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: Monday, 15 December 2025, 12:15pm
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
Lecture 1 Notes
5 September
Embedded Hardware, 8 vs 32-bit
Lecture 2 Notes
Week 2 8 September
ARM History, RISC, Single Board Computers
Lecture 3 Notes
10 September
Raspberry Pi Background, Linux, C
Lecture 4 Notes
12 September
Pi Setup and Configuration
Lecture 5 Notes
Week 3 15 September
Linux Commandline Demo
Lecture 6 Notes
17 September
C Pitfalls
Lecture 7 Notes
19 September
Compiling, ABIs and Assembly Overview
Lecture 8 Notes
Week 4 22 September
ARM32 assembly Overview
Lecture 9 Notes
24 September
THUMB/Thumb2/AARCH64, Code Density
Lecture 10 Notes
26 September
Linux GPIO Interface
Lecture 11 Notes
Week 5 29 September
ELF Executables, Virtual Memory
Lecture 12 Notes
1 October
HW3 Review, Operating Systems
Lecture 13 Notes
3 October
i2c
Lecture 14 Notes
Week 6 6 October
Real Time, Jitter
Lecture 15 Notes
8 October
More Real Time
Lecture 16 Notes
10 October
Midterm Review, RT Scheduling
Lecture 17 Notes
Week 7 13 October
No Class, Fall Break
15 October
Homework Review, RT Priorities
Lecture 18 Notes
17 October
Midterm Exam
Week 8 20 October
Real Time Linux / RT Wrapup
Lecture 19 Notes
22 October
No class -- Engineering Career Fair
24 October
SPI Bus
Lecture 20 Notes
Week 9 27 October
Floating Point Review
Lecture 21 Notes
29 October
Booting, Device Detection
Lecture 22 Notes
31 October
1-wire Bus
Lecture 23 Notes
Week 10 3 November
Firmware
Lecture 24 Notes
5 November
Trusted Firmware / C strings
Lecture 25 Notes
7 November
HW#9 Preview
Lecture 26 Notes
Week 11 10 November
Computer Security
Lecture 27 Notes
12 November
Buggy Software Case Studies
Lecture 28 Notes
14 November
Writing Good Code
Lecture 29 Notes
Week 12 17 November
Midterm / 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 14 November 2025, 17:00