Title :
MSP430 microcontrollers essentials - A new approach for the embedded systems courses: Part 1 - Overview and tools
Author :
Gaspar, Pedro Dinis ; Santo, A. Espirito ; Ribeiro, Bruno
Author_Institution :
Electromech. Eng. Dept., Univ. of Beira Interior, Covilha, Portugal
Abstract :
The embedded systems (ES) formation require a broader set of knowledge, abilities and skills including informatics and electronics concepts in order to develop highly creative and imaginative applications based in analytical studies. Moreover, in an effort to improve the education quality it needs to be followed with intense hands-on laboratories. This paper presents a new approach for embedded systems courses appropriate for both high school and undergraduate classrooms, that has been conceived and designed to accomplish these goals, while motivating and equipping this next generation of engineers to rise to future challenges. The course structure was defined in order to be easy to understand and provide a logical flow along the topics, as it mostly progresses from simple topics to more advanced ones. The developed materials include slides for class room teaching, explanatory documents for student and educators future reference, laboratories, tests, programs and application examples after each chapter. Each module is dedicated to a specific aspect of the MSP430 device, including the description of a range of peripherals. This is the first part of the paper presenting the outline of the course. Particularly, this paper identifies the course need, presents its structure, and the initial subjects covering an introductory overview in logic design and embedded processors and a description of the available software and hardware development tools for the MSP430.
Keywords :
educational courses; electronic engineering education; embedded systems; logic design; microcontrollers; teaching; MSP430 device; MSP430 microcontroller; classroom teaching; course structure; education quality; electronics concept; embedded processor; embedded systems course; explanatory document; hardware development tool; high school; informatics; logic design; logical flow; software development tool; undergraduate classroom; Biological system modeling; Europe; Instruments; Robots; Soldering; Universal Serial Bus; Vehicles;
Conference_Titel :
Education and Research Conference (EDERC), 2010 4th European
Conference_Location :
Nice
Print_ISBN :
978-0-9552047-4-6