Each textbook section reference is a link to a short description of the material in that section, giving you hints about how to get the most out of your reading and what we consider to be the section's important points.

The list of topics covered by the homework to be turned in the following week is also given for each week. (The schedule for turning in homework can be found in the discussion of administrative details.)

Week 1 Lectures

• 8/28: Introduction

  • Course goals
  • Course mechanics
  • Applications for embedded systems
  • How an embedded system solves a problem

• 8/30: System architecture (Text, Chapter 1)

  • I/O devices, CPU, Memory
  • Interconnections -- the use of a bus
  • Specifying computations

• 9/1: Machine properties (Text, Sections 2-1, 2-2, 3-1, 3-2, 3-3-1, 3-4, 3-4)

  • CPU architecture and Assembly language
  • The condition code
  • Signed and unsigned interpretations
  • The behavior of if and while

Homework

• Basic software familiarization

  • Access information via the WWW
  • Use electronic mail
  • Use Borland C

Week 2 Lectures

• 9/4: Labor day, no lecture

• 9/6: Addressing modes (Text, Sections 1-3, 2-1, 2-3)

  • Access to denotations
  • Array variable access

• 9/8: Addressing modes (continued)

  • Pointer variable access
  • Pointers to arrays
  • General taxonomy of addressing modes

Homework

• Assembler and debugger

  • Configure the compiler to produce assembly code
  • Produce .asm files and identify redundant code
  • Obtain information via the debugger

Week 3 Lectures

• 9/11: Procedure call and return (Text, Sections 3-5, 3-7, 4-2, 4-3, 5-1, 5-2, 5-4, 5-5)

  • How the call and return operations use the stack
  • Passing arguments via the stack
  • Use of BP to access arguments
  • Saving and restoring state
  • Example is a routine to move characters

• 9/13: Procedure call and return (continued)

  • Interface specifications
  • Recursion
  • Use of the stack for local variables
  • The concept of an activation record
  • Example is a routine to convert numbers

• 9/15: Assembler directives (Text, Section 3-10)

  • Storage reservation and data generation: DB, DW, DD
  • Activation records STRUC/ENDS
  • How directives are used to separate data layout from code
  • How directives are used to obtain properties of data

Homework

• Recursion and activation records

  • Write a recursive routine
  • Use the debugger to follow execution

Week 4 Lectures

• 9/18: The assembly process (Text, Sections 3-11, 3-12)

  • Determining addresses
  • ORG and EQU
  • Attributes computed by the assembler

• 9/20: Modularity and separate assembly (Text, Section 4-1)

  • Separation of concerns and information hiding
  • Visibility and lifetime
  • Segment directives and combine types
  • The analogy between assembly and linkage

• 9/22: Summary for first examination

  • This time can also be used to catch up
  • Recap system and machine architecture
  • Recap language issues

Homework

• Modules and linking

  • Create two subroutines as separate modules
  • Examine the segment addressing for various combine types
  • Examine instructions that refer to external symbols

Week 5 Lectures

• 9/25: Serial I/O (Text, Sections 1-2-3, 3-8, 6-1, 6-2, 9-1)

  • The RS-232 interface
  • The function of a UART
  • Access to I/O devices via OUT and IN instruction

• 9/27: Serial I/O (continued)

  • Programming the UART
  • Writing characters to the UART
  • Reading characters from the UART

• 9/29: Digital/Analog Conversion (Text, Section 9-2-2)

  • Sampling analog waveforms
  • Conversion between analog and digital representations
  • Handshaking required for A/D, D/A conversion

Homework

• Serial I/O

  • Write character input/output routines in assembly language
  • Write a general input/output module in C
  • Combine these routines to copy text from one machine to another

Week 6 Lectures

• 10/2: First examination, covering material through week 4

  • Machine architecture
  • Assembly language

• 10/4: Interrupts (Text, Sections 4-4 6-3 8-3)

  • Examples from real life
  • How interrupts affect the CPU
  • When interrupts can and cannot occur
  • Interrupt priority

• 10/6: Interrupts (continued)

  • Interrupt-handlers for serial I/O

Homework

• Analog Output

  • Write an assembly language routine to output samples
  • Write a variable-frequency sine wave generator
  • Produce morse code from alphanumeric text

Week 7 Lectures

• 10/9: The cost of interrupt-driven I/O (Text, Sections 2-2, 2-3, 2-4)

  • How the processor deals with instructions: The fetch/execute cycle
  • Variable-length instructions and how they are decoded
  • Instruction timing and interrupt cost
  • The cost of transmitting one sample

• 10/11: Block transfers and DMA (Text, Sections , 9-5)

  • Sampling requirements for signal reproduction
  • Block transfer data paths and cycle stealing
  • Interaction between DMA controller and device controller

• 10/13: Block transfers and DMA (continued)

  • Setup operations for block transfer
  • Bus mastery
  • Buffering considerations

Homework

• Interrupt-driven serial I/O

  • Write interrupt-driven character I/O routines
  • Implement a "talk" facility between two machines

Week 8 Lectures

• 10/16: Block transfers and DMA (continued)

  • Examples and discussion

• 10/18: Buffering and buffer management (Text, Section 6-5)

  • Buffering for data-rate averaging
  • Use of multiple buffers
  • Circular buffers

• 10/20: Buffering and buffer management (continued)

  • Circular buffer management routines

Homework

• Analog I/O

  • Write an interrupt-driven routine to input samples
  • Output a copy of the input samples as they are read
  • Degrade the output by changing values, skipping samples, etc.

Week 9 Lectures

• 10/23: Time (Text, Section 9-3)

  • 60 Hz interrupts as a timing mechanism
  • Timing of short intervals
  • Cascaded counters and software clocks

• 10/25: Process management (Text, Sections 7-1, 7-2)

  • The critical section problem
  • Assumptions made by Dijkstra
  • Solution under Dijkstra's assumptions

• 10:27: Process management (continued)

  • A computer system as a collection of cooperating processes
  • Semaphores
  • Preemptive and non-preemptive scheduling

Homework

• Logical I/O

  • Write an assembly language routine to debounce switches
  • Background control of a pedestrian traffic light

Week 10 Lectures

• 10/30: Summary for second examination

  • This time can also be used to catch up
  • Recap system architecture
  • Recap relationship among components
  • Recap relationship with the outside world

• 11/1: Common procedure sharing (Text, Section 7-3)

  • Pure code
  • Re-entrancy vs. serial reusability
  • Coding techniques

• 11/3: Floating point numbers (Text, Sections 3-7, 3-8, 3-9, 11-3)

  • IEEE standard representation
  • How floating-point arithmetic operations are carried out
  • What is "roundoff" error?

Homework

• Use the parallel port for asynchronous serial communication

  • Establish the correct timing and bit patterns
  • Communicate between machines

Week 11 Lectures

• 11/6: Second examination, covering material through week 9

  • I/O
  • Interrupts
  • Concurrency

• 11/8: Floating point numbers (continued)

  • Code to unpack, normalize, and pack floating-point numbers
  • Representing A/D and D/A samples in floating-point

• 11/10: System bus structure (Text, Sections 8-1, 8-2, 8-4)

  • Closely-coupled processors
  • Bus states
  • System size

Homework

• Measure a resistance using the parallel port only

  • Determine the accuracy of the measurement
  • Explore hysteresis effects

Week 12 Lectures

• 11/13: Coprocessor interaction (Text, Sections 2-2, 11-1, 11-2-1, 11-2-2)

  • Coding of floating-point operations
  • CPU bus usage information
  • CPU instruction queue information

• 11/15: Memory management (Text, Sections 7-4, 7-5)

  • Base and limit
  • Paging

• 11/17: Memory management (continued)

  • Segmentation

Homework

• On/off control

  • Using asymmetric waveforms for speed and position control
  • Line following robot

Week 13 Lectures

• 11/20: Memory management (continued)

  • Associative memory
  • Caching

• 11/22: Case study

  • The control problem
  • Sensing position and velocity

• 11/24: Thanksgiving break, no lecture

Homework

• Encoding/Decoding

  • Determine motion from a shaft encoder
  • Single-knob control of frequency and volume

Week 14 Lectures

• 11/27: Case study (continued)

  • Use of compensation to obtain desirable characteristics

• 11/29: Case study (continued)

  • How the computer determines compensation

• 12/1: Case study (continued)

  • Simulating the real world

Homework

• Analog control

  • Response using position feedback only
  • Compensation using acceleration and velocity feedback
  • Use floating point to compute control inputs

Week 15 Lectures

• 12/4: Mystery lecture

  • This time can also be used for course evaluation

• 12/6: Mystery lecture

  • This time can also be used to catch up
  • Possible topic might be other architectures

• 12/8: Mystery lecture

  • Possible topics might be student questions

Homework

• Creative Exercise

  • Describe a control problem of your own choosing
  • Explain how it can be solved by one of our lab systems
  • Indicate the functionality of the necessary software
  • Estimate how long it would take to solve the problem as stated

Week 16 Lectures

• 12/11: Where have we been this semester?

  • Recap system architecture
  • Recap interactions with the environment
  • Recap memory and coprocessor issues

• 12/13: Where have we been this semester?

  • Free-ranging discussion of computers as components

FINAL EXAM

Monday December 18, 11:30 AM - 2:30 PM