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| Consortium
for Embedded Systems
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Consortium
aids research,
education in embedded
systems.
Sijin Karayil is part
of the Linux Systems
Diagnostics team at
Motorola. The team
writes
diagnostics to test
Motorola’s various
boards before they go
to the consumer.
Through his work
Karayil has
strengthened his
skills in Linux and
programming in C, and
has been exposed to
extreme programming.
He is able to present
his ideas and feels
like his contributions
are valuable.
“It’s like being a
full time employee,”
he said. But he isn’t.
Karayil is actually a
senior in
computer science at
ASU. He works at
Motorola through the
CEINT internship
program.
The Consortium for
Embedded and
Inter-Networking
Technologies, or CEINT,
is a partnership
between the Ira A.
Fulton School of
Engineering, Motorola,
and Intel designed to
facilitate world-class
research as well as
prepare a talented and
skilled workforce. The
consortium receives
$1.5 million per year
from its members to
support its various
programs, including
the CEINT Internship
Program run by
Professor David
Pheanis.
 Interns
usually spend multiple
semesters with a
company working on a
specific project. They
have two mentors, one
form the company and
one from ASU. At the
end of each semester,
the intern writes a
paper and makes a
presentation about his
or her research.
CEINT also provides
financial assistance
to graduate and
undergraduate students
interested in embedded
systems. CEINT
Graduate Research
Assistantships help
attract top students
to ASU. Juniors and
senior undergraduates
can apply for merit
scholarships of $1,500
per semester through
the CEINT Scholars
program. Once
selected, students
receive an award each
semester if they
continue to meet the
academic
qualifications.
Curriculum development
is also essential to
CEINT’s mission.
Each semester ASU
professors compete for
grants to develop
courses and
laboratories focused
on embedded systems. Professor
Yann-Hang Lee has
received grants to
develop two new
courses.
The first class
focuses on embedded
systems that must
respond in real time,
such as those in
telecommunications,
medical or aerospace
applications. From a
systems point of view,
the class examines how
to design more
efficient software and
architecture, meet
deadlines, do
scheduling, and
generally make a
system better. As part
of the grant Lee set
up a new laboratory
with development
systems donated by
Intel.
“The environment
used in the course is
very close to what
industry uses,” Lee
said. “What students
learn in this course
is a very good selling
point. I think they
can find a challenging
and promising job to
start their career.”
The second course
explores
hardware/software
interfaces in embedded
systems, with a focus
on peripheral
interfaces. Students
control these hardware
components that
interact with the
environment using
software written with
high-level language.
Motorola helped outfit
the development
systems in a
laboratory for this
course, which is
intended to complement
the one on real-time
embedded systems.
Students appear to be
pleased with the new
classes, each of which
has been offered once.
One student wrote on
evaluation for the
hardware/software
interface course,
“This was one of the
best classes I have
attended at ASU in
terms of educational
value.”
Of course, the
consortium isn’t all
for the students. The
creation of new
embedded systems
technology is a vital
part of CEINT
activities. The
consortium provides
one year of seed
funding to researchers
to perform initial
work on a project such
that an outside agency
or corporation would
be interested in it.
Although embedded
systems are found in
many different
devices, work funded
by CEINT focuses on
telecommunications
applications.
The work of Assistant
Professor Karamvir
Chatha is a good
example. One of his
projects looks at
advanced architectures
for embedded
processors in high
performance
communication systems.
As embedded processor
technology becomes
smaller—90
nanometers or less—a
communication signal
requires more than one
clock cycle to travel
across the chip.
Signal integrity is
also an issue, as
signals are corrupted
due to crosstalk
errors during
communication. Thus,
typical busbased
architectures can’t
be utilized for these
embedded processors.
One solution is to
build a network on a
chip. This advanced
architecture enables
communication within a
single embedded
processor just as a
computer network
allows PCs to talk.
But the hardware for a
network on a chip must
be area and power
efficient. Chatha has
created a prototype of
a nanoscale router,
and is testing it now.
With the success of
both research and
academic programs,
CEINT has proved what
a university-industry
partnership can
achieve. In March 2003
Intel, Motorola and
ASU extended their
commitment to CEINT
through July 2005.
Recruitment of new
members is underway.
The ultimate goal of
all CEINT’s
activities is to turn
the Phoenix metro area
and the state of
Arizona into a
globally recognized
center for embedded
systems. It’s an
ambitious goal, but
the consortium is well
on its way. CEINT
funds research
projects to extend the
reach of embedded
systems applications
into new markets and
to broaden the depth
of existing
applications. The
Research Committee
members organize,
evaluate, and
recommend proposals to
the CEINT Board of
Directors for funding
twice a year.
For
more information view
the Consortium
for Embedded Systems
web site.
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Our Research |
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We do research on Real-time Java,
Embedded System, Wireless Sensor Networks,
and so on... |
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Our Goal |
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To build reliable real-time embedded system,
contribute computer engineering community
and make our future better. |
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RTOS vs.
General OS |
| Dr.
Yann-Hang Lee said
"Concurrency and Temporal Behavior differentiate
RTOS from General OS" at his
Real-Time Embedded Systems class. |
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Introduction
to Real Time |
| A
real-time system is one in which the
correctness of the computations not only
depends on their logical correctness,
but also on the time at which the result
is produced. -David B. Stewart |
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