This is an old version of this course, from Spring 2015. A newer version is available here.
In this course, we use the Beaglebone, a USB/Ethernet driven development board that can support a real-time OS. This will allow us to explore programming in a time-sensitive environment.
Catalog Description
This intense design course introduces students to software development for real-time systems, which often have stringent timing constraints that must be satisfied even under adverse circumstances. Real-time applications include flight control systems, vehicle control systems, industrial processes, life-support systems, robotic manipulators and multimedia applications. Special attention is paid to scheduling, latency minimization, bandwidth constraints, and other design issues that impact the design of these systems. Laboratory assignments provide experience in the design and implementation of realistic applications using a real-time operating system and embedded development board. (prereq: CS 2710 or CE 2930, CS 3844 or CS 3841)
(From the official EECS course description and the catalog)
Basics
- Instructor
- Josiah Yoder
- lıɐɯə
- npǝ˙ǝosɯ@ɹəpoʎ
- Office
- L344 (Library, 3rd floor)
- Office Hours
- See below
- Phone
- ƖƐ96 ᔭᔭᔭ ϛ9ㄥ Google Voice; rings my office and home phone at the same time.
- Textbook
- Real-Time Systems Design and Analysis by Laplante and Ovaska, Fourth Edition, Wiley, 2012
- Optional
- Exploring Beaglebone by Derek Molloy, Wiley, 2015 ($23.07 on Amazon)
Outcomes
On successful completion of this course, the student will:
- Understand concepts of time-critical computing and identify real-time systems
- Get familiar with a host-target development environment for time-critical systems.
- Write multitasking computer programs with inter-task communication and synchronization.
- Apply concepts of inter-task communication and synchronization via shared memory, message queues, signals, semaphores, mailboxes.
- Understand real-time kernels and task scheduling.
- Understand concepts of reliability in relation to real-time software
- Construct distributed real-time applications using a commercial Real-Time Operating System
- Analyze the performance of a real-time system.
(From official EECS course description)
Learning Resources
You can learn by:
- (Supplementary)
- Visiting me in my office or after class
- Reading the book
- Studying this site
- (Essential)
- Participating in class and reviewing your own lecture notes, slides, and code
- Doing & reviewing Homework
- Doing & reviewing Labs
- Organizing your notes & writing a summary note-sheet in preparation for quizzes and exams (Exams may not allow the note-sheet)
Me
I want to help you learn. If you have any ideas about how I can improve, please share them with me. This includes changes to the syllabus, class time, lab time, and more.
I enjoy talking with you. Feel free to drop by my office or email me a time that you would like to meet. I will always be available in my office during office hours, even if I am working on something when you arrive.1.
My Schedule (Office Hours)
| Time | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8:00 | Class prep |
Class prep |
Class prep |
Office Hour |
Class prep |
| 9:00 | Office Hour |
Lab prep |
|||
| 10:00 | CS2852 S362 |
Lunch & Lab prep |
CS2852 S362 |
CS2852 S362 |
CS2852 S362 |
| 11:00 | CS2852 Planning |
SE3910 S365 |
Office Hour |
Office Hour |
|
| 12:00 | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch | |
| 1:00 | Dept Mtg | Office Hour |
Class prep |
Class prep |
|
| 2:00 | Class prep |
Lab prep |
Lab prep |
||
| 3:00 | SE3910 S210 |
CS2852 S107 |
SE3910 S210 |
SE3910 S210 |
|
| 4:00 | CS2852 S210 |
CS2852 S210 |
CS2852 S210 |
This website
You can see all the pages in the menu that floats on the right for a large screen, and at the top for a small screen. I desire to make the website as intuitive as possible. Please share any suggestions with me.
Class
While I don't mind if you have to skip a class, class attendence is essential so you can learn what material I expect you to know, what HW and quizzes there will be, etc.
In class, I expect you to focus completely on class material. Instead of checking your email or browsing facebook, participate in the class activities and take notes of what you are learning.
If it becomes necessary to consider dropping the class, I am happy to give you advice, but I want you to make the final decision (with the help of your academic advisor). So if you stop coming class, I will not drop you, but instead give you whatever grade you have at the end of the quarter, even if it is an F.
Homework
I expect you to do homework. It is the best opportunity to practice. Homework will be assigned informally as ideas of things to practice or investigate in class.
In addition to the homework ideas from lecture, you may want to ask and answer your own questions. Perhaps things like:
- Why does this compiler error occur?
- Is it possible to _____?
- Can I combine _____ and ____ into a single program?
- Why?
If you come up with a question, but can't find an answer, ask me! Perhaps I can find it. I might share it with the rest of the class
Homework is not graded this quarter.
Labs
Labs will be turned in electronically. These are due at 11pm, with a 1 hour grace period. In every uploaded file, include your name, date, and the assignment name. Please only submit a lab once. Multiple submissions are hard for me to keep track of, especially if I've already started to grade the first one.
Untested code is buggy. I find that if your code doesn't compile or hardly runs, that there are many other errors in it. To get more than half credit for a lab, it should compile and run when I test it. If it does not compile & run, please fix the lab and submit it later, or drop a feature or two to get it running again (often the best option).
For every day that goes by beyond the original deadline, it gets much harder to catch up on a lab. As a result, after the deadline, you can receive partial credit for a lab, up to 10% off per day.
All assignments must be turned in by 4:30pm on Friday of Week 10 so that we can wrap things up and I can turn the grades in on time.
Please start early and ask me for help if you get stuck.
Learning Assessment
This quarter, we will use the following to measure your learning:
| Lab projects | 30% |
| Quizzes | 15% |
| Exam I | 25% |
| Final Exam | 30% |
| Total | 100% |
I sometimes make mistakes in tallying points. If you become aware of an error in grading, please send me an email, and I will fix it and reply by email.
If the error goes beyond tallying points, discussing things in person is a great way to start to resolve an issue. I may ask you to send me an email if I think the case you are asking about requires careful consideration.
Please maintain your own records of your grades and check them against whatever summaries I send to you.
Quizzes & Exams
Quizzes will be announced in class at least one day in advance. They will usually be on Lab day.
Because of the difficulty of preparing fair and accurate tests, you cannot retake a quiz or exam if you miss it or do worse than you hoped. I will drop your lowest quiz score, so one 0 should not be a problem. If you need to skip an exam, you should schedule a make-up exam before the missed exam. I don't always give make-up exams, even if students ask in advance.
Grade Scale
I use the official MSOE grading scale:
| ≥93% | ≥89% | ≥85% | ≥81% | ≥77% | ≥74% | ≥70% | <70% |
| A | AB | B | BC | C | CD | D | F |
In final grading, I may award a grade higher than the grade scale if I feel it is more accurate than what the "raw numbers" produce.
Integrity
Your integrity is your most valuable academic possession, significantly more valuable than passing a class or getting a high GPA.
Academic integrity is essentially truthfulness -- ensuring that if it appears you have done or know something, you have.
It is possible to accidentally give the impression that work is yours. If something like this happens to you, please let me know as early as possible. It is better if you point it out than if I find it.
Be on the watch for violations of academic integrity, including:
- Receiving code from another student not on your team, even by looking at it.
- Giving code to another student not on your team, even by showing them.
- Looking at another student's work during a quiz or exam.
Read MSOE's Policy on Student Integrity for more details.
When coding, you are encouraged to discuss strategies, but the implementations should be independent. Even discussing the details is not a good idea if it goes too far. If you want to show code, start up an independent program rather than showing an assignment -- and use a different application than the assignment at hand to demonstrate the concept you wish to share.
Because of the importance of maintaining academic integrity, I will report apparent academic dishonesty to the Vice President of Academic Affairs. If this occurs, you will get a copy of the report.
Fine Print
1In rare cases, I may need to reschedule an office hour. I will try to both announce this in class at least a day in advance and email the whole class.