Design of a microcomputer platform with real-time operating system for laboratory projects

In the School of Information Technology and Engineering a microcomputer incorporating a real-time operating system has been designed To be used in various laboratory projects. The hardware is composed mainly of standard components like MC68332 processor and memory modules. The memory controller and a multiport unit have been designed using VHDL and are realised with EPLDs. The background debug mode facility of the processor enabled the fast and successful development from scratch. The real-time operating system was designed to be lean, yet including sufficient features to solve real world problems. It was developed incrementally using object oriented methods. The requirements, development methodology and experience gained during its development in several undergraduate research projects are described in detail including the specification process, creation of user manuals, testing procedures and benchmarks.