Embedded Microcomputer Systems: Real Time Interfacing, Second Edition,

Jonathan W. Valvano, Thomson-Engineering Publishers, now available, ISBN 0534551629

A brief overview of the book,
A detailed lab manual to be used with the book,
Lots of extra questions for each chapter,
A list of errors,  
UPGRADE TExaS to the newest version),  
Information about automated on-line Homework to be used with the book
Programs from the book

See table of Contents

1. Microcomputer-Based System
    • Freescale MC68HC711E9 architecture and addressing modes,
    • Freescale 9S12C32 architecture and addressing modes,
    • Design process, data flow graphs, call graphs, flowcharts,
    • Define the concept of open collector logic,
    • Digital logic families: transistor implementation, specification.
2. Software Development
    • Assembly language programming,
    • Techniques for writing modular or structured software,
    • Layered software organization,
    • Software model for device drivers,
    • Concept of threads,
    • Effective techniques for software debugging.
3. Interfacing Methods
    • Basic performance measures for I/O interfacing,
    • Basic concepts of gadfly synchronization,
    • General approach to I/O interface design,
    • Serial port device driver,
    • Handshake interfaces, concepts and examples.
4. Interrupt Synchronization
    • Concept of interrupt synchronization,
    • Issues involved in reentrant programming,
    • First in first out circular queue, concepts implementations and applications,
    • Specific details of using interrupts on the 6811 and 6812,
    • Keyboard and printer interfacing using IRQ interrupts,
    • High priority/low latency XIRQ power failure interface,
    • Mechanisms to establish priority including round robin,
    • Background I/O using periodic polling, concepts and examples.
5. Threads
    • Thread control block,
    • Preemptive thread scheduler,
    • Spinlock semaphores,
    • Blocking semaphores,
    • Fixed real-time thread scheduler,
    • Applications that employ semaphores.
6. Timing Generation and Measurements
    • Input capture to generate interrupts and measure period and pulsewidth,
    • Output compare to create periodic interrupts, generate squarewaves, and measure frequency,
    • Both input capture and output compare to make flexible and robust measurement systems,
    • Pulse accumulator
    • Pulse-width modulation on the MC9S12C32.
7. Serial Input/Output Devices
    • Fundamental concepts associated with serial communication systems, SCI and SPI,
    • Asynchronous, synchronous, bandwidth, full duplex, half duplex and simplex,
    • Present the RS23, RS422, RS485 communication protocols, signals, and interface chips,
    • Low level device drivers that perform basic input/output with serial ports,
    • Discuss interfacing issues associated with performing the I/O as a background interrupt thread.
8. Parallel Port Interfaces
    • Switches, keyboards, LEDs, LCD, relays, solenoids, DC motors, and stepper motors,
    • Design the hardware interface between these devices and the parallel port,
    • Write low level device drivers that perform basic input/output with these devices,
    • Discuss interfacing issues associated with performing the I/O as a background interrupt process,
    • DC motor interface, stepper motor fundamentals.
9. Memory Interfacing
    • Design steps for interfacing memory to the 6811, MC68HC812A4 and MC9S12C32,
    • Basic building blocks of computer architecture,
    • Descriptive language for defining time dependent behavior of digital circuits,
    • Timing diagrams that specify behavior of individual components as well as the entire system,
    • Compare and contrast synchronous, partially asynchronous and fully asynchronous buses.
10. High Speed I/O Interfacing
    • Bandwidth, latency, and priority,
    • Concept of DMA synchronization,
    • Hardware FIFO’s, dual port memory and bank-switch memory,
    • Graphics interface,
    • High bandwidth/low latency applications.
11. Analog Interfacing
    • Op amp types and parameters,
    • Design rules for using op amps to build analog amplifiers,
    • Analog low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, and band-reject filters,
    • Sample and hold, multiplexers, DAC, and ADC,
    • ADC converters built into the 6811/6812 microcomputers.
12. Data Acquisition Systems
    • Performance criteria to evaluate our overall data acquisition system,
    • Specifications necessary to select the proper transducer for our data acquisition system,
    • Some typical transducers used in embedded systems,
    • Methodology for designing data acquisition systems,
    • Analysis of noise and methods to reduce their effect,
    • Data acquisition case studies.
13. Microcomputer-Based Control Systems
    • General approach to digital control systems
    • Simple open loop control systems,
    • Simple closed loop control systems,
    • Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control systems,
    • Fuzzy Logic control systems.
14. Simple Networks.
    • Concepts of networks,
    • Master/slave network,
    • CAN network,
    • I2C network,
    • USB network,
    • Terminology and approaches to modem communication,
    • Building-wide control system using the X-10 communication protocol.
15. Digital Filters
    • Pasic principles involved in digital filtering,
    • Z Transform and its use for analyzing digital filters,
    • Simple low pass, frequency reject, and high digital filters,
    • Effect of non-real time sampling on digital filter error,
    • Digital filter design and implementation.