Embedded and Real-Time Systems / Real-Time Operating Systems

ECE445M, Unique: 17775, 17780, 17785, 17790, 17794
ECE380L.12, Unique: 18070, 18075, 18080, 18085, 18089
Semester: Spring 2025

Graduate students should register for ECE380L.12 and undergraduates should register for ECE445M (credit for both will not be allowed).



Lecture Schedule

Week Notes Reading Topics
1
1/13
 Lecture 1  1, 2.1-2.5, 2.10,
2.12
Introduction - ARM architecture, instruction set, stack, Keil compiler, GPIO, timer, UART, device drivers
Software design & debugging - Modular programming, call & data flow graphs, debugging instruments, intrusiveness
2
1/20
 Lecture 2  4.1-4.2 RTOS - Multi-threading/-tasking, OS architecture, OS kernel
Threads - Context switching, TCB, cooperative & preemptive multitasking, round-robin scheduler
3
1/27
 Lecture 3  4.3-4.6 Threads - Thread states, suspending/sleeping/killing, operating modes, protection
Thread communication & synchronization - Critical sections, reentrance, FIFO, mailbox
4
2/3
 Lecture 4  5
2.11
Semaphores - Spinlock & blocking semaphores, deadlock, monitors, process networks
Debugging - Testing, performance measures (response time, jitter, throughput)
5
2/10
 Lecture 5  6 Scheduling - Real-time scheduling, priority scheduler, scheduling anomalies, fixed-rate scheduler
6
2/17
 Lecture 6  2.6, 3
8
SD interface - flash disk interface using SSI, high-speed interfacing, DMA
File system - file system management
7
2/24
 Lecture 7  7 Memory management - heap, processes
Process management - process images, loading, linking, relocation, PCBs
8
3/3
  1-6 Review, Midterm: Thursday, 3/6, 12:30-2:00pm, in class
9
3/10
   2.7, 10
2.8, 11.2
Sensing interfacing - Input capture, period measurement, signal processing
Motor interfacing - Transistor interfaces, pulse width modulation (PWM)
Break
3/17
Spring Break
10
3/24
   9.1-9.4 Microcontroller networking - Controller Area Network (CAN), Ethernet, Wifi
Internet - Protocol stacks, ISO/OSI model, TCP/IP, IoT
11
3/31
   11 Robots - Team work, testing and debugging, design process
Control systems - PID control, fuzzy logic and control
12
4/7
   Arpaci-Dusseau
Anderson/Dahlin
Memory management (cont'd) - Protection, virtual memory, paging
13
4/14
   12
1-11
Commerical RTOS - µC/OS, VxWorks
Final exam review
14
4/21
    Robot competitions (preliminary and final), EER Atrium
Finals
4/28
  1-11 Final exam, Saturday, 5/3, 1:00-3:00pm, TBD (regularly scheduled)

 


Contents © Copyright 2025 Andreas Gerstlauer http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~gerstl/ece445m_s25