Hardware Platforms and Programming of Embedded Systems

The course took place for the first time in Winter Semester 2023/2024. There may be some adjustments to the Table of Contents in Winter Semester 2024/2025. For this, keep checking this website.

1 Introduction

2 Hardware
2.1 Computing architectures 
2.1.1 Architecture of microprocessors and microcontrollers 
2.1.2 Custom-designed hardware (FPGA & Co.)
2.1.3 Other platforms 

2.2 Memory/Storage 
2.2.1 Volatile: On-Chip (Registers, Cache: SRAM), DRAM 
2.2.2 Persistent storage devices: EEPROM, Serial Flash, eMMC, SSD

2.3 Input/Output interfaces and protocols 
2.3.1 Exemplary sensors, actors
2.3.2 Board-level communication: I2C, SPI, PCI(e)
2.3.3 Inter-board communication: JTAG, UART, USB, Wireless PAN 
2.3.4 Local Area Networks (LAN): Ethernet, WLAN
2.3.5 Wide Area Network (WAN): GSM, LTE

2.4 Power supply

3 Software
3.1 Microcontroller software 

3.2 Embedded Linux
3.2.1 Board support package: Kernel, Bootloader, Device Tree
3.2.2 Device drivers
3.2.3 Organization of data in file sytems
3.2.4 Interface to userspace through Linux RootFS

3.3 (Business) Application software 
3.3.1 Converting C/C++ code into embedded software: GCC, Crosscompiling
3.3.2 Potential of modern C++ on embedded systems
3.3.3 Cryptography, SecureBoot
3.3.4 Application interfaces
3.3.5 User interfaces

3.4 Software/Firmware management
3.4.1 Continuous integration: Versioning, Tooling
3.4.2 Linux distribution build system Yocto/Bitbake
3.4.3 In-field updates

Note: Course contents subject to change in order to keep up-to-date with latest research results and developments in the communications industry.