CMPE 401 - Computer Interfacing

Announcements:

• Have a safe and happy holiday and New Year!
• Unofficial final marks have been posted.
  December 23, 2003
• All of the lab kits have now been returned.
• Please verify your marks!
  The marks for all students that have returned their kits are listed in the Student Grades pdf. Those of you that did not are listed as inc (for incomplete) until you do.
  If you come across any errors please see Dr. Cockburn for the necessary corrections. If he is not available see Nancy Minderman in W2-054 and she can help you as well. Please bring the assignment, lab, or midterm in questions so that we can verifiy everything.
  One assignment #6 had no name on it. Fortunately, it was submitted on company paper. Please come and identify your assignment to either Dr. Cockburn or Nancy Minderman.
  Thanks.
  December 16, 2003
• The laboratory 4 reports have now been marked, and are available to be picked up outside Dr. Cockburn's office during department office hours.
• There is an error in slide 11-31. The read/write (R/W) line should stay high for a read operation. The erroneous timing diagram in slide 11-31 shows the R/W signal going low (which would be correct for a write cycle, but not a read cycle). The error originates in Motorola's documentation for the MC68332. The rest of the timing diagram is fine. View slide 11-32 to see the correct behaviour of the R/W signal during both read and write cycles.
• Assignment #4 has now finally been marked. The marked solutions, as well as any other marked assignments from 1 to 5, and marked lab reports from 1 to 3, are available in a box outside of the instructor's office (ECERF W2-044) during office hours (8:30 to noon, and 1:00 to 4:30). The few remaining unclaimed midterm papers must be collected from Dr. Cockburn in person.
• The final examination will be held on Thursday, December 11 starting at 9 am and running for two hours until 11 am. The examination hall will be in the ETLC building, room E1-001. This is the large 400-seat lecture hall on the ground floor. You are permitted to bring and freely consult your course notes (annotated copies of the course overheads) and model assignment solutions. You are also encouraged to bring a 68000 Programming Reference Card and an electronic calculator.
• Clarification for assignment #6, question #2: Rightward-moving voltage waves are related to the accompanying rightward-moving current waves according to the equation V+(z,t) = Zo * I+(z,t). On the other hand, leftward-moving voltage waves are related to the accompanying leftward-moving current waves according to the equation V-(z,t) = -Zo * I-(z,t). The minus sign in front of the characteristic impedance for leftward moving waves is required for the differential equations to work out properly.
• Please don't forget to return your lab kits to Rick McGregor in ETLC E3-012 during regular office hours.
• Dr. Cockburn will be attending laboratory sessions at the regular times on the afternoons of Tuesday, November 25 and Thursday, November 27. Your working laboratory 4 stepper motor programs can be demonstrated during those sessions.
• Dr. Cockburn will be holding office hours from 2pm to 4pm on Wednesdays for the rest of the term. Individual help sessions can also be arranged by e-mail at other times.
• The model solutions for the midterm examination are available here. The distribution of marks is available here.
• A lecture schedule is available here.
• To prevent the deletion of duart.o while executing make clean in your lab3 directory modify the Makefile inside the lab3 directory as follows:

  
  clean:
  	mv duart.o duart
  	rm -f *.o
  	rm -f *.s19
  	rm -f *.map
  	rm -f .depend
  	rm -f *~
  	mv duart duart.o
  

  Oct 31, 2003
• Please note that there have been changes to Lab #3 since it was distributed in class.
  Oct 28, 2003
• The midterm examination will be held in the classroom on Wednesday, October 22, starting at the regular classtime. Please arrive a few minute before 10 am so that everybody will have a chance to be seated when the exam starts. Aids permitted: One copy of the course notes. An electronic calculator. Your own solutions to the assignment exercises. Model assignment solutions.
• The model solutions for Assignment #3 will be posted at 4 pm on October 20.
• The midterm examination date has now been set for Wednesday, October 22 in the 50-minute lecture period.
• Please note the changes to the lab 2 code snippet DuartTx. It should read:

  DuartTx:  LINK    A6,#0              /* create stack frame */
            MOVEM.L A0-A6/D0-D7,-(SP)  /* save CPU regs */
            MOVE.L  8(A6),D0           /* read channel parameter */
            MOVE.L  12(A6),D1          /* read TxByte parameter */
            /* remaining code */
            MOVEM.L (SP)+,A0-A6/D0-D7  /* restore CPU regs */
            UNLK    A6                 /* remove stack frame */
            RTS
  

  
  October 8, 2003
• One representative from each lab group in lab sections D1 (starting next Tuesday) and D3 (starting next Thursday) are to go to Rick McGregor's office (ETLC E3-012), starting at 1 pm this afternoon, to sign out a lab parts kit. Be sure to have your partner's full name, student ID, and e-mail when you go to pick up a kit. You will be responsible for taking care of the parts in your kit. The more expensive items (breadboard, DUART chip, power regulator chip) will need to be returned at the end of the term. You will need to be pay the cost of replacing these more expensive times if you damage them.
• Assignment #1, Laboratory #1, and sections 3 and 4 of the course notes were released in class on September 10.
  The assignment and laboratory handouts are also available over hyperlinks below.

Instructor: Dr. Bruce F. Cockburn; Office: ECERF W2-044; E-mail: cockburn@ece.ualberta.ca

Lab Technicians: