EE5903 Real-time Systems © 2011 Mandar Chitre

EE5903 Real-time Systems

1. Notes

Notes are not a substitute for understanding!

The lecture notes are provided only as a reference and reminder of what was taught in class. Memorizing the notes will
not serve the student, as the focus of the course is on the understanding of real-time systems. By the end of the course,
the student is expected to be able to design and develop simple real-time systems independently.

2. Contact details

At any point in time during the course, students may contact me for advise or guidance. My contact details are given
below. The best way to contact me is via email.

Mandar Chitre
Asst. Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Head, Acoustic Research Laboratory

Block E2 Room 03-24

Faculty of Engineering
National University of Singapore

Tel: (65) 6516 2571 Fax: (65) 6874 8325

E-mail: mandar@arl.nus.edu.sg
Website: www.arl.nus.edu.sg

3. Objectives

To impart an appreciation of typical issues faced in real-time systems

To build an understanding of common design and implementation considerations & strategies
To develop the ability to design a real-time system and express the design clearly
To provide a basic understanding of real-time operating systems
To provide guidance for further study

4. Prerequisites / Assumptions

Basic knowledge of computer architecture

Good programming knowledge / experience
Knowledge of UNIX programming & usage

5. Course outline

Chapter 1. Introduction to real-time systems

Chapter 2. Real-time system design
Chapter 3. Inter-process communication
Chapter 4. Inter-process synchronization
Chapter 5. Implementation of concurrency
Chapter 6. Real-time operating systems
Chapter 7. Process scheduling
Chapter 8. Reliability, testing & fault tolerance

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EE5903 Real-time Systems © 2011 Mandar Chitre

Chapter 7. Process scheduling

Chapter 8. Reliability, testing & fault tolerance

6. CA

50% of course grades comprising of:

10% for CA1 self-learning exercise and presentations
10% each for CA2, CA3 and CA4 design/programming assignments
10% for in-class participation, in-class exercises, online discussions, etc.

7. Exams

Grading: 50%
Open book
4 long questions, answer all

8. Interaction

Ask questions as we go along; there is no such thing as a stupid question

Ask questions on forum, do not email course material related questions
You may email me for personal matters
Feedback via email or IVLE anonymous form throughout the course; don't wait until the end

9. Reference books

The following reference books provide good material for further study. For the purposes of the course, these books are
useful references but not essential. If you are keen on furthering your interest in real-time systems, I would recommend
you to own copies of one or more of these books:
[Burns 2009]
A. Burns & A. Wellings, “Real-time Systems and Programming Languages,” 4th ed., Addison Wesley Longmain, ISBN:
9780321417459, 2009.
[Laplante 1997]
P. Laplante, "Real-time systems design and analysis - An Engineer's Handbook," 2nd Edition, NJ: IEEE Press, ISBN:
0-7803-3400-0, 1997.
[Bic & Shaw 2002]
L. F. Bic & A. C. Shaw, "Operating systems principles," NJ: Prentice Hall, ISBN: 0-1302-6611-6, 2002.

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