ECE471: Embedded Systems

University of Maine ECE

Fall 2025

Instructor: Vincent Weaver
The class meeting time is Monday/Wednesday/Friday at 10:00am-10:50am.
The meeting place is Barrows 125.

The final exam is scheduled for: TBA
Office hours:

Notes on Required Hardware

Required Raspberry Pi Hardware

Syllabus

ece471_2025f.pdf

Course Listing

Application of micro-processors to the solution of design problems, including hardware characteristics, peripheral control techniques and system development. Lec 3. (Fall.)

What We'll Do this Semester

We will investigate modern embedded systems, with a focus on ARM processors.

Class Schedule

MondayWednesdayFriday
Week 1 1 September
No class, Labor day
3 September
Introduction to Embedded Systems
5 September
Embedded Hardware, 8 vs 32-bit
Week 2 8 September
ARM History, RISC
10 September
Single Board Computers, Raspberry Pi
12 September
C, Running Linux on a Pi
Week 3 15 September
Pi Setup, Linux Commandline Demo
17 September
C Pitfalls
19 September
Compiling, ABIs and Assembly Overview
Week 4 22 September
ARM32 assembly Overview
24 September
THUMB/Thumb2/AARCH64, Code Density
26 September
Linux GPIO Interface
Week 5 29 September
ELF Executables, Virtual Memory
1 October
HW3 Review, Operating Systems
3 October
i2c
Week 6 6 October
Real Time
8 October
More Real Time, Jitter
10 October
Midterm Review
Week 7 13 October
No Class, Fall Break
15 October
No class -- Engineering Career Fair
17 October
Midterm Exam
Week 8 20 October
Real Time OS, RT Schduling
22 October
Real Time Linux
24 October
SPI Bus
Week 9 27 October
Midterm Return, Floating Point Review
29 October
Booting, Device Detection
31 October
1-wire Bus
Week 10 3 November
Firmware
5 November
Trusted Firmware / C strings
7 November
Computer Security
Week 11 10 November
Computer Security
12 November
Buggy Software Case Studies
14 November
Writing Good Code, Midterm Review
Week 12 17 November
Homework Review
19 November
Midterm #2
21 November
Pi-related Project Topics / Other Busses
Week 13 24 November
Energy / Power Measurement
27 November
THANKSGIVING
29 November
THANKSGIVING
Week 14 1 December
ECE Ethics, More Embedded Busses
3 December
Final Exam Review / Project Example
5 December
Project Presentations
Week 15 8 December
Project Presentations
10 December
Project Presentations
12 December
Project Presentations

Homework Assignments


Final Project


Optional Useful Textbooks


ARM Assembly Language Links

Useful Links


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Last updated 23 May 2025, 17:00