Hardware-Software Co-Design in an Undergraduate Microcontroller Laboratory

 

Hardware-software co-design is an essential skill for fast and efficient development of products in high-tech computer industries.  Our laboratories and software tools help introduce these skills at the undergraduate level.  Using a simulation model of the 8051 microcontroller, the laboratories take students through the 4 fundamental steps of hardware-software co-design:
 

Hardware Design

     

Students design and connect peripherals for the 8051 microcontroller.  Students may simulate hardware (without software) at this stage. 

Software Design

     

Students develop software for the 8051 microcontroller to be used with hardware they have already developed.  Students may simulate software (without hardware) at his stage.

Hardware-Software 
Co-simulation

     

Using the 8051 simulation model, students fully test their designs by simulating hardware and software together.  Through co-simulation, errors may be found and removed quickly, before final implementation.

Implementation
and Testing

    

The student's hardware-software design is implemented on the Xess XS40 board.  Students test their design by observing logic levels at pin probe points or by observing operation of external components, such as the on-board LED display, parallel port, vga display, or other attached peripherals.

 

The WIMP
 
As part of these laboratories, we have also developed a simplified version of the 8051 microcontroller, called the WIMP51, and an animated visual interface to the WIMP to help teach concepts of processor architecture and of co-design of hardware-software systems at the chip-level.

 

  

 

We have also developed a hardware-software debugging interface that allows a user to view the values of registers and memory inside the 8051 while co-simulating their hardware and software design instruction-by-instruction or clock-by-clock.  The interface works on top of Mentor Graphics ModelSim to perform the actual simulation.

               8051 Hardware-Software Debugger

   

These laboratories teach students fundamental concepts of hardware-software co-design.

 

There are several publications on these materials.  Some good overviews include:

·      D. Beetner and H. Pottinger, “Laboratories Introducing Embedded Systems, Hardware-Software Co-Design, and Computer Organization,” 38th ASEE Midwest Section Conference and Workshop, Sept. 10-12, 2003.

·      L. Verma, H. J. Pottinger, and D. G. Beetner, "A Software Debugger Interface for an 8051 Hardware Model," 2003 Conference on Microelectronic Systems Education, June 2003.

·      D. Sullins, H. Pottinger, D. Beetner, "The WIMP51: A Simple Processor and Visualization Tool to Introduce Undergraduates to Computer Organization," Computers in Education Journal, vol. 13, pp 17-23, Jan. 2003.

·      D.G. Beetner, H.J. Pottinger, and K. Mitchel, “Laboratories Teaching Concepts in Microcontrollers and Hardware-Software Co-Design,” 30th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, pp. S1C/1–5, 2000.

 

 

Back to the main page