Embedded Systems Lab

is a fully ESD-safe lab space, intended for the development and use of complex digital systems. These systems often include microcontrollers, field-programmable logic devices, real-time operating systems, and various user interfaces. 

This lab supports a number of electrical and computer engineering courses, including:

  • Design & Analysis of Digital Circuits
  • Fundamentals of Computer Engineering
  • Microprocessor System Design
  • Embedded Systems Design
  • Capstone Design I and II

There are 10 lab stations (2 students per station) and each lab station includes at least the following equipment:

  • Two desktop computers (one for each student)
  • Fluke 8846A digital bench multimeter
  • Fluke 117 handheld multimeter
  • Agilent E3648A 50W bench dual power supply
  • TechTools DV3400 400Mhz 36 Channel PC hosted logic analyzer
  • Atmel AT90USB1286 microcontroller development boards
  • NXP LPC1768 ARM Cortex M-3 microcontroller development boards
  • Xilinx Spartan 3E FPGA development boards

In addition, the lab features a number of other more specialized devices for use in project work, capstone design projects, or student independent studies:

  • TotalPhase USB 480 Protocol Analyzer
  • Agilent MSO7034A 350Mhz Mixed-Signal Oscilloscope
  • Xilinx Virtex-2 FPGA development boards
  • Dedicated computer workstation for long term development, compute jobs, and other needs
  • Dedicated equipment for printed circuit board soldering and assembly

While working in the embedded systems lab, students have access to not only the standard software used in other electrical and computer engineering labs, but also a number of other more specialized software tools, including:

  • The Xilinx Embedded Development Kit
  • The Microsoft Visual Studio Professional Integrated Development Environment
  • A broad range of GNU/open source development tools, including Eclipse, GCC, and other tools
  • Micrium uC-OS III
  • FreeRTOS
  • IAR Systems Embedded Workbench
  • Segger embOS and J-Link JTAG/SWD Interface