Embedded systems course for potential automotive engineers

This paper describes a practical training course for engineering students on embedded systems that are based on electronic control units (ECU) that use the Freescale HCS12 microcontroller. An evaluation board was designed as a single platform for academic purposes and it was implemented with a Freescale HCS12 microcontroller, sensors, a motor, an LED module, and communication modules. Among many microcontrollers, the Freescale HCS12 was chosen because it is widely implemented as an ECU in the automotive industry. The automotive industry was the exclusive domain of mechanical engineers in the past, but after ECUs began to be incorporated in automobiles, more electronic engineers have been required. The 68CH11/12 microcontroller has been very popular in the academic environment and the Freescale HCS12 microcontroller is derived from it. In order to provide engineering students with practical experience with embedded systems that are widely used in industry, an embedded system course has been organized.