Project Overview

The firmware that resides in the uEAC R001 board has been adequate to allow basic features of the hardware to be exercised. The currently implemented features include the capability to configure any of the 5x5 matrix of pins as a current source, current sink, or voltage measurement point. Communication with the uEAC is through a USB based virtual serial port. A simple interpreter runs on the the uEAC that receives commands from a host computer and executes them by configuring the appropriate analog resource. As the development of the uEAC progresses, additional functionality needs to be added to the command interpreter to allow it to support more complex configurations.

Technical Profile

• Technical Profile R002, Bryce Himebaugh 9/30/05

Proposed Features

• uEAC Command Enrichment
  • LLA Transfer Function Specification: Develop uEAC commands that allow the host to download fixed length transfer functions for specific LLAs. These transfer functions will be stored in the MSP430's flash memory.
  • Probe Architecture Overlay Specification: Develop a command infrastructure to describe complex interconnections between the probes. This would include features like reading a current at one point, running the variable through a transfer function, and then injecting the resultant current into multiple locations on the sheet.
  • LLA Temporal Property Specification: Develop uEAC commands that allow temporal properties to be specified for the a given LLA function.
  • Enhanced Variable Reporting Mechanisms
• Host Interface
  • Develop a description language that allows uEAC architectures to be effectively specified. The design decisions related to this language will need to be tightly coupled with the uEAC Command Enrichment effort.
  • Logical Mapping Application: Allows the resources of multiple uEAC boards to be logically mapped as a single system.
  • Develop Enhanced Interfaces for Specific Problem Domains - PDE Computation Acceleration, Network Traffic Optimization, Particle Swarm Optimization, etc.
  • Host side Socket Server/USB bridge to allow remote connections to the uEAC
• Maintenance Infrastructure
  • Bootloader to allow uEAC upgrades through the USB port