ECE471: Embedded Systems

University of Maine ECE

Fall 2026

Instructor: Vincent Weaver
The class meeting time is Monday/Wednesday/Friday at 9:00am-9:50am.
The meeting place is Barrows 119.

The final exam is scheduled for: Wednesday, 16 December 2026, 12:15pm, in Barrows 119
Office hours:

Notes on Required Hardware

Required Raspberry Pi Hardware

Syllabus

ece471_2026f.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 31 August
Introduction to Embedded Systems
Lecture 1 Notes
2 September
Embedded Hardware, 8 vs 32-bit
Lecture 2 Notes
4 September
ARM History, RISC, Single Board Computers
Lecture 3 Notes
Week 2 7 September
No class, Labor day
9 September
Raspberry Pi Background, Linux, C
Lecture 4 Notes
11 September
Pi Setup and Configuration
Lecture 5 Notes
Week 3 14 September
No Class (NSF Meeting)
16 September
Linux Commandline Demo
Lecture 6 Notes
18 September
Compiling, ABIs
Lecture 7 Notes
Week 4 21 September
Code Density Overview
Lecture 8 Notes
Sample Code from Lecture
23 September
ARM32/THUMB/Thumb2/AARCH64, Code Density
Lecture 9 Notes
25 September
Linux GPIO Interface
Lecture 10 Notes
Week 5 28 September
ELF Executables, Virtual Memory
Lecture 11 Notes
30 September
HW2 Review, Operating Systems
Lecture 12 Notes
2 October
i2c
Lecture 13 Notes
Week 6 5 October
Real Time, Jitter
Lecture 14 Notes
7 October
More Real Time
Lecture 15 Notes
9 October
Midterm Review, RT Scheduling
Lecture 16 Notes
Week 7 12 October
No Class, Fall Break
14 October
Homework Review, RT Priorities
Lecture 17 Notes
16 October
Midterm Exam
Week 8 19 October
Real Time Linux / RT Wrapup
Lecture 18 Notes
21 October
No class -- Engineering Career Fair
23 October
SPI Bus
Lecture 19 Notes
Week 9 26 October
Floating Point, Boot Firmware
Lecture 20 Notes
28 October
Booting, Device Detection
Lecture 21 Notes
30 October
1-wire Bus
Lecture 22 Notes
Week 10 2 November
DST, Voting, C strings
Lecture 23 Notes
4 November
Trusted Firmware
Lecture 24 Notes
6 November
HW#9 Preview, Computer Security
Lecture 25 Notes
Week 11 9 November
Computer Security, Buggy Software Case Studies
11 November
Veteran's Day
13 November
Writing Good Code
Week 12 16 November
Pre-Midterm Homework Review
18 November
Midterm #2
20 November
Pi-related Project Topics / Other Busses
Week 13 23 November
Energy / Power Measurement
25 November
THANKSGIVING
27 November
THANKSGIVING
Week 14 30 November
ECE Ethics, USB
2 December
Final Exam Review / Project Example
4 December
Project Presentations
Week 15 7 December
Project Presentations
9 December
Project Presentations
11 December
Project Presentations

Homework Assignments


Final Project


Optional Useful Textbooks


ARM Assembly Language Links

Useful Links


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Last updated 6 November 2026, 17:00