UCR CS122A: Embedded System Design, Fall 2002

Course Information Lecture Laboratory Student Presentation Homework

Announcement: Extra office hour on Monday 12/9 1PM-2PM

CS122A deals with the exciting and rapidly-growing field of embedded computing systems.

Why embedded systems?

Embedded computing systems are found everywhere, including in cellular telephones, pagers, VCRs, camcorders, thermostats, curbside rental-car check-in devices, automated supermarket stockers, computerized inventory control devices, digital thermometers, telephone answering machines, printers, portable video games, TV set-top boxes -- the list goes on. In 1997, the average U.S. household had over 10 embedded computers, not to mention the automobile, which have 35 or more by the year 2000. Demand for embedded system designers is large, and is growing rapidly.

In CS122A, you'll learn how to develop and program embedded systems. We'll cover C programming of embedded microcontrollers, the function and use of common peripherals, and the programming and simulation (using VHDL) of custom single-purpose processors (custom digital hardware). We will also investigate several more advanced topics, including hardware/software tradeoffs, real-time systems, computation models, an introduction to control systems, and low-power design (if time permit). Labs will focus more on higher end (32-bit processor based) processing systems. Your grade will be based on lab exercises, homework, in-class presentations, and exams. Graduate students are welcome to take the course.

Course information

Instructor	Harry Hsieh, (harry@cs.ucr.edu), SURGE 329 Office hours: TuTh 11AM-noon, or by appointment
Lecture	SPR 2339, TR 9:40AM-11AM
Lab	Location SURGE 173, TuTh 6:10PM-9PM
Textbooks	Embedded System Design: A Unified Hardware/Software Approach, Vahid and Givargis, Wiley & Sons, 2002, Accompanying Web page Real Time Systems and Programming Languages: Ada 95, Real-Time Java and Real-Time C/POSIX by Alan Burns, Andrew J. Wellings, 3rd edition (April 5, 2001) Addison-Wesley Publishing. RECOMMENDED: VHDL Design Representation and Synthesis, Gray Armstrong, Prentice Hall, Second edition, ISBN 0130216704, OR another VHDL book covering synthesis. All students should have a basic C programming book. A good C book is The C Programming Language, Kernighan and Ritchie, Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-110362-8. A 8051 microcontroller book may be helpful for the lab. A good one is The 8051 Microcontroller, by Stewart and Miao, Prentice Hall, Second edition, ISBN 0-13-531948-x.
Software	We'll be using the Keil 8051 C compiler, Philips 8051 emulators/software, the Aldec VHDL simulator, and Xilinx/Synopsys Foundation Express. You may want to consider purchasing Aldec VHDL simulator student edition. It's an easy to use yet powerful VHDL simulator written for windows. You might also consider getting the Xilinx Student Edition Software and FPGA Board
TA	Jason Villarreal ( villarre@cs.ucr.edu) Office hours: in lab Susan Cotterell ( susanc@cs.ucr.edu) Office hours: in lab
Prerequisite	CS/EE120B (Digital systems)
Exams	Final 12/10/2002 8 to 11 a.m. SPR2339 \| Midterm TBA
Call # and units	11842, 5 units.
Grade	Labs 30%, Homeworks 10%, Midterm/Quizzes/Presentations 35%, Final 25% Extra credit questions may be available for Midterm, Quizzes, and Final.

Lecture topics

Embedded systems:

Design challenges. Moore's law. Processor technologies, implementation technologies, and design technologies. Custom single-purpose processors: hardware design. General-purpose processors: software. Standard single-purpose processors: peripherals. Timers/counters, UARTs, A2D, D2A, PWM. Memories: ROM, EEPROM, FLASH, RAM, NVRAM. Interfacing: Interrupts, DMA, and arbitration.

Models of computation

Languages versus models of computation

State machines model, hierarhical/concurrent state machines

Dataflow model

Concurrent process model

IC technologies available to embedded system designer

Custom, semi-custom, and programmable

Design methodology

And the trend towards softer hardware

Real-time programming

Concurrent processes

Process communication and synchronization

Process implementation, process scheduling

Interrupt-based programming, real-time programming examples

Exceptions and exception handling, use of interrupts

Reliability and fault-tolerance

Safety

Lecture Schedule, Slides, and Handouts

Homeworks

No late homework will be accepted. If you have any question about the grading of your homework after it is returned, you have only 1 week to bring it to my attention. After that, the grading is considered final.

Homework 1 due Thursday, 10/3

Homework 2 due Thursday, 10/10 (Problem 10 modified on 10/7)

Homework 3 due Thursday, 10/17

Homework 4 due Thursday, 10/24 (Problem 1 and 2 modified on 10/21)

Homework 5 due Thursday, 11/21

Homework 6 due Thursday, 12/5

Student presentation

You will be required to make a 10 minute oral presentation in class about an article related to computer engineering. You will need to sign up for an article AND a time slot no later than the second class (10/1). While your own presentation will be graded, the material covered in the presentations may show up only as extra credit questions on quizzes and exams. Presenters should try to cover the relevant and interesting points of the article. In addition, presenters are expected to do a little research outside the article and add it to the presentation. Questions from the audience are encouraged.

Presentation Schedule and List of Articles

Lab

The following is subject to change.
You will have several assigned labs dealing with writing programs for an embedded general-purpose processor (an 8051 microcontroller), and synthesizing custom single-purpose processors (using Synopsys FPGA Express and Xilinx FPGA's).

Labs should be done with one partner.

While lecture and lab material obviously overlap, the two aspects of the course are quite independent, with lectures dealing with general theory and principles, and lab dealing specifically with a couple of selected processors and tools. Exams will focus on lecture material, but will include some amount of lab material.

You should plan to stay in every lab for the full three hours, starting from the very first day. If you finish a lab early, then you should start on the next one (each comes with a good description), so that you will have even more time to work on later labs which are more difficult.