2110682 Embedded and Real-Time Systems

Department of Computer Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University

Course duration   : 2nd semester 2014
Lecturer                : Prabhas Chongstitvatana, Prof.
                            (office Eng build 4, Floor 18, room 13, tel 022186982, email: prabhas at chula dot ac dot th)
Lecture                : Sun 13.00-16.00 at ENG4 Floor 17

The content of the course is a mixed between hardware and software. Embedded systems are computer systems with special requirement on constraints such as low power, high integration, real-time. This course explores Embedded systems design. On the hardware side, it includes embedded processors and low level programming, logic design, integrated circuits. On the software side, it includes Software Engineering, Operating systems scheduling, communication and real-time constraints. Here are the list of topics:

Introduction to embedded and real-time systems
Microprocessor
Assembly level programming
Memory, Peripherals and Microprocessor interface
Operating systems and task scheduling
Real-time systems and their requirements
Internet of Things

How we learn

We learn by doing both hardware and software. The activities include embedded system model construction, some programming, and hands-on session. The assignments will be given out periodically throughout the term. A small project will be given around midterm. Students must present the results of their projects. At the second half of the semester students are assigned to do research on the given topics. The reports will be presented in the class. The final exam is "open book" and has an element of system design plus some "pseudo" programming.

Announcement

15 Feb 2015 Project implementing 4B processor should be finished around 2 March. You should hand-in the written report of the design and show your working circuit.
. . .

Timetable

January

Introduction
Microprocessor: assembly language S21 sample program
logic design Basic Logic Microprocessors
architecture: Evolution of computer architecture

February

memory, peripherals and interface memory and interrupt i/o peripherals
cache and virtual memory memory system design
Graphics Processing Units NPU instruction set sample program
Project presentation

March

project   Embed Sys Demo
Operating systems and task scheduling basic OS concepts,   Nos (Nut Operating System) Nos services
semaphore: flash demo from William Stallings, U. of Queensland
lecture from Matt Welsh, Harvard,   semaphores.pdf
real-time systems RTOS    real-time scheduling

April

Embedded Systems Communication
CAN
Network on Chip
Reliability and fault tolerance

May

final exam

Homework

1)   Create and test a Full adder using Logicwork5
2)   1 Feb 2015, Read the paper "Reduced Instruction Set Computer". We will discuss it next week.
3)   15 Feb, Read the chapter "memory system design". We will discuss it in the next class.

Assignment

. . .

Additional Materials

S23 assembly language
Transistor level simulation of an antique CPU. 6502 is used in the iconic Apple II machine.
    http://visual6502.org/JSSim/index.html
A story of emulation of HP48 calculator
Reference to NPU:   Nattapong Thammasan and Prabhas Chongstitvatana, "Design of a GPU-styled Softcore on Field Programmable Gate Array," International Joint Conference on Computer Science and Software Engineering, Thailand, 2012.

Rz language and its compiler
Network on Chip
    General introduction (IEEE computer, 2002)
          http://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/165542/files/00976921.pdf
    Recent development (International Symposium on Computer Architecture, 2011)
          http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~hestness/links/KNOC_ISCA11.pdf
    Commercial development
          http://www.design-reuse.com/articles/10496/a-comparison-of-network-on-chip-and-busses.html

Course Assessment

Assignments            30%
Midterm paper       30%
Final exam              40%

Tools

s21 tools :    assembler and simulator s21.zip
Logicworks5
NPU package npsim2.zip , update (16 Dec 2012) npsim4.zip
assembler for s23   as23.zip new version as23-1.zip
rz36 compiler package rz36.zip
rz36 with interrupt and Nos support rz36-1.zip
update rz35 (bug fixed) include executable rz36 and as23: rz36-2.zip
NUT operating system nos1.txt (process) nos2.txt (with semaphore) nos4.txt (with mailbox)

Acknowledgement

Slides and presentations are kindly permitted by Setha Pan-gnam, Chalermek Intanagonwiwat

last update 15 Feb 2015