ELE408

Guidelines for Lab Experiments and Design Projects

1. Specific Goals of the Course:

· Computer Architecture Concepts

–Instruction Set Architecture

–CPU, Memory, and I/O Organizations

· Interfacing and Communication

-Serial and parallel ports

–UART, DMA, PI/Timer

-Wired and wireless networking

· Applying mProcessor to Design Systems

2. Instructional Methods Used to Reach the Goals:

· Regular lectures (9:30am-10:45pm, Tues and Thurs) presenting basic concepts and principles of computer architecture and computer designs. The MCF5208 ColdFire microprocessor is used as an example;

· Pre-designed laboratories (six of them) allowing you to apply the knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering to design, conduct and analyze experiments. You will work in teams to be trained to do team work and communicate effectively.

· Open-ended design projects giving you an opportunity to identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems, and to design a system to meet a desired need. You are expected to critically evaluate alternative assumptions, approaches, procedures, and trade-offs related to the design project.

3. Facilities Used in The Lab:

· The facilities in the lab are constantly upgraded to keep pace with the rapidly changing computer technology. class=SpellE>

4. Design Projects

· Students are required to propose and complete a design project after all the labs are finished. The design project should apply what has been learnt from the class and labs to build a working prototype of a microprocessor based system. Project presentation and demostration will be performed before the end of the semester. The final project report is due on the final exam day. Your project report should be up to 4 pages with 4 major sections:

Introduction and Motivation;

Project plan, Design, spec, and description;

Outcome of your project including functional test, performance test, and any results/observations;

Results and Discussions on what has been accomplished, what you have learnts, and future works.