Prior study of CESCOM10105-5 Advanced Programming Languages for Computer Systems and CESCOM10214-5 Systems Programming with C++ or suitable alternatives that include appropriate skill sets.

Burns A & Wellings A. (2001), Real-time Systems and their Programming Languages, 3e, Addison & Wesley, ISBN: 0201729881
Real Time Systems & Software, Alan C. Shaw, John Wiley (2001) ISBN 0-471-35490-2
Real Time Systems Development, Rob Williams. Butterworth-Heinemann (2006) ISBN 0-7506-6471-1

Laboratory containing LabView. Pcs to be linked in pairs by the serial link. Lecture Theatre with LabView installed.

An assignment weighted at 100% that will consist of a portfolio of work which will be composed of advanced implementation of real life application of a Micro-controller system (C/Assesmbler) and LabVIEW (Graphical) system design, with analysis of safety critical system design. (Learning Outcomes 1-4)

Classification of real-time systems. Safety-critical embedded and distributed real-time systems. Hard/soft taxonomy. Periodic/ Aperiodic demands. Process synchronisation, mutual exclusion, process communication. Safety and liveness properties. Reliability, redundancy, performance and other non-functional requirements. Scheduling strategies.

Review of concurrent methods, methodologies, operating systems and languages used, analysing their strengths and weaknesses. HCI considerations. Systematic approach to conceptualisation, specification and design of real-time systems using structured & object-oriented approaches, comparison of approaches. Most of the principles will be illustrated using Real world examples from globally recognised companies. Hardware interfacing, interrupts and polling, transformers and transducers.

Categorisation and impact of formal approaches, role of proof, model checking.

Characterisation of safety, safety culture, risk and its management, cost of failure. Current standards and safety life-cycle. Fault tolerance.

Static & Dynamic Testing techniques and environment modelling.

The direction and key elements of the module will be covered in lectures. You will be required and encouraged to investigate topics on your own or in small groups in independent study time. The practical side of the course will involve you in developing models addressing aspects of the theory taught in the module, again in independent study time. Software tools and hardware elements will be provided, as appropriate, for the practical work.

There will be 26 hours of lectures and 52 hours of practicals.

The delivery pattern to be used is a single 1 hour lecture per week and a single 2 hour practical session per week.

1. ANALYSE AND CRITICALLY EVALUATE TYPICAL REAL TIME AND SAFETY CRITICAL SYSTEMS AND EXPLAIN IN DEPTH THEIR REQUIREMENTS FOR ASYNCHRONOUS OPERATION, CONCURRENCY, ROBUSTNESS, SAFETY AND HOW THEY ABIDE BY CURRENT LEGISLATION.
Analysis
Enquiry

2. APPLY SYSTEMATIC APPROACHES TO CONCEPTUALISATION, SPECIFICATION, DESIGN AND RISK ASSESSMENT OF REAL TIME SYSTEMS AND SAFETY CRITICAL SYSTEMS.
Application
Knowledge & Understanding

3. CRITICALLY EVALUATE THE ISSUES RELATING TO THE HARDWARE, SOFTWARE BOUNDARY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS.
Communication
Enquiry
Learning

4. DESIGN AND TEST A SYSTEM USING FORMAL METHODS AND STATIC TESTING PROCESSES. Application
Enquiry
Problem Solving