Embedded Systems Courses at RIT

Roy S. CzernikowskiDepartment of Computer

EngineeringKate Gleason College of

EngineeringRochester Institute of Technology

and James R. Vallino

Department of Software Engineering

B Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information

SciencesRochester Institute of Technology

Motivation• Real-Time and Embedded Systems (RT&E

Systems) straddle and intertwine hardware and software issues.

• Computer engineering students tend to have the hardware and computer architecture aspects in focus but often lack more sophisticated software methodologies for RT&E Systems.

• Software engineering students have many general purpose software methodologies at their fingertips but often lack the hardware background and appreciation for the special software considerations for successful development of RT&E systems.

• Wanted to increase interest and employment in RT&E systems.

RIT’s Approach to RT&E• Develop a laboratory and a set of

three academic quarter courses to partner computer engineering and software engineering students addressing RT&E Systems.

• Use a studio lecture-lab format having one computer engineering student and one software engineering student at each of the twelve student workstations.

• Course contents and laboratory jointly developed by a faculty member from computer engineering and a faculty member from software engineering.

Course Titles• Real-Time and Embedded Systems

(offered four times to date)

• Modeling of Real-Time Systems (offered twice to date)

• Performance Engineering of Real-Time and Embedded Systems

(offered the first time this spring)

Real-Time & Embedded Systems Course• Course Topics

– Introduction to Real-Time and Embedded Systems– Microcontrollers– Software Architectures for Real-Time Operating

Systems– Requirements and Design Specifications– Decision Tables and Finite State Machines– Scheduling in Real-Time Systems– Programming for a commercial real-time operating

system– Development for Embedded Target Systems– Language Support for Real-Time– Real-Time and Embedded Systems Taxonomy – Safety-Critical Systems

Studio Laboratory Equipment

Microcontroller and Binary I/O

Software

• Wind River VxWorks Consumer Devices platform

• Tornado development environment• MGTEK 68HC12 Assembler IDE• Net Support classroom management software

Course Projects• Microcontroller Programming

– interval timer – used as a tool for 3rd project

• R-T Operating System multi-tasking primitives– Using VxWorks, learn how to program its concurrency and

synchronization primitives in a transit system simulation or automated factory

• R-T Operating System performance measurements– measure jitter of VxWorks software generated pulses

(using microcontroller)– measure VxWorks’ interrupt response time

• Student designed projects– e.g. ultrasound distance measurements, target system’s I/O

device characterizations.

Modeling of Real-Time Systems Course• Course Topics

– Introduction to Modeling of Real-Time Systems– Basic Concepts of Real-Time Systems– Basic Concepts of Safety-Critical Systems– Use case analysis for real-time systems– Structural object analysis for real-time systems– Behavioral Analysis using statecharts– Design patterns for real-time and safety-critical

systems– Threading and Schedulability– Real-Time Frameworks

Software

• ILogix Rhapsody UML design tool• Microsoft Visual Studio C++; Gnu C++ tools

Course Projects

• Requirements and Architectural Design– Create requirements for a consumer device, e.g. DVR,

blood-pressure monitor• Design and Implementation

– Object structure, statechart design and implementation for a real-time system, e.g. water chiller control system, four-function calculator

• Code Generation– Automated code generation via Rhapsody of embedded

device, e.g. four-function calculator, garage door opener• Final Project

– Object and statechart modeling exercise with no implementation of an embedded device, e.g. power window controller, reverse vending machine

Performance Engineering of RT&E Course• Course Topics

– Performance Measurements for Real-Time and Embedded Systems

– Profiling of program execution in embedded systems– Exploration of linear control systems– Interpretation of linear control parameters– Hardware system description languages (VHDL)– Hardware-software co-design

Quanser System Inverted Pendulum

Quanser Ball & Balance Beam

Digilent Spartan II FPGA Board

Software

• Quanser WinCon real-time executive• Matlab, Simulink• Wind River Windview profiling tools• Gnu profiling tools, e.g. gprof• Xilinx VHDL design software• Digilent FPGA programming tools

Course Projects• Quanser inverted pendulum and ball-and-balance

beam– Investigate effects of varying control parameters– Investigate effects of system loading on control

performance• Loading and measuring the performance

– Experiment with rate-monotonic scheduling– Measure performance under varying computational and

network loads on different target platforms• HW-SW partitioning of JPEG compression between

target system and FPGA board– Measure execution time differences with different

hardware/software boundaries– Explore memory constraints and communication

bottlenecks

Equipment Costs

Item Unit Cost

Item Unit Cost

Development PC’s $1300 Video convertors $200

Diamond Systems PC104 Targets

1270 Ilogix Rhapsody (20 licenses)

800

Digilent FPGA boards

115 Ultrasound sensor 35

68HC12 microcontroller

100 Station total $3495

Lamp/switch board 50 Quanser pendulum 7485

Signal generator 310 Quanser ball and beam 8080

Power supplies 75 Tektronix oscilloscope 3300

Project Assessment• External academic and industrial review

– Lab well-constructed and maintained with state-of-the-art equipment and software

– Excellent teaming between SE and CompE students… and faculty!– Performance Engineering course should be more focused– Alter content of Modeling course toward CompE interests

• Student course evaluations and surveysStrongly Disagree/

DisagreeUndecided Strongly Agree/

Agree

2 7 43 Course increased interest in RT&E Systems

12 13 27 Will seek employment in RT&E Systems

5 10 37 Multi-disciplinary partnering helped learning

30% Course helped get a co-op or full-time job

Future Course Directions

• Real-Time and Embedded Systems– VxWorks kernel-level device driver projects

• Modeling of Real-Time Systems– Better balance between CompE and SE interests– Make real-time aspects more explicit– Consider project with Java Micro Edition and/or VxWorks

• Performance Engineering– Student written real-time control system– Better use of VxWorks profiling tools– Expanded investigation of real-time scheduling– Additional FPGA hardware/software co-design projects

• Other Courses– Real-Time Operating Systems course scheduled for Spring 2006

Future Facility Additions

• USB data acquisition boards• USB webcams• Real-time Linux variant

Acknowledgements

• NSF DUE Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement funding (NSF DUE-0311269)

• Academic Collaborators– Prof. Ron Schroeder, Southern Polytechnic State

University– Prof. Yann-Hang Lee, Arizona State University

• Industrial Evaluators– Todd Mosher, Alstom Transport Systems– Chuck Linn, Harris RF Communications

Questions and Answers