Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

The University of Alabama in Huntsville

 

Fall 2008

 

CPE 495-01: Computer Engineering Design I

 

Course Home Page: http://www.ece.uah.edu/~jovanov/CPE495/CPE495.html

Notes: http://www.ece.uah.edu/~jovanov/CPE495/notes/495notes.html

 

Lectures             Thursday 6:00 – 9:00 PM, EB 258

 

Laboratory      Room 258 Engineering Building

 

Description       This is the first in the two-course senior capstone design sequence. The focus of this class is the application of techniques to the design of electronic systems that have digital hardware and software components. Students will apply the knowledge and skills acquired in earlier course work and incorporate appropriate engineering standards to solve real-world design problems and design a system, component, or process to meet desired needs within realistic constraints such as economic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability, and sustainability.

 

Focus             Efficient digital system design often involves the careful consideration of hardware/software design trade-offs -- areas that are the cornerstone of the Computer Engineering discipline. In this course, students must be able to create new designs, evaluate the effectiveness and costs of each design alternative, document the design process, and demonstrate a working prototype of their final design.

 

Prerequisites   CPE353 (Software Design and Engineering), EE 315 (Introduction to Electronic Analysis and Design), and CPE323 (Introduction to Embedded Systems). Must be taken in the same academic year as CPE 496.

 

Text                     Ralph M. Ford, Chris S. Coulston, Design for Electrical and Computer Engineers, Theory, Concepts, and Practice, McGraw-Hill, 2008.
ISBN 978-0-07-338035-3

 

References     

·        Chris Nagy, Embedded System Design using the TI MSP430 Series, Elsevier Science, 2003. (ISBN 075067623x)

·        Gerald Luecke, Analog and Digital Circuits for Control System Applications: Using the TI MSP430 Microcontroller, Newnes, 2004. (ISBN 0750678100)

·        MSP430 Family, User's Guide, Texas Instruments, 1996.

·        IAR Embedded Workbench Tutorial, http://www.ece.uah.edu/~jovanov/msp430/iar_tut.pdf

·        ExpressPCB, http://www.expresspcb.com

·           Aleksandar Milenkovic, Getting Started with the MSP430 IAR Workbench,
                   
University of Alabama in Huntsville, 2008. http://www.ece.uah.edu/~jovanov/msp430/GettingStartedWithMSP430_IAR_EW.pdf

·        Getting Started with the SDCC/MetaLink 8051 C Cross Compiler/Assembler and the XESS XS 40 Rapid Prototyping Platform , B. Earl Wells and Sin Ming Loo, University of Alabama in Huntsville, August 2002. http://www.ece.uah.edu/~wells/nsf/xilinx_sdcc_meta_xs40.pdf

·        Getting Started with Xilinx Design Tools and the XS 40 Rapid Prototyping Platform, B. Earl Wells and Sin Ming Loo, University of Alabama in Huntsville, 2000. http://www.ece.uah.edu/~wells/nsf/xilinx_xs40.pdf

 

Instructor          Dr. Emil Jovanov

                              Electrical and Computer Engineering

                              213, Engineering Building

                              Phone: 824 6632

                              e-mail:      jovanov@ece.uah.edu

                              http://www.ece.uah.edu/~jovanov

 

Office hours      Tuesday 5:15-6:45 PM, Thursday 10-11:30 AM, and by appointment.

 

Grading          

Academic misconduct of any type will not be tolerated. Students are expected to conform to the UAH policies concerning academic misconduct as outlined in Section 8.32 of the current UAH Student Handbook.

 

Individual Assignments:

Homeworks (3 * 5%)                                                                                          15%

Test: Engineering Design Process                                                                   7%

Test: Patent Process                                                                                          7%

Test: Ethics                                                                                                          7%

 

Group Assignments:

CPE495 Design Projects

·        Project proposal                                                                                      5%

·        Prototype Implementation                                                                      15%

CPE495 Final Report (Trade-off analysis, economic analysis,                     10%

      safety analysis, manufacturability analysis) 

CPE 496 Project Proposals                                                                              10%

CPE 496 Design Review and presentation                                                     6%

CPE 496 System functionality                                                                           18%

 


Design Groups:

The scope of most modern day design projects in industry and government require that sizable design teams be assembled. The ability to work in groups is considered by industry experts to be a critical skill to master for any engineering student. All group proposals must be justified using background and interests of individuals in a group to diversify the skill set present within each group. A written justification must be submitted to the instructor for final approval.

 

Group Leaders:

The class will be divided up into roughly equal size groups of approximately three people. A member of each group will be designated the Group Leader. The Group Leader's task will be to oversee the managerial aspects of the project at hand in addition to his/her technical duties. It is the responsibility of the Group Leader to meet with the design group on a regular basis and send a weekly progress report to the instructor via E-mail. The role of group leader will be rotated in a uniform manner among the students of the group.  During the first week of group activities each group will submit to the instructor via E-mail a proposed Group Leader rotation schedule.

 

Group Projects:

In addition to the individual work to be performed by each student, there will be two group projects. The first project should demonstrate hardware design skills of the group, while the second one tests integration and software skills. The projects will introduce the hardware/software design process using ExpressPCB software, the MSP430 microcontroller boards, or reconfigurable computing platforms. Group assignments and projects will be determined by the third week of class. Students will be asked to investigate design alternatives, which span the hardware/software continuum, and to identify the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. These alternatives will be completely described in the design documentation. Each group will also be required to demonstrate a working prototype of their design at the Final Design Review and to maintain a complete laboratory notebook where all pertinent work will be archived.

 

CPE 496 Project Proposals

A major focus of this course will be to prepare students for a more open-ended design experience in the second Computer Engineering Design course – CPE 496. Throughout the semester students will be exposed to a number of opportunities and high-level design ideas. Students are encouraged to use CPE495 Design Projects to test ideas for CPE496 project. By the end of the semester students will be formed into groups (which may or may not be the same groups for the CPE 495 design project) and each group will present their design idea in the form of a preliminary design review. The preliminary design review will be made at the end of the semester and will be open to the general engineering community for comments and critique.

 

Design & Patent Process

Students will be required to prepare and present a patent application for an idea they have developed. The application must confirm to US Patent Office standard and contain a thorough search of prior art. Students are expected to use audio visual aids such as overhead projectors and Power Point with projector.

 

Examinations

Examinations will cover ethic, health/safety, environmental, and social issues associated with engineering design, which will be covered during regular lectures.

 

Attendance Policy

Students are expected to attend on a regular basis lectures and presentations. Students can have up to three unexcused absences per semester.

 

Important Dates

                  Homework #1                              Thursday, September 4, 2008.

                  Homework #2                              Thursday, September 11, 2008.

                  Project Proposal Due                 Thursday, September 18, 2008.

                  Exam: Design Process              Thursday, September 25, 2008.

                  CPE496 Proposals:                   Thursday, October 23, 2008.

                  CPE495: Demonstration:          Thursday, October 30, 2008.

                  Exam: Ethics                               Thursday, November 6, 2008.

                  Exam Patents                              Thursday, November 13, 2008.

                  Preliminary Design Review       Thursday, November 20, 2008.

                  Last day of Class &
Project Documentation:       
Thursday, December 4, 2008.

 

Course Outline

·        Introduction, Teams and Teamwork, Project Ideas

·        Embedded Systems: Issues and Applications

·        PCB Design Process

·        The Engineering Design Process

·        Concept Generation and Evaluation, System Design

·        Testing and System Reliability, Project Ideas for CPE 496

·        Project Management

·        Oral Presentations Gudelines

·        Patent applications, patent process

·        Ethical and Legal Issues

·        CPE496 Proposal Presentations and Preliminary Design Review


CPE 495-01 Fall 2008         Emil Jovanov
Class Schedule

Class No.

Date

Lecture

Activity Due

Textbook

1

8/21/08

Introduction, Teams and Teamwork,

Project Description

 

 

2

8/28/08

Low Power Embedded Microcontrollers: Design Issues

PCB Design Process

 

 

3

9/03/08

The Engineering Design Process

 

·         HW1: Embedded Software

·         Ch1: The Engineering Design Process (3-15)

·         Ch2: Project Selection and Needs Identification (17-34)

·         Ch9: Teams and Teamwork (171-182)

4

9/11/08

Concept Generation and Evaluation, System Design

·         HW2: PCB Design

·         Ch3: The Requirements Specification (35-58)

·         Ch4: Concept Generation and Evaluation (59-78)

·         Ch5: System Design: Functional Decomposition (79-102)

·         Ch6: System Design: Behavior Models (103-126)

5

9/18/08

Student presentations

·         CPE495 Project proposal

 

6

9/25/08

Design Process Video Presentation

·         Test: Design Process Case Study

 

7

10/02/08

Project Ideas for CPE 496

Testing, and System Reliability

 

·         Ch7: Testing (135-154)

·         Ch8: System Reliability (155-182)

-

10/09/08

Fall break

 

 

8

10/16/08

Project Management, Oral Presentations Gudelines

 

·         Ch10: Project Management (195-212)

·         Ch12: Oral Presentations Gudelines (223-231)

9

10/23/08

CPE496 Proposal Presentations

 

·         CPE496 Proposals

 

10

10/30/08

Patent Process,
Ethical and Legal Issues

 

·         CPE495 Project Demo and documentation;
(if applicable) Debugged PCB

·         Ch11: Ethical and Legal Issues (213-234)

 

11

11/06/08

 –

·         Test: Engineering Ethics Assignment

 

12

11/13/08

 

·         HW3: Patent Assignment

 

13

11/20/08

Preliminary Design Review

G1: 18:00 – 18:20/ G2: 18:20 – 18:40

G3: 18:40 – 19:00/ G4: 19:00 – 19:20

G5: 19:20 – 19:40/ G6: 19:40 – 20:00

G7: 20:00 – 20:20/ G8: 20:20 – 20:40

G9: 20:40 – 21:00

·         Project Presentation & Demonstration

 

-

11/27/08

Thanksgiving

 

 

14

12/04/08

Project documentation submission

·         Complete project documentation and binder due