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Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering, Unit Catalogue 2007/08


EE10140 Microprocessors and interfacing

Credits: 6
Level: Certificate
Semester: 2
Assessment: CW 40%, EX 40%, PR 20%
Requisites:
Aims: To introduce students to the principles and importance of digital electronic system engineering; signal conversion, digital systems and microprocessor systems.
Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this unit students will be able to:
(i) demonstrate practical digital electronics skills by designing, building and testing an Analogue to Digital Converter (ADC),
(ii) demonstrate an understanding of specification and design methodologies for achieving successful completion of an electronic project,
(iii) describe the use of modern microprocessor devices as embedded sub-systems within engineering applications, identify and explain the function of the subsystems that make up a microprocessor, demonstrate an understanding of the fundamentals of machine-code/micro-code and how microprocessors can be interfaced with peripheral devices.
Skills:
Application of the information, techniques and methods discussed in the lectures to solving engineering problems microprocessor applications and digital circuits. Taught, facilitated and tested.
Content:
Electronic System Design: Technical specification, needs analysis and design of digital electronic systems to perform a defined function.
Practical Design Project: Group working to implement a physical build for a digital electronic circuit to perform a defined function.
ADC and DAC design: Basic concept for the conversion of signals between digital discrete-time and analogue continuous-time environments. Alternative ADC and DAC electronic circuits and their relative merits.
Microprocessor Systems: Registers, ALUs, special function units, control unit and CPU. Unit communication and synchronisation. Interfacing embedded microprocessors to external devices. External bus structures and protocols. RAM, timers, parallel and serial ports, mass storage devices.