Floating point cost on embedded systems in Embedded C - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Floating Point Cost on Embedded Systems

📖 Scenario: You are working on a small embedded system that controls a simple device. The system has limited memory and processing power. You want to understand how using floating point numbers affects the program's performance and size.

🎯 Goal: You will create a small program that calculates the sum of numbers using both integer and floating point types. This will help you see the difference in how floating point operations are handled on embedded systems.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create variables with exact names and values as instructed

Use integer and floating point types explicitly

Write simple loops to sum numbers

Print the results using printf

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Embedded systems often have limited resources. Understanding floating point cost helps optimize performance and memory usage.

💼 Career

Embedded developers must write efficient code. Knowing when and how to use floating point types is important for system reliability and speed.

1

Create integer variables and initialize

Create an integer variable called int_sum and set it to 0. Create an integer variable called limit and set it to 100.

Embedded C

# Create integer variables int_sum and limit
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use int to declare integer variables and assign values with =.

2

Create floating point variables

Add a floating point variable called float_sum and set it to 0.0f. Add a floating point variable called float_limit and set it to 100.0f.

Embedded C

int int_sum = 0;
int limit = 100;
// Create float variables float_sum and float_limit
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use float type and add f after decimal numbers.

3

Sum numbers using loops

Write a for loop using int i from 1 to limit (inclusive) to add i to int_sum. Write another for loop using float j from 1.0f to float_limit (inclusive) adding j to float_sum with increments of 1.0f.

Embedded C

int int_sum = 0;
int limit = 100;
float float_sum = 0.0f;
float float_limit = 100.0f;
// Add for loops to sum integers and floats
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use two separate for loops with correct variable types and increments.

4

Print the results

Use printf to print the integer sum with the text "Integer sum: %d\n" and the floating point sum with the text "Floating point sum: %.1f\n".

Embedded C

int int_sum = 0;
int limit = 100;
float float_sum = 0.0f;
float float_limit = 100.0f;

for (int i = 1; i <= limit; i++) {
    int_sum += i;
}

for (float j = 1.0f; j <= float_limit; j += 1.0f) {
    float_sum += j;
}

// Print the sums
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use printf with %d for integers and %.1f for floats.