engineering 
and Gadgeon embedded software development.
 
Product design and development is becoming extremely complex with 
many factors are to be set right – functionality, aesthetics, manageable 
cost of production, scalable connectivity, security, and many more. The 
risks are higher and significant when we are designing and developing 
tiny, specialized systems that power personal gadgets to industrial 
equipment. 
It takes years of specialized expertise in embedded system design & 
development to identify and apply best practices that addresses the 
challenges such as overheating, ensuring adequate computing power & 
memory, energy efficiency, prevention of data loss, plugging the security 
vulnerabilities, easy to bulk manufacture, optimum cost, quality, 
regulatory & safety compliance, and consistent high user experience etc. 
Let us examine some of the best practices to specifically address few of 
the critical challenges in embedded system design.
Design for Optimum Power
There are many factors to consider predicting the power requirement for 
your embedded system. One of the best practices is to factor and plan the 
power requirements into your design right from the start. An experienced 
designer is equipped to predict the energy requirements of their products 
accurately and will ensure it gets built into the final design. 
Using a processor with adequate processing power will ensure that the 
product works as intended with minimal or no lags or delays. This will also 
ensure upgrades and scalability aspects of the product during its lifetime. 
Design for Optimum Memory
Having adequate memory is critical for the correct functioning of the 
embedded systems. Planning and designing the system with correct and 
sufficient memory is critical to avoid performance and other related 
issues. Memory upgradability is a must have feature in the modern-day 
embedded designs.
In small embedded systems where SOCs are used (system on a chip), the 
amount of available memory is fixed. During the firmware development, 
care must be taken to optimally utilize and reuse available resources. 
Applying special data structures and memory allocation algorithms are 
some of the best practices that can be leveraged. 
Address overheating issues
Overheating is one of the biggest challenges in an embedded system 
design. As embedded systems are extensively used in critical areas from 
healthcare to manufacturing, malfunctioning due to overheating cannot 
be afforded. There are different ways to design a most suited cooling 
solution. Using fans to circulate air around is one such approach. Some 
designs use heat pipes or specialized heat sink etc. 
Prevention of Data loss
Embedded systems are vulnerable to loss of data as it often uses volatile 
memory and hence data can be lost in situations such as a power failure.   
There are many design considerations that can be considered depending 
on the criticality of the application, that prevents data loss such as using 
EEPROM for critical data or having a real-time connectivity to a backup 
service either locally or on cloud. 
Security vulnerabilities
Embedded systems are to be constantly monitored and upgraded to plug 
any potential threat from external interferences. Several best practices 
can be leveraged to make your embedded systems secure. Design 
approaches such as implementing encryption technologies in the 
interface designs, provision to securely upgrade the firmware with 
authentication using encrypted private keys are few examples.  As part of 
the development process, continuous rigorous testing and auditing of 
both hardware and firmware components to identify potential 
vulnerabilities and resolving them will help deploying a more secure 
system later. To make the systems secure, a constant and concerted effort 
is required both from a technical and organizational perspective. 
Design for regulatory compliances
Today the usage and integration of embedded system is growing 
exponentially. Many regulatory and safety compliances are being 
prescribed and made mandatory across the globe. Embedded systems are 
to be designed right from the early stages itself for regulatory and safety 
compliance such as FCC, CE requirements as well as safety requirements 
such as UL and European Safety Norms. 
Ease of Manufacturing
As world become more and more connected, embedded systems are used 
almost everywhere. Hence it is very important that the embedded 
systems are manufactured at scale. As the manufacturing difficulty 
increases, the systems become expensive and could limit the market 
potential of the products and associated services. As embedded system 
designers, we need to keep the manufacturability of the system in mind at 
the design stage itself. Reducing the design complexities by focusing on 
simplicity and the number of components involved would help 
manufacturing to be simpler, affordable, and streamlined. 
Optimization of cost
A cost optimized design is critical for the success of the embedded system 
and associated products & services. There are several factors contribute 
to the cost of a system such as hardware & firmware complexity and 
inferior resource management leading to higher resource & labor costs. 
Detailed planning with attention to details will help us avoid these pitfalls. 
Strict focus on efficiency and retaining only the most essential features 
will help us to make our product cost-effective without any compromise 
on quality and performance. A cost optimized and simplified design 
approach right from the beginning will lay the foundation for an 
affordable high-quality system.
Quality Challenges
As the world is getting increasingly connected, user experience is critical. 
Poor quality of performance by one of the systems is enough to frustrate 
the users, as these systems are increasingly relying on complex hardware 
and firmware working in tandem. To ensure high-quality systems, the 
designers and manufacturers must focus on every aspect of their design 
process, continuously benchmarking their methods to deliver and 
improve efficiency. A strong design partner will help companies to deliver 
excellent quality systems.
Impact to environment
Embedded systems could cause severe pollution and resource wastage. 
Every successful product should focus on minimizing wastage and 
reducing carbon footprint at all stages of production. Best practices such 
as leveraging of recycled material as much possible, investing in energy-
efficient technologies, and using environment friendly or reduced 
packaging. This requires careful planning and consideration to our 
environment. 
Standardized design approach
The need for focus on a standardized embedded system design and 
development is becoming increasingly essential in this connected world. 
There is a constant push for upgrades and newer versions of products and 
platforms. Compatibility to other systems in a connected world becomes a 
major issue for system designers and developers. Development of use 
case specific guideline for interfaces between systems and platform is 
needed. Better collaboration between design and manufacturing teams 
will ensure long term reliability for the end-users.
Gadgeon systems brings years of specialized expertise in embedded 
system design and development helping our customers in delivering world 
class systems and products with optimal cost and enhanced features.  We 
have delivered number of designs to industry segments such as medical 
devices, home & building automation systems, smart manufacturing, 
HAVC systems, smart furniture, connected vehicles, IoT gateways, and 
many more. Connect with us to leverage the services of our team of 
design experts & engineers. 
About Gadgeon
Gadgeon is known for its expertise in Industrial IoT and engineering 
excellence. We connect devices, operations, and processes to create 
business value, and revolutionize enterprises with the power of data. As 
an end-to-end technology services company, we successfully enabled the 
digital journey of customers with critical digital services ranging from 
embedded systems, cloud app development, mobile app development, 
data & analytics, application modernization, emerging technology based 
solutions, and testing & test automation across the industries such as 
connected factory, telecom & datacom, digital healthcare, CSPs, and 
home & building automation.
Thank you for time in reading this article!