Unit name | Embedded and Real-Time Systems |
---|---|
Unit code | EENG34030 |
Credit points | 10 |
Level of study | H/6 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Dr. Agrafiotis |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites | |
Co-requisites |
EENG34040. |
School/department | School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering |
Faculty | Faculty of Engineering |
Microcomputers are routinely embedded within the heart of modern electronic systems and this unit is designed to deal with the key topics concerned with implementing a microcomputer-based system and programming it to meet the real-time demands of embedded systems. Microcomputer controllers are described, their interface components explained and programming approaches discussed. Topics addressed include bus systems, signalling and handshaking, arbitration, designing memory systems, serial and parallel data interfaces, analogue interfaces, programming input-output systems, interrupts, simple state machine schedulers, programming real-time systems, the real-time scheduler, and synchronising parallel processes. This unit will use Problem Based Learning (PBL) which will use 5 problems each of which will be expected to take 2 weeks to complete. Some will involve practical work using a real time embedded system.
The hardware part of the unit focuses on power efficient processors from ARM (e.g. Cortex M0) and how these processors can be used to build embedded and real-time systems using FPGAs as the target implementation technology. FPGAs are introduced as a low-cost, high-performance custom computing platform suitable for Embedded and Real time Systems. The bus systems required to interface the processors with other peripherals are studied focusing on ARM AMBA AHB/APB and AXI interconnects. Practical work during this phase involves building a AHB system-on-chip around the Cortex M0 processor.
On successful completion of the unit a student will be able to:
Lectures,Group meetings, Laboratory sessions
Coursework on Problems (Quiz, report, presentation), 50% (All ILOs)
Exam, 2 hours, 50% (all ILOs)
Recommended:
Optional additional reading: