A Design-Oriented Microprocessor Laboratory

A design-oriented microprocessor laboratory has been developed for two senior-level courses. The laboratory centers around a Motorola 6800-based microcomputer built within the Electrical Engineering Department. It was designed to provide "hands-on" programming experience but, most importantly, to allow a variety of interfacing experiments to be performed. A complete set of experiments have been developed for the laboratory. These begin with introductory programming exercises and small microcomputer operation. These are followed by experiments illustrating input-output techniques and interfacing to peripheral devices. The experiments not only reinforce the lecture material but also teach the student hardware/software tradeoffs in design.