ECE 354 Computer Systems Lab II

University of Massachusetts

Welcome to the 354 Course Home Page! This serves as the syllabus for the course. The URL is: /ece/tessier/courses/354/index.html

Instructor: Russell Tessier, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, tel: 413-545-0160, email: tessier@ecs.umass.edu, Lab Hours: Mon Wed 11-noon, 2:30-3:30, 4:30-5:30

Grad TAs: Weifeng Xu (wxu@ecs.umass.edu)

Undergrad TAs: Garrett Hennessey (henna@student.umass.edu), Damian Nowak (dnowak@student.umass.edu) Mike Martineau (mpmartin@student.umass.edu)


Course Description

In the last 10 years, there has been a revolution in the way electronic systems are designed, prototyped and manufactured. The objective of this course is to show how hardware and software are designed and tested together in a variety of embedded computing systems. These range from a Microchip PIC microcontroller to specialized processors for DSP and Media Processing. The course makes use of a wide range of hardware and software design tools. Expect to expend significant time learning these tools in order to complete the labs.

Prerequisites: ECE 353

Grading: There will be 5 labs. For each lab, there will be a demonstration and a report. Although these will be done by each group, you will be graded as individuals. Equal weight will be given to each lab. Labs will count for 75% of the final grade. Each lab assignment will be weighted as follows: 35% in-class checkoff, 50% lab writeup, 15% personal summary unless the student receives less than a BC on the in-class checkoff. In this event, the checkoff grade will be the entire grade for the assignment. Additionally, there will be one hour-long quiz worth 20% of your grade. This quiz is tentatively scheduled for 2:30PM on April 17 in ELAB 303.

Textbook (Required): Design with PIC Microcontrollers , by John Peatman, Prentice Hall Publishing, 1997. This book is available from the UMASS Textbook Annex. I suggest purchasing one copy of the textbook per group.

Supplementary Reading: There will be additional readings from the academic, industrial and popular literature and various Web reading assignments. These will all be announced in lab with links and bibliographic information provided on this Web page. Additional information about Microchip can be found at www.microchip.com .

Lab Time/Place: Mondays and Wednesdays, 1:30 - 6:30, Marston 228. You are expected to attend for all of these hours unless you hear otherwise. Additional hours will be scheduled later in the semester. Mondays at 2:30 we will often go to ELAB 303 for brief lectures.

Internet: This course will make extensive use of electronic mail and the Web for communication. READ YOUR EMAIL FREQUENTLY! A list of email addresses will be compiled and distributed at the beginning of the course. The Web page will be updated throughout the course.

Groups: Lab groups will consist of 2 students. Lab demos will be performed on Mondays. Lab reports will incorporate changes and comments from the demos and will be due the following Friday by 5PM. More details will be provided for the format of lab reports.

Honesty Policy: Consultation with fellow students is encouraged, especially on design issues. However, directly copying another student's work defeats the purpose of the assignments and is an honor code violation. Lab reports, programs, or test answers that are directly copied from another student will result in serious penalties including course failure and possible action by the college disciplinary committee.


The Labs: The first four labs use the Microchip PIC microntroller along with the Altera progammable logic devices (PLDs). The fifth lab is based on a specialized chip for Digital Signal Processing from Texas Instruments. I will also consider alternate ideas for the fifth lab. After completing each assignment you will be checked off in the lab. Each student will be checked off INDIVIDUALLY first and then the group will be checked off together.

Getting Started: Make sure that there is at least some time outside of class that you can all meet. Pick up kits from Keith and Ed in Marcus 218 when you are told they are available.

CPU info center - Lots of great info on CPU chips
 

Schedule (this WILL change )
Event  Due Date for Demo Due Date for Report Lab Description Additional Materials  
Lab Intro Feb 6   no report   Introduction to Lab Equipment Lab intro home page, Lab intro lecture - part 1, Lab intro lecture - part 2 Lab intro TA hints
Lab 1 Feb 22   March 1   Serial I/O with a 16F877 Microcontroller Lab 1 home page, Lab 1 intro lecture, SP233A (MAX232 equivalent) data sheet (pdf), TA hints for Lab 1, Lab 1 report guidelines,
Lab 2 March 8   March 15   Interfacing a Microcontroller to an External Interface Lab 2 home page, Lab 2 intro lecture, MAX7032 data sheet (pdf), TA hints for Lab 2,
Lab 3 April 10   April 17   Interfacing a Microcontroller to SRAM Lab 3 home page, Lab 3 intro lecture, H6264B 8x8 SRAM data sheet,
Lab 4 May 2   May 9   Analog/Digital Conversion Lab 4 home page, Lab 4 intro lecture,
Lab 5 May 13   May 15   Compiling for the PIC and a High-End Digital Signal Processor: Texas Instruments C6X Lab 5 home page, Lab 5 info, Part I, Lab 5 info, Part II, Lab 5 intro lecture,


Other information


tessier@ecs.umass.edu (Last Update: 2/18/01)