Course

Embedded Systems

Core lecture course (Stammvorlesung), Summer term 2012

Lecturer:	Bernd Finkbeiner
Teaching assistants:	Rüdiger Ehlers, Markus N. Rabe, Sebastian Hahn
Lectures:	Tuesdays, 14:15-16:00, E1.3 HS 003
	Thursdays, 16:15-18:00, E1.3 HS 002
Tutorials:	Tuesdays, 12:15-14:00, E1.3 HS 003
	Wednesdays, 14:15-16:00, E2.1 (Bioinformatics) R001
	Exception: On June 26th (Tuesday), the tutorial will be in E2.5 HS 2
	2nd Exception: On July 26th (Thursday), the lecture will be in E1.3 HS 001

News

Mon, 1.10.: End-of-semester exam (re-exam) results are online – You will need the password already used for the results of the previous exams and the project wiki. The username is embeddedsystems12. If you want to inspect your exam, please send us a mail to arrange a date (this week, if possible) or simply drop by Markus’ office.
Mon, 8.8.: The exam inspection will be on the 20th of August, 14:15-15:15 in room 528, building E1 3. If your last name starts with M…Z, please don’t come earlier than 14:40. For those being on vacation on the 20th of August. If you can’t make it, but still want to inspect your exam, drop either Markus or Ruediger a mail to propose an alternative exam inspection appointment.
Fri, 3.8.: End-of-term exam results are online – You will need the password already used for the results of the midterm exam and the project wiki. The username is embeddedsystems12.
Fri, 27.7.: The seating plan for the end-of-term exam is online. The password is the same as for the exam results. We will also post the plan on the lecture hall doors, so there is no need to print it.
Thu, 26.7.: Due to repeated requests: There are no discussion slots this week.
Wed, 25.7.: Tomorrow, the lecture will be in a different lecture hall: HS 001 in E1.3
Wed, 11.7.: There will be no discussion slots this week.
Tue, 3.7.: We updated the project assignment and recommend to use the older version of the compiler (link included in the new project description). Further, we disabled the optimization in the Linux makefiles as it caused problems in one instance.
Mon, 2.7.: As we started the project last week, there was no exercise sheet and hence there will be no discussion slots this week and no tutorials next week.
Mon, 2.7.: Access to the robots wiki is possible with the login embeddedsystems2012 and the same password as for the exam results. Update: Username changed.
Thu, 28.6.: The project materials are now available! Download the Project description, the Simulink model, and the project source files.
Thu, 21.6.: The lecture next Tuesday will be in the math building E2.5 HS 2.
Mon, 18.6.: The midterm exam inspection will take place on Friday between 2pm to 3pm in room 528, building E1 3.
Tue, 12.6.: Midterm exam results are online – You will need the password given at the end of the exam or today’s lecture.
Mon, 11.6.: In the tutorials on the 12th and 13th of June, we will discuss the midterm exam.
Sat, 9.6.: The new problems set is now available. We apologize for the delay.
Mon, 4.6.: There will be no tutorials and no discussion slots this week.
Thu, 31.5.: As announced in the lecture, students in groups 1 to 12 will write the midterm exam in lecture hall 002 in E1.3. All others will write the exam in the Günter Hotz lecture hall.
Thu, 24.5.: Due to the next week’s midterm exam, we will have no discussion slots on 31st of May and 1st of June. However, we will give out a (short) problem set for this week, which we will discuss in the tutorial next week (Tuesday and Wednesday).
Wed, 16.5.: Two copies of the book “Introduction to Embedded Systems, A Cyber-Physical Systems Approach” are now available in the library.
Fri, 11.5.: Next Thursday is a public holiday. The lecture and the discussion slots that are scheduled on Thursday will be skipped, but please do not hesitate to ask us questions during the lectures and tutorials or via email.
Fri, 11.5.: Thanks to some of your colleagues, we corrected an error in exercise 4 of problem set 4. The labels of some transitions changed and we removed part ( c ).
Thu, 10.5.: Exam regulations updated: the exam will be open book.
Thu, 10.5.: Matlab Campus License is now available.
Wed, 2.5.: Tutorial rooms changed again. Sorry.
Please send solutions to Matlab problems to es12@react.cs.uni-saarland.de.
Lecture room on Thurdays changed to HS 002 same building. Tutorial rooms are now announced (see above).
Take a look at the exam regulations.
Due to frequent questions: tutorials will start in week 3. Rooms will be announced soon.
On Tue, 24.4., Prof. Ingolf Krueger (University of California, San Diego) will give a guest lecture on Aspects of Fail Safety in Automotive Software.
Sat, 21.4.: Discussion slots now online!
Thu, 19.4.: Closed voting for tutorial slots. Slots for discussion rounds will be organized today during the lecture.
Tue, 17.4.: Vote now for your favourite tutorial times! We will give two tutorials each week, and on thursday we will select a pair of two slots that is suitable for a maximal number of students.
The first lecture will take place on Tuesday, the 17th of April in HS III of the mathematics building. Later lectures will take place in Building E1 3, HS 3.

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.

Textbooks

	Peter Marwedel. Embedded System Design. Springer, Berlin; 2nd Edition (2011) ISBN: 978-94-007-0256-1
	Edward A. Lee and Sanjit A. Seshia. Introduction to Embedded Systems, A Cyber-Physical Systems Approach . ISBN 978-0-557-70857-4, 2011.
	Giorgio C. Buttazzo. Hard Real-Time Computing Systems: Predictable Scheduling Algorithms and Applications . ISBN 978-1-4614-0675-4, 3rded. 2011.