Laboratory Assignment

General information

To achieve practical experience of the construction of a real-time system, a compulsory laboratory assignment is included in the course. The purpose of the assignment is to develop a distributed synthetic chorus, with several individual tone generators (Part 1) that execute under strict timing constraints while at the same time being mutually synchronized other over a communication network (Part 2). The software is programmed using the C programming language extended with the TinyTimber kernel. As a preparation for Part 1 and Part 2 of the laboratory assignment, you work on Part 0 of the laboratory assignment during study week 2.

During the course of the laboratory assignment you will see a simple tone generator develop into a small synthesizer/sequencer combo capable of performing the song "Brother John" ("Broder Jakob" in Swedish). And not only that – the whole exercise will emanate into a network-aware music application that may participate in coordinated "Brother John" performances together with all other like-minded boards it finds on the local network. So let the music play!

The expected time to do the entire assignment, including Part 0, 1 and 2, is 6 weeks (study weeks 2 through 7). Part 0 should take one session, Part 1 should take 1-2 sessions, and Part 2 should take 3-4 sessions. Obviously you can finish sooner whenever you are done with all parts. On the other hand, if you need more time you can use the remaining week of the study period.

Since the laboratory assignment involves significant interaction with laboratory assistants (demonstrating designs and solutions) as well as other groups (designing a communication protocol) each student is expected to attend at least 3 laboratory sessions, out of which one must take place in study week 2 or 3.

As a final part of the laboratory assignment the students should document their work in a written report that should be electronically submitted (see below for details).

The grade of the laboratory assignment, according to the scale Fail (U) or Passed (grades 3, 4, 5), is based on the student's performance during the laboratory sessions.

Note: Before you start working on the assignment, you are urged to pay attention to the Rules of Conduct.

Booking of laboratory sessions

The laboratory sessions are done in project groups of two students, and take place in the course laboratories of the Division of Computer Engineering (room 4225, south part of the EDIT building).

Each project group will be guaranteed one laboratory session time slot per week. When you register for a group you will be assigned a time slot that will be on the same weekday and time for all weeks in the study period.

Register to a project group on Monday morning in study week 2 at the latest. Please note that you must be logged on to PingPong in order to be able to access this service.

Registration for a project group is done here.

The laboratory sessions start in study week 2, and the following time slots are reserved for the available project groups:

Note: Please notify the lab responsible in case you cannot attend a laboratory session.

Project report

The written report should include the following:

1. A separate front page which states your project group number and, for each member of your group, the name and social security number ("personnummer").

2. The answers to Problems 1.a, 1.b and 1.c in Part 2, Step 1 of the laboratory assignment. That is, a description of your software design, focusing primarily on how the "state-machine" software controlling the tone generator works. Use access graphs (see slide 26 in Lecture 3) to illustrate how objects and methods are organized and refer to each other, and use timing diagrams (see slides 32 - 36 in Lecture 3) to illustrate the method event chains.

3. The solution to Part 2, Step 4 of the laboratory assignment. That is, a description of the CAN message protocol that you developed in cooperation with other project groups.

4. No source code listings need to be included.

Submission of your project report is done here.

Submission deadlines:

	1st submission deadline		March 16
	2nd (revision) deadline		March 26
	3rd (final approval) deadline		April 2

Rules for submission of the laboratory report:

1. Deadlines are hard. If you for some reason cannot make the deadline, contact us before the laboratory report deadline, and tell us what your reason is, together with a realistic proposal of a new personal deadline for you. You may then get an extension of the deadline.

2. You have a total number of 2 attempts to fix your submission if necessary (so: 1st submission - feedback - 2nd submission - feedback - and final submission). So please read feedback carefully! Of course, you are allowed to ask questions if issues are unclear.

3. Your last attempt has to be submitted before the final approval deadline. If you fail to do this, your submission will be rejected.

4. If the laboratory report is approved the corresponding examination objective is marked as 'Passed' in PingPong.