COURSE DESCRIPTION

Cp Eng 316 – Advanced Microcomputer System Design

(Offered on demand)

Required or Elective Course: Elective

Catalog Description:

[Lec. 3.0] The design of digital systems based on advanced microprocessors.

Introduction to microcomputer logic development systems. I/0 interfaces. Assembly
and high level language tradeoffs. Hardware and software laboratory projects
required. Prerequisite: Cp Eng 313.

Prerequisites by topic:

1. Familiarity with a microprocessor at the chip level

2. Programming competency in the C language
3. Familiarity with the structure of an operating system such as Unix.

Textbooks and other required material:

Wayne Wolf, Computers as Components, Principles of Embedded Computing System

Design, (Morgan Kaufmann, 2001).

Course learning outcomes/expected performance criteria:

At the end of this course, students should be able to:

1. develop embedded systems with the x86 or ARM
2. design systems with multiple processes
3. manage system complexity
4. cope with system constraints such as power limitations, size, weight, memory
capacity, etc.

Topics covered:

1. Introduction to embedded system design (1 week)

2. Program design and analysis with UML (1 week)
3. The ARM processor architecture (1 week)
4. Performance modeling and analysis (2 weeks)
5. Processes and operating systems (3 weeks)
6. System on chip design methodology (2 weeks)
7. Hardware accelerators (2 weeks)
8. Networks for embedded systems (2 weeks)
9. Reviews, Examinations, and Final Examination (1 week)
Class/laboratory schedule:

Three 50-minutes lecture sessions per week. Open lab for assigned exercises.

Contribution of course to meeting the professional component:

CpEng 316, while still listed in the catalog, has not been taught in a number of years.
The course originally introduced students to a high-level language based, cross
platform development environment; material that has largely been incorporated into
CpE 213, a required course. This proposed upgrade of the course will build on
material from earlier courses and introduce the application of a real time operating
system, and system-on-chip development methodology to embedded system design.
The class will make use of state-of-the-art industrial strength design automation tools
and is strongly influenced by industry practice.

Relationship of course learning outcomes to ECE program outcomes:

ECE Course Outcomes

Outcome Comments
1 2 3 4
a S S S M
b W W
c S S S S
d
e S S S S
f
g
h
i
j
k S W W W
l W M M

S – strong connection; M – medium connection; W – weak connection

Prepared by: D. Beetner Date: June, 2008