Toward HW/SW integration

Traditional Computer Science curricula focus on the training for logic reasoning and programming skills. System integration is often not covered in computer science curricula. As the embedded platforms migrate from 8-bit microprocessors to 32-bit microprocessors, the engineers require different skills to design modern embedded systems. The Computer Science faculties at several universities in Taiwan have collaborated to design a new course to meet such needs. In this course, we focus on the capability of integrating hardware and software in networked embedded systems. In particular, the students learn the skills for embedded real-time programming, multi-thread programming, low-power network protocols, security, and wireless networks protocol. In this article, we report the design rationale and current status of this course.