The Embedded System Design - Advanced Course (EDAN85, earlier known as EDA385) is a project based course, created for those students who are interested to complement and augment their knowledge of embedded systems acquired during the basic Embedded Systems Design course (EDAN15/EDA380) with practical experience. More often than not, going from theory to practice is so demanding that students without any practical experience feel lost, even having a good theoretical background. This course will give you the essential experience required to fill in this gap. Furthermore, you will learn to use a widely spread design environment based on Xilinx tools. Although the course does not require knowledge in electronics and only limited experience with hardware design and VHDL/Verilog, you may employ your experience to design and build your own small gadgets and interface them with the boards. Finally, designing a system from start to working prototype is more rewarding than only playing on simulators and solving partial problems.

The hardware available for this run of the course (HT2017):

• Digilent NEXYS-4 boards, Artix-7 (available in the EIT laboratories)
• Extensions:
  • PModMIC, microphone (2 pieces)
  • PModAMP1, speaker/headphones amplifier (3 pieces)
  • PModCLS, 16x2 LCD (1 piece)
  • PModTMP, Temperature/Thermostat (2 pieces)
  • PModENC, rotary push-button shaft encoder (2 pieces)
  • PModSD, SD card interface (2 pieces)
  • PModAD2, analog-to-digital converters (1 piece)
  • PModGYRO, gyroscope (1 piece)
  • PModNIC, network interface controller (1 piece) (Note that Nexys 4 already has an Ethernet plug. These would be useful only if more network interfaces are needed.)
  • PModRF1, wireless radio transceiver (3 pieces)

Available software:

• Xilinx ISE Design Suite 14.6 (Windows)
• Digilent Adept 2.4 System (Windows) plus documentation and examples
• On demand: Bluespec Tools 2012.01.A (Linux)

The work will be carried out in groups of 3 students (exceptions will be dealt with on individual basis only!). The passing requirements consist of writting a project proposal (and a revised version), a presentation, a demonstration of the working system, and a final report. More information about the timeline and contents of these requirements can be found in the Important Dates and Guidelines sections.