Collaborative Research: Integrating Time-Oriented Embedded System Programming into a Computing Curriculum

计算机科学（31）本项目开发了一套协调的材料，将面向时间的嵌入式系统编程整合到计算机课程中。该项目开发的材料描述了一种有纪律的面向时间的编程方法，强调使用状态机进行计算和程序员对时间的明确管理，在包括在线书籍和大量动画PowerPoint幻灯片在内的教学材料中进行了描述。认识到专注于有纪律的方法的关键障碍，该项目开发了一个虚拟微控制器，它从源于传统或批量生产问题的现代微控制器的复杂细节中解脱出来，而是拥有简单的输入和输出引脚以及具有直观编程界面的基本定时器组件。虚拟微控制器由单一的编译、仿真和调试环境支持，消除了设置和维护微控制器工具所涉及的复杂性。教材是基于虚拟微控制器，和一套在线实验室练习也包括在内。对于物理实现，虚拟微控制器可以映射到各种现有的微控制器，甚至映射到pc或现场可编程门阵列，从而将实验室硬件从教材中解耦。后续课程或实验室可以适当地向学生介绍微控制器的低级细节。该项目开发的材料定义并支持有纪律的面向时间编程的适当抽象，揭示了自下而上地理解面向时间编程（计时器、中断服务例程、处理器周期）所必需的底层资源，隐藏了分散对高级概念的注意的细节，描述了有纪律的同步状态机方法。这些协调的材料使任何教师能够早在一年级就将有纪律的、面向时间的嵌入式编程引入计算机课程，而不必担心复杂的实验室设置，也不必担心让学生对底层硬件/软件细节感到不知所措。最终的结果是，有纪律的面向时间的编程方法可以更早地介绍给更多的受众。

Computer Science (31)This project develops a coordinated set of materials for integrating time-oriented embedded system programming into a computing curriculum. The project develops materials describing a disciplined approach to time-oriented programming that emphasizes the use of state machines for computation and the explicit programmer management of time, described in teaching materials including an online book and extensively animated PowerPoint slides. Recognizing the key barriers to focusing on a disciplined approach, the project develops a virtual microcontroller, which is freed from the complex details of modern microcontrollers stemming from legacy or mass-production concerns, and which instead possesses simple input and output pins and a basic timer component with an intuitive programming interface. The virtual microcontroller is supported by a single compilation, simulation, and debug environment, eliminating the complexity involved with setting up and maintaining microcontroller tools. The teaching material is based on the virtual microcontroller, and a set of online lab exercises is also included. For physical implementation, the virtual microcontroller can be mapped to a variety of existing microcontrollers or even to PCs or field-programmable gate arrays, thus decoupling lab hardware from teaching materials. Follow-on courses or labs can then introduce students to low level details of microcontrollers as appropriate.The project's developed materials define and support the appropriate abstraction for disciplined time-oriented programming, exposing low-level resources necessary for a solid bottom-up understanding of time-oriented programming (timers, interrupt service routines, processor cycles), hiding minutia that detracts attention from higher-level concepts, describing a disciplined synchronous state machine approach. The coordinated materials enable any instructor to introduce disciplined time-oriented embedded programming into a computing curriculum as early as the freshmen year without concern for complex lab setups or of overwhelming students with low-level hardware/software details. The net result is that disciplined time-oriented programming methods can be introduced earlier and to a larger audience.