All labs are to be done individually.
The tentative lab schedule is as follows:
Lab Topic Starts (L2A) Report Due 1 Counter and LED Display Jan 14 Jan 28 2 LED Display Peripheral (o/p port) Jan 28 Feb 11 3 Timer Peripheral (i/p port) Feb 11 Mar 4 4 Interrupt-Driven I/O Port Mar 4 Mar 18 5 to be decided Mar 18 Apr 1Dates are shown for section L2A and L2C, section L2B dates are one week later except that the last lab will be due on Apr 8.
All labs will require that you design and simulate a circuit before the lab. You will be required to hand in the source code for your design before starting the lab.
You must print out the source code and demonstrate your working design to the TA before the end of the lab session. The TA will then ask you one or two questions about your program to make sure you understand the material. If did your own work you shouldn't have any problems answering the question(s).
A short lab report must be handed in to the course assignment box (see below) the start of your next lab on the due dates shown above. This report should include a brief description of your design, source code listings and schematics, and answers to any questions posed in the lab notes. Lab reports should be placed in the box marked "ELEC 379 Assignments" outside MCLD 332.
Each lab will be marked out of 5 as follows:
correct program/circuit 3 answers after demo 1 accurate/complete/neat report 1
If a lab is not demonstrated on time you will receive a mark of zero for that lab (0/5). If the report is not handed in on time you will receive zero for the report (0/1).
You must complete all labs to pass the course -- even if you would get a mark of zero for a lab.
Each student must submit an original solution. Possible penalties for plagiarism include a mark of zero for all labs.
Assignments are to be done individually. Students are encouraged to seek help from classmates but copying is not allowed. Possible penalties for plagiarism include a mark of zero for all assignments.
The lecture notes, assignments, labs and solutions will be available from the Web page in PDF format. Free software to view and print PDF documents (Ghostview, Adobe Acrobat) is available for most computers.
Students should post questions or answers about the course material to the elec379 mailing list.
Instructions on subscribing are available on the course Web page.
The mailing lists can also be accessed through the elec379-announce and elec379 archives.
Detailed notes will be distributed before the relevant lecture. The notes will often contain exercises or sections to be completed during the lecture.
Please wait until the end of the lecture before taking extra copies. You can always print copies from the course's Web page (see below).
The Indispensable PC Hardware Book, third edition, by Hans-Peter Messmer (Addison-Wesley, 1997) is a detailed reference on the IBM PC Architecture.
The lecture notes and Web references will cover the small subset of the VHDL language that we will need. However, a number of texbooks and references are available if you would like to learn more about logic synthesis with VHDL.
VHDL for Logic Synthesis: An Introductory Guide for Achieving Design Requirements by Andrew Rushton (McGraw-Hill, 1996, US$55) is a good text on logic synthesis using VHDL. VHDL Made Easy by David Pellerin and Douglas Taylor (Prentice-Hall, 1997) is an easy-to-read introduction to using VHDL for design. The Designer's Guide to VHDL by Peter J Ashenden (Morgan Kaufmann, 1996) is an complete reference on the VHDL language. The 80x86 Family by John Uffenbeck (Prentice-Hall, 1998) covers the 80x86 family of microprocessors and their support chips in detail. These books cover much more than you will need for this course. A number of tutorials and a short book on VHDL are available on the net (see the Web page).
The Art of Electronics, second edition, by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill, Cambridge University Press, 1989, is a good practical reference book on most aspects of electronics although much of the material is now dated.
final exam 50% midterm exam 25% assignments 10% labs 15%
A free 80x86 assembler is available on the course Web page and on the department's PCs.
ELEC 379 is designed for students in the Electrical Engineering rather than the Computer Engineering stream. The course covers the same material as a combination of ELEC 353 (logic design) and ELEC 465 (microcomputer design) but does not cover the material in as much depth.
If you are in the computer engineering option you should probably take ELEC 353 plus ELEC 465 rather than this course. Ask your faculty advisor for more details.