Embedded Software and Hardware Architecture

The Embedded Systems and Hardware Architecture program is your first foray into understanding embedded systems architectures and writing software to work with that hardware. You will gain experience writing low-level firmware to directly interface with the hardware using highly efficient, readable, and portable design techniques. We will now move from the Host Linux Machine, where we created and ran code in a simulated environment, to an integrated development environment where you will create and deploy code directly to your ARM Cortex-M4 microcontroller. Course assignments include writing firmware to interface with and configure both the underlying ARM architecture and the MSP432 microcontroller platform. The course concludes with a project in which you will design a circular buffer data structure. To complete the tasks in this course, you will need a Texas Instruments LaunchPad with an MSP432 microcontroller. In subsequent courses in the specialization, you will continue to use this hardware tool to develop even more interesting firmware.