UnitLevel 6Postgraduate

ECE6881 Real-time system design

Faculty of Engineering

ECE6881 Real-time system design is a level 6, 0-credit-point, postgraduate unit from the Faculty of Engineering, offered in 2024 in Semester 1 at Clayton. It has no prerequisites.

Credit points
0
Offered in 2024
Semester 1
Clayton
Assessment
No exam
6 tasks
Workload
144 hours
per semester

This is the 2024 handbook entry. See the 2027 entry.

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Requisites

Before ECE6881

Prohibitions

You can't enrol if you have passed any of these.

After ECE6881

No unit lists ECE6881 as a prerequisite in the 2024 handbook.

Enrolment rules

You must be enrolled in the Engineering PHD program or with permission from the Faculty of Engineering. The unit assumes you have the necessary foundational knowledge equivalent to ECE2071 and ECE2072.

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 2024

Teaching periodCampusMode
First semesterClaytonOn campus

Assessment

  • Programming session: Bus communication and interfacing completion quizThreshold hurdle
    5%
  • Programming session: Bus control and arbitration completion quizThreshold hurdle
    5%
  • Programming session: RT scheduling completion quizThreshold hurdle
    10%
  • Pendulum project completion quizzesThreshold hurdle
    15%
  • Pendulum project reportThreshold hurdle
    15%
  • Final assessmentThreshold hurdle
    50%

Learning outcomes

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

  1. 1

    explain the development process for real-time systems from specification, simulation, implementation and testing

  2. 2

    design and implement interface logic to a bus system and its associated arbitration logic using a hardware description language

  3. 3

    describe the effectiveness and benefits of deploying a real-time operating system in software development of a real-time system

  4. 4

    compare, measure and analyse the performance and overhead of real-time scheduling policies of a real-time operating system

  5. 5

    design and analyse hardware accelerators that improve real-time system performance in areas such as energy use, latency and throughput 

  6. 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

  • Practical activities12 hours
  • Laboratories33 hours
  • Teaching approachActive learning
  • Teaching approachEnquiry-based learning
  • Teaching approachProblem-based learning
  • Teaching approachPeer assisted 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.

Participation in applied sessions and discussion forums, and active involvement in laboratories.

Active participation in laboratories.

Active participation in team-based project work.

Active participation in laboratories and group discussions.

Contacts

Chief Examiners
Mr Clive Maynard
Unit Coordinators
Mr Clive Maynard

Common questions

What are the prerequisites for ECE6881?

ECE6881 has no prerequisites, but enrolment rules apply.

When is ECE6881 offered?

In 2024, ECE6881 runs in Semester 1 at Clayton.

How much work is ECE6881?

The handbook expects about 144 hours of study across the semester. No students have rated its difficulty yet.

Does ECE6881 have an exam?

No. ECE6881 has 6 assessment tasks and no exam.

More details

Credit points
0
Level
6
Study level
Postgraduate
Faculty
Faculty of Engineering
Organisational unit
Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering
Type
HDR
EFTSL
0
Student contribution
SCA Band 2
Study abroad
Not available