ECE5881 Real-time system design
Faculty of Engineering
ECE5881 Real-time system design is a level 5, 6-credit-point, postgraduate unit from the Faculty of Engineering. It isn't offered in 2026. It has no prerequisites.
- Credit points
- 6
- Offered in 2026
- Not offered
- Assessment
- Exam 50%
- and 5 other tasks
- Workload
- 144 hours
- per semester
This is the 2026 handbook entry. See the 2027 entry.
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Requisites
Before ECE5881
Prohibitions
You can't enrol if you have passed any of these.
After ECE5881
No unit lists ECE5881 as a prerequisite in the 2026 handbook.
Enrolment rules
Equivalent units
The same content under another code. Only one of them counts.
Overview
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.
Offerings in 2026
The 2026 handbook lists no offerings for ECE5881.
Assessment
- Programming session: Bus communication and interfacing completion quizQuiz / TestThreshold hurdle5%
- Programming session: Bus control and arbitration completion quizQuiz / TestThreshold hurdle5%
- Programming session: RT scheduling completion quizQuiz / TestThreshold hurdle10%
- Pendulum project completion quizzesProjectThreshold hurdle15%
- Pendulum project reportProjectThreshold hurdle15%
- Final assessmentExaminationThreshold hurdle50%
Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.
Learning outcomes
When you finish this unit, you should be able to:
- 1
explain the development process for real-time systems from specification, simulation, implementation and testing
- 2
design and implement interface logic to a bus system and its associated arbitration logic using a hardware description language
- 3
describe the effectiveness and benefits of deploying a real-time operating system in software development of a real-time system
- 4
compare, measure and analyse the performance and overhead of real-time scheduling policies of a real-time operating system
- 5
design and analyse hardware accelerators that improve real-time system performance in areas such as energy use, latency and throughput
- 6
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.
Workload and teaching
- Teaching approachPeer assisted learning
- Teaching approachEnquiry-based learning
- Teaching approachActive learning
- Teaching approachProblem-based learning
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.
Active participation in laboratories and group discussions.
Active participation in laboratories.
Participation in applied sessions and discussion forums, and active involvement in laboratories.
Active participation in team-based project work.
Where it fits
ECE5881 is part of 2 areas of study in the 2026 handbook.
Common questions
What are the prerequisites for ECE5881?
ECE5881 has no prerequisites, but enrolment rules apply.
When is ECE5881 offered?
ECE5881 has no offerings listed in the 2026 handbook.
How much work is ECE5881?
The handbook expects about 144 hours of study across the semester. No students have rated its difficulty yet.
Does ECE5881 have an exam?
Yes. The exam is worth 50% of the final mark, alongside 5 other tasks.
Which majors and minors include ECE5881?
ECE5881 is part of Electrical and computer systems engineering; and Robotics and mechatronics engineering.