ECE354 - Computer Systems Lab II  (Spring 2009)

You know you've achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add,
but when you have nothing more to take away.
        - Antoine de Saint-Exupery 

Course Info

Time: Monday & Wednesday 2:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. plus additional lab times

Location: Marston Hall room 211 (lectures), Duda Hall (lab)

Prerequisites: ECE353 - Computer Systems Lab I

Instructors: Prof. C. Andras Moritz, Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 1PM-2PM in Knowles 309H

Recommended Text: Wayne Wolf: " Computers as Components" Morgan Kauffman Publishers, 2005.

Course web page: http://python.ecs.umass.edu/~ece354/ (course information and lab instructions).

Course Description

With the advent of low cost embedded devices, ubiquitous computing will soon be a reality. This course teaches design of embedded systems and other key areas in networked computing, sensors and signal processing. Students are presented with the theory behind real time operating systems, web servers, sensors, DSP and get a chance to apply these concepts in the labs. The labs focus on modern embedded systems design with rapid prototyping using FPGA's, soft core processors, real time operating systems and some sophisticated development tools. Students thus get hands on experience in designing real applications and get exposed to the current methods in embedded systems design. It is expected that students have familiarity with basic digtal design and verilog, and have some knowledge of C/C++ before taking this course. The course is taught using the new Altera DE 2 FPGA boards . Students  work with NIOS 2 , a 32 bit microcontroller from Altera using Quartus2, SOPC IDE and NIOS2 IDE software. 

Students working on Lab 2, using the DE 2 board from Altera.

Course Objectives:

1. To understand the principles of Embedded Systems and the tradeoffs which guide the hardware-software partitioning of any design.

2. To develop embedded software, including reusing existing components.

3. To prototype, debug and demonstrate embedded systems combining sensors, interfaces, computation, memory and networking.

4. To understand how embedded systems play an increasing role in society.

5. To work in teams of 2 and larger teams of teams to solve design problems.

6. To evaluate and document laboratory processes and products.

Student Feedback on the course:

The pilot version of this course was offered in Spring 2006. On a scale of 1(much less) to 5(much more), students awarded a grade of 4.09 in response to the question: "Overall, how much do you feel you have learned in this course?".

Similarly, the overall rating of the course was 3.78.

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This site is maintained by C Andras Moritz .