Course Catalogue

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This course is concerned with the study of the hardware and software of computers systems which receive inputs from the physical world outside the computer and which must respond within the deadlines imposed by the time constants of the external hardware.  The course also traces how microprocessors and memory systems have evolved to achieve enhanced performance and describes the range of methods for communicating between computers, over short medium and long distance links.

This course will be timetabled in blocks, typically one week in four, with tutorials and on-line support available between each block.

Mandatory Entry Requirements

None

Recommended Entry Requirements

None

None

None

75% Written Exam

25% Report: Laboratory and Group Project

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

Due to the nature of the coursework and sequencing of courses, it is not possible to reassess the coursework laboratory.

The initial grade on coursework laboratories will be used when calculating the resit grade.

Reassessment is offered only to meet the special requirement that all courses must be passed for graduation in this programme.

The aims of the course are to:

■ introduce computer systems which must meet deadlines imposed by external hardware and/or design specifications;

■ give students an appreciation of current design styles in computer architecture.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ describe the attributes of a real-time computers system and catagorise systems based upon analysis of design specification and/or information provided about the system;

■ estimate the execution time for code performing input and output functions, data storage in cache and virtual memory systems by calculating their average access times and storage requirements and then optimising execution time through appropriate selection of methods;

■ explain how information can be transmitted between computer systems via serial connections;

■ apraise the use of real-time operating systems and describe priority allocation policies such as rate monotonic scheduling;

■ draw the state diagram for a simple models of a multiprocessor system and derive the equations from which the performance of the system can be calculated;

■ describe the techniques underlying modern processor designs and real-time operating systems and discuss the inherent limitations on performance imposed by hardware and software.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.  In addition students must submit work for assessment for the course laboratory or a grade of credit withheld will be given.

Students must attend the timetabled laboratory classes.

Note that these are minimum requirements: good students will achieve far higher participation/submission

rates. Any student who misses an assessment or a significant number of classes because of illness or

other good cause should report this by completing a MyCampus absence report.