Course

Embedded Systems

Lecturers:

Christian Steger, Room 327, E 1 3
Reinhard Wilhelm, Room 405, E 1 3

Teaching assistants:

Sebastian Altmeyer, Room 402, E 1 3
Michael Gerke, Room 507, E 1 3
Hans-Jörg Peter, Room 532, E 1 3

News

The results of the end-of-semester exam are now online available.
The inspection of the end-of-semester exam will take place in room 528, E 1.3, on Wednesday, 6th April, from 14:00 to 16:00.
The inspection of the end-of-term exam will take place in room 528, E 1.3, on Friday, 4th March, from 14:00 to 16:00.
The results of the end-of-term exam are online available.
Time and place for the end-of-semester exam are determined.
Dr. Eric Armengaud from the Virtual Vehicle Competence Center is going to give a talk on model-based development and test of distributed automotive embedded systems on Tuesday, Jan. 11th.
The results of the midterm exam are online available.
Note that we lowered the threshold for passing to >= 40 points.
The project timeslots are determined.
There is a special tutorial on Wed. Dec. 15th, 14h-16h, in room 013, E 1 3, for the members of Friday tutorial groups who can not attend the regular Wednesday tutorial (16h-18h). (Seats are limited, so please only attend if you can not attend the regular Wednesday tutorial.) There will be no tutorials on Friday Dec. 17th.
The download-package for nxtOSEK is incomplete. Due to copyright issues,
the file sg.exe, which is mandatory is not part of the nxtOSEK package.
Instead, you have to download this file separately.
See: http://lejos-osek.sourceforge.net/download.htm?group_id=196690
The Project has started. Each group has to register until Friday, Dec. 10, 2010. (see general project description for details).
Do not forget to register for the mideterm exam at the respective student registration system of your faculty (e.g., HISPOS).
You do not need 50% of the points in the assignments so far to get accepted to the midterm exam;
but you do need 50% of the points of all assignment sheets for the acceptance to the final exam.
Typo on assignment sheet 5 (fixed in the online version):
In exercise 3 ( c ), a task is called late if its deadline d is before its finishing time f, i.e., d < f.
Scade is available for download in the new project section.
Remark to assignment sheet #3: In Exercise 3, you are only allowed to use constants that do not depend on the input of the arithmetic operation as arc weights.
Unless stated otherwise, please use always the graphical notation for Petri nets.
Room change for tutorials on Friday, 12th November:
The 12:00-14:00 tutorial will take place in room 528, E 1 3.
The 14:00-16:00 tutorial will take place in lecture hall 001, E 1 3.
Remark to assignment sheet #1: In exercise 3, in case of conflicting update assignments we assume an interleaving semantics. For instance, if the assignments id:=1 and id:=2 are to be executed concurrently, then the semantics nondeterministically determines whether (1) first id:=1 then id:=2 is executed, or (2) first id:=2 then id:=1 is executed.
Remark to assignment sheet #1: In exercise 2(d), you have to consider the model that you obtained from 2( c ).
Dates for midterm and end-of-term exams are determined.
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Syllabus

Embedded systems are computer systems that are encapsulated into larger products, and that are normally not directly visible to the user. Embedded systems are responsible for the information processing in transportation systems (e.g., airplanes, trains, cars), telecommunication equipment (e.g., mobile phones), and consumer electronics products (e.g., TVs, DVD-players).

In this course we will study the theoretical foundations and practical tools that are needed to build reliable and efficient embedded systems.

Topics

Specification: review of the most commonly used languages employed in the specfication of embedded systems (e.g., StateCharts, Petri nets, and VHDL);
Embedded hardware: sensors, communication units, processing units, memories, and actuators;
Embedded software: embedded operating systems, scheduling algorithms;
Hardware/software codesign: methods for the optimal division of labor between the hardware and software parts of an embedded system;
Validation: methods for ensuring that an embedded system behaves as expected: simulation, testing, formal verification.

Time and place

Lectures:

Tuesday, 10:15-11:45, lecture hall 003, E 1 3
Thursday, 14:15-15:45, lecture hall 003, E 1 3

Tutorials:

Wednesday, 16:00-18:00, SR 107, E 1 3
Friday, 12:00-14:00, SR 015, E 1 3
Friday, 14:00-16:00, SR 016, E 1 3

Exams:

Midterm: Thursday, 16.12.2010, 16:00-19:00, AudiMO, E 2 2
End-of-term: Monday, 14.02.2011, 14:00-17:00, AudiMO, E 2 2
End-of-semester: Tuesday, 22.03.2011, 14:00-17:00, AudiMO, E 2 2

Main textbook

Peter Marwedel.
Embedded System Design.
Springer, Berlin;
2nd Print (1. November 2005)
ISBN-10: 0387292373