Ac 2007-1475: Upgrading a Microcontroller Systems Course with the Cypress Psoc

As our society continually embraces technology to greater and greater degrees, the need for engineers with the skills to develop microcontroller based systems is constantly growing. Microcontroller systems design courses are meant to equip students with the understanding, skills, and methods needed to design and develop systems built around a microcontroller core. When designing such a course, the selection of a particular microcontroller is a very important decision. The selection should consider not only what microcontrollers are currently popular, but also the ease of project development using the system, the availability of support to students, the costs of starting up a lab, and the flexibility of the platform to fit into a course with multiple objectives. This paper reports on using Cypress Semiconductor’s Programmable System on a Chip (PSoC) as the basis for a microcontroller systems design course. The experience of selecting the PSoC, designing a curriculum around it, designing laboratory exercises and managing the course are described. Furthermore, considerations such as the technical and financial support provided by Cypress and student experiences and outcomes are considered and analyzed. Finally, achievement of students who had taken the PSoC course or an earlier nonPSoC microcontrollers course are compared based on their performance in the follow-on senior design course.