The unit aims to enable you to understand, analyse, specify, design and test real-time systems using both hardware and software development. Migration between software and hardware will be considered as an approach to meet design criterion such as speed, throughput, energy usage and cost. The design, analysis and implementation of real-time operating systems will be studied and will include scheduling policies, process creation and management, inter-process communication and synchronisation, efficient handling of I/O and communication. You will complete a major team design project that includes hardware and software design of a real-time system.
The minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of 3-6 hours of scheduled learning activities and 6-9 hours independent study per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher-directed learning, peer-directed learning and online engagement. Independent study may include associated readings, assessment and preparation for scheduled activities.
describe the effectiveness and benefits of deploying a real-time operating system in software development of a real-time system
design and implement interface logic to a bus system and its associated arbitration logic using a hardware description language
compare, measure and analyse the performance and overhead of real-time scheduling policies of a real-time operating system
design and analyse hardware accelerators that improve real-time system performance in areas such as energy use, latency and throughput
formulate, plan, create, document and test a solution to a real-time system design problem in a team framework using a real-time kernel and a hardware description language.
explain the development process for real-time systems from specification, simulation, implementation and testing
