Embedded and Real-Time Systems
(Practical course materials for level 5)
Dr Nicholas J Outram, University of Plymouth
In level 5 (stage-2 of undergraduate studies), we begin to address a problem you may have encountered: how to read and update multiple devices in real-time. In many ways, this is the core role of a microcontroller. Just knowing the syntax of a language, the registers of a device or the APIs of a framework such as Mbed-os is not usually enough. You also need to know how to approach, what might be generally called software engineering. The good news is that most problems have well tried and tested solutions which can be adapted and reused. One of the aims of this section is to introduce you to two of these:
- Rapid Polling
- Interrupts
At level 6 (year 3 undergraduate), we will go further and use a real time operating system (RTOS), introducing concepts such as threads and event queues.
Plymouth (UK) Students – This section contains many of my practical labs the modules ELEC240 and ELEC241. They are also used as a warm-up for stage-3 ELEC350 and ELEC351.
Table of Contents
Managing Multiple Inputs and Outputs
Performing Real-Time Tasks with Interrupts
Analogue Interfacing – Real Time Data Conversion
Interfacing with SPI and I2C