Lecture 3-2: Real-time Operating Systems

In this lecture, we studied fundamental elements and functions of a real-time operating system. Moreover, we also studied key features of free RTOS.  

The final mini-project released!

 Mini-project 3 (the final) has been released. Click on this. 

Note that: 

Deadline of project submission: Thursday 4:00pm, April 03 2025

Live Demo: Friday 11:30am, April 04, 2025 (Lecture time on Friday)

Lecture 3-1: Technical challenges of Real-time Embedded Systems

We discussed aspect of challenges and constraints to develop a real-time embedded system. We focused on both hardware, software, and firmware of how to guarantee the system real-time executed. 

Lab 5: ALU and Shift

 We are going to build and analyze the following circuits using the Circuit Maker:

1. Memory operations: 

3 x 8-bit registers using D-Latch flip-flops and functional circuits (MUX, Decoders, Enabler, Selectors) to build a control circuit allowing registers to store data in serial way (serial loading) and parallel (parallel loading). 

2. Shifter: 

A selector enables shift left and right for 3 registers developed in 1.)

3. Bitwise operations:

A circuit to select AND, OR, NOT, XOR bitwise operation modes for 8-bit vectors for 3 registers developed in 1.). 

4. Arithmetic operations:  

A 8- bit Ripple Carry Adder/Subtractor with operation selection modes (ADD/SUBTRACT)

Lecture 2-5: A simple processor

We studied the last lecture of this module, a simple processor.

In this lecture, we have learned datapath and control unit of a simple computer. From the diagram of datapath and control unit, we can understand how data are loaded, transferred and computed in a simple processor.

We have also known what is instruction set architecture (ISA) through the formats of control words. 

Based on understanding of control words, we explained the instruction decoder that interprets the control words to the machine language to control the computational operations.

Mini-project 2 (assignment 3) released!

Mini-project 2 has been released. Click on this. 

Note that: 

Deadline of project submission: Thursday 4:00pm, March 20 2025

Live Demo: Wed 11:30am March 21 2025 (Lecture time on Friday)

Lecture 2-4: Registers and Register Transfer

We studied how to create n-bit register, then learnt about micro-operations (transfer, arithmetic, logic, shifting) on registers.
We covered topics of register transfer structure including multiplexer-based and bus-based transfer that will be utilized to develop memory for programable processors. Specifically, serial registers and parallel load shift registers were introduced.
We also learnt how a counter works and how to set a counter with our selected counting number.