System Architecture

Created: 08/04/2020Last updated:08/04/2020

Introductions: system architecture provides a technical overviews of the system design in terms of block diagrams, power tree, clock tree, and gpio assignments/configurations.

Architecture Overview

System Architecture - Block Diagram

System Block Diagram: it contains all the main digital (e.g., SOC and Memory) and peripheral systems (e.g., sensors, I/O ports, etc.) and the interfaces.

System Architecture - Power Tree

Clock Tree: This is similar to block diagram but instead it only contains all the clock traces from clock generator (e.g, SoC) to its sinks (e.g., radio).

      • Typically a clock is synced by one source either from PMIC in the case of a battery powered system or from the SoC.
System Architecture - Clock Tree

Power Tree: This is similar to Clock Tree but it only contains the power path from its source (e.g, battery or DC jack) to all power regulators and subsequently to all the electronic integrated circuits.

GPIO Table

GPIO Table: This is a spreadsheet where all the GPIO interfaces are meticulously itemized according to GPIO pin #, pin name, net name, and pin mode (input/output/alternative), pullup/pulldown, and description.

    • This is useful for following reasons:
        • appropriate gpio assignments for communication interface requirements among host and its peripherals.
        • easy and quick way for embedded software engineers to do pin configurations.