Embedded Systems Applications Programming

This is a mid-level course in Embedded Systems. Its focus is on Real-Time concepts and practical programming of commercial Embedded Systems. Aims: The module should provide you with an introduction to, and understanding of, a range of programming techniques and real-time concepts for embedded system programming (ESP). Initial focus is on command-line programming and Unix techniques - most state-of-art embedded system employ a set of POSIX compatible tools. A range of programming concepts and techniques are then explored. Material may change from year to year as the tools and OSes are constantly evolving. Objectives: By the end of the module you should understand the basics of command line POSIX programming. Command line scripting and tools such as make and command line compilers may also be covered. The role of interrupts in ESP are explored; programming techniques for ESP ranging from Round-Robin, to Functional Queues, and RTOS are covered. The internals of a state-of-art OS (Linux) are examined and techniques to adapt such OS for real-time considerations are described.

Learning Outcomes
1.Program using POSIX compatible commands including basic shell scripts and regular expressions.
2.Perform various task scheduling and resource allocation analyses to determine system feasibility and/or potential allocation/scheduling bottlenecks.
3.Analyse and solve various multi-tasking and real-time system-level problems.
4.Analyse design problems, determining suitable embedded system software architectured and appropriate hardware platforms.