Design and development of a low-cost embedded system laboratory using TI MSP430F149

In this paper, we present a bunch of experiments useful for an embedded system laboratory. It is an outcome of the author's experience in teaching computer architecture and embedded systems in theory. The experiments described herein can be implemented as one third semester laboratory course. Further, they are built around the Texas Instrument's low-power RISC microcontroller MSP430F149, which supports modular programming. The components including the microcontroller with programmer are inexpensive. It gives a hands-on experience to the undergraduate student of electronics and communication engineering (ECE) and computer science engineering (CSE). The salient feature of this module is that each experiment is explained by its hardware description, software development which includes the dumping of program on to the microcontroller's flash memory. Program listing is made available on request. The compiler necessary for program development is available as freeware from Texas instrument's website. It can be used to develop 4kB of program which is fairly sufficient for the experiments described herein. Our experience with the conduct of a 120 min-end of semester practical examination show that, with the chronological increase in hardware design, the student exhibited the confidence in designing new stand-alone systems with fairly complicated hardware and software. Setting up a laboratory of this type is easy with the material described in this paper.