EENG7709Embedded Systems

2015 Spring Course Syllabus

Instructor: Professor Hong Zhao, Email: zhao@fdu.edu, Tel: 692-2350
Schedule: Mons. 5:30PM-8:00PM
Location: TBA
Office Hours: Mons. 2:00PM-3:00PM, Tues. 11:00AM-12:00PM; Thurs. 9:00AM10:00AM; Others by appointment.
Textbook:
There is no textbook. You need download lecture notes and read course materials received in class.

Course Description
Introduces system hardware and firmware design for embedded applications. Advanced
interfacing techniques interfacing, Software modeling and embedded C program design
methodology using a processor based development platform.

Course Objectives
Objective 1: Learn about embedded system architecture, devices and buses, programming
concepts and real time operating systems concepts.
Objective 2: Learn the processors, memory organization, program modeling, software
approach to Embedded Design, advanced RTOs and Case study.

Grading Policy
The final grade will be determined according to the following distribution of tasks:
Item
HW and Participation

%
15

Written reports

10

Projects

20

Midterm

25

Final Exam

30

Dates

3/09/2015
The exam week

Homework:
All homework assignments must be turned in individually on time. Late submissions will
be penalized by taking off 50% of marked points and accepted only up to the beginning of
the subsequent class period.
Written report
You will be required to submit three reports in both written and oral format. Your report is
to be a cover page and at least three pages of text, double spaced. Font size of must be 12
points. The report is to discuss the assigned topics. You must research the topics on the

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Internet and cite at least 5 sources on the topic. Your submitted report must be typed and
printed.
Exams:
There will be 2 exams, which are tentatively scheduled above. Exams are closed book and
closed notes. You are allowed to use one standard size 8 x 11 sheet of paper (both sides)
containing your personally prepared notes for the exam. Cheating in any form is not
tolerated. Students are not excused from any exam except for sickness or family
emergencies, in which case the exam must be made up as soon as is practical.
Project
There will be 5 projects which include both software and hardware. The project will be graded
based on:
Successful demonstrations of results
A project that runs incorrectly will receive no more than 60% of the grade; a project

that does not compile will receive no more than 30% of the grade; garbage (which
does not make any sense) will receive 0%.

The quality of the project report.

No late project report submission.

Project policy
The projects software must be completed by your own individual effort. You should never have a
copy of someone else's code either on paper or electronically under any circumstance and no one
else should have a copy of your code. You should never give a copy of your code, either on paper
or electronically, to another student, under any circumstances. Cases of academic dishonesty will
be dealt with severely.
It will be permitted to get assistance on modifying the hardware for this project.
Participation

You are expected to attend all classes. If you cannot attend a specific class, you must
notify the instructor ahead of time stating the reason for missing the class. It will be your
responsibility to make yourself aware of the course material presented and submit
homeworks due for the missed class.

Course Outline
Weeks of
1

Topics
Course Introduction
Overview of Processors and hardware units in an
embedded system
Exemplary embedded systems
Combination of hardware and software

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Reading
Chapter1
Introduction to
Embedded System
Chapter
Design of software
systems

Choosing a microprocessor
ARM and other High Performance Processors.
CISC and RISC new generation Microcontrollers.

Lecture notes

I/O devices
Serial port interfaces
Parallel port interfaces

Chapter7 &8
Lecture notes

Memory interfacing
Memory basics
General memory bus timing and approaches to
interfacing
Memory interface examples

Chapter 9
Lecture notes

Chapter 10
High-speed
I/O interfacing

OS and RTOS
Needs of real time embedded operating system
Scheduling of Multiple Tasks in real time by
RTOS
Handling of Interrupt source call by the RTOS

High speed I/O interfacing

The need for speed
High speed I/O applications
General approaches to high-speed interfaces
Examples

Chapter 4
Lecture notes

Midterm (week 7, March 9)

Programming in assembly language (ALP) vs.
High Level Language
RISC ARM Instruction Set Architecture
Concurrent Programming
Real Time Programming Issues

Chapter 5
Lecture Notes

10,11

Chapter 5
Lecture notes

12,13

Multiprocessors
CPUs, Accelerators and hardware/software
codesign
Multiprocessors performance analysis

Chapter 12

14

Case study--Microprocessor based control system

Case study---Cell phones
Final Exam (the week 15)

Chapter 13
Lecture Notes

8, 9

Traditional methods for synchronization

Semaphores and their applications
Monitors
Message
based
synchronization
and
communication

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Note: Midterm exam will be administrated during regular class hours. Midterm exam time is
subjected to changes, but will be announced ahead of time.

Scholastic Dishonesty
Student collaboration in studying, and class discussion part is encouraged in this course.
However, homework should be approached and prepared on an individual basis.
Collaboration on exams, quizzes will not be tolerated.

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