Computer Firmware Design Projects for Undergraduate Students

A laboratory-based approach is described for making a diversified set of computer firmware design projects available to large groups of undergraduate students at a modest cost. All essential functions are provided as common resources to students. Support functions are made available inexpensively by use of either a minicomputer or a microcomputer. The computer provides interactive operating and testing aids by issuing prompts for students, loads micromemory and macromemory, initializes program counters for microcode and macrocode, and diagnoses input/output errors. A general-purpose programmable microsequencer functions as a control unit. Students make no electrical connections to the system when a macroprocessor is added for computer emulation purposes. However, when the system is used for projects which do not employ a macroprocessor, a number of hardware input and output ports are used by students to design a variety of microprogram-controlled devices. A brief description of hardware designed to implement the programmable microsequencer and macroprocessor is given in the Appendixes.