Notes Page

Past Paper (2017)

4 min read

Question One

Q1A

Question

Describe how does a microcontroller work when the power is switched on. (4 marks)

Q1B

Question

What is the main difference between microcontroller unit (MCU) and microprocessor unit (MPU)? List three advantages of MPU as compared to MCU. (4 marks)

Q1C

Question

Define what is Von Neumann Architecture and explain its main disadvantage. (2 marks)

Question Two

Q2A

Question

Is SPI an asynchronous interface? Justify your answer using Figure 1. (2 marks)

Q2B

Question

Does SPI support duplex communications? Justify your answer using Figure 1. (2 marks)

Q2C

Question

Explain the key steps to enable the master device to communicate to a particular slave device. (4 marks)

Q2D

Question

As compared to RS485, explain the two key disadvantage of SPI. (2 marks)

Question Three

Q3A

Question

Suppose you have chosen the following components from Element 14: (1) MIKROE-1298 GSM ClickTM Board; (2) MIKROE-1032 GPS ClickTM Board (3) Ledex ® Solenoid C5-273-B-1. The datasheets for the above devices are provided in the appendices (Appendix A-C). Using the datasheets, together with the specifications for the smart lock, draw a hardware block diagram including all major components, and where applicable, the connection type between the MCU and the peripheral (e.g. logic level / analogue voltage / SPI / UART / I2C). (4 marks)

Q3B

Question

Take the smart lock as an example, state four considerations when selecting a microcontroller for this embedded digital system. (4 marks)

Q3C

Question

What are the five common architectures for a software development? Which one is more suitable to the smart lock? Justify your answer. (3 marks)

Q3D

Question

Suppose the customer requires adding an alarm to your first design of the smart lock. How will you revise your design? (4 marks)

Question Four

Q4A

Question

List the three major components in .NET and briefly explain each one. (3 marks)

Q4B

Question

What are the four advantages of .NET framework. (4 marks)

Q4C

Question

Explain the two key words used for passing by reference in C#, and the key difference between them. (3 marks)

Question Five

Q5A

Question

Explain the main difference between properties and methods of a class. (2 marks)

Q5B

Question

Why do we need encapsulation in OOP? (2 marks)

Q5C

Question

When do we use the get and set methods in a class? (2 marks)

Q5D

Question

Why do we need inheritance in OOP? (2 marks)

Q5E

Question

Explain static data members in a class and given one example on how they are used. (2 marks)

Question Six

Q6A

Question

Consider the following piece of C# code, will the compiler show an error? Justify your answer.

int age;
Console.WriteLine(age);

(1 mark)

Q6B

Question

In the following piece of C# code, we have three abstract methods. Explain the precautions we need to take when creating an object of this class?

abstract class WashingMachine
{
    public WashingMachine()
    {
        // Code to initialize the class goes here.
    }
    abstract public void Wash();
    abstract public void Rinse(int loadSize);
    abstract public long Spin(int speed);
}

(3 marks)

Q6C

Question

Explain the two steps of garbage collection algorithm in .NET memory management. (4 marks)

Q6D

Question

Write a C# class definition with appropriate comments for controlling the light intensity of the lamp on the AUT application board through a C# application. The class with a name LampControl should include the following:

  1. One private data member, a SerialPort object.
  2. A constructor that accepts one string (the COM port) and one int (the baudrate), which then uses these parameters to create a new SerialPort object, and then open it.
  3. A public method called setIntensity, which accepts one double, the desired intensity level (0→100%) of the lamp, and then sends the required intensity to the MCU using the SerialPort object, and uart_Tx (below). The intensity level is sent as an unsigned 8 bit integer (0 = 0%, 255 = 100%).
  4. A public method called readLightIntensity, which returns the current light intensity of the lamp, as measured by the MCU. The method should query the MCU using the SerialPort object and uart_Rx (below), and return the light intensity as a double, where light intensity is 1.68 times the value of the received byte.
  5. A private method called uart_Tx, which accepts one unsigned 8 bit integer. The method sends two bytes to the MCU via the Serial Port: 0x01 (which is the set instruction) and the data contained in the argument.
  6. A private method called uart_Rx, which accepts no arguments, and returns 1 unsigned 8 bit integer. The method sends one byte to the MCU via the Serial Port (0x02, which is the read instruction) and receives one 8 bit unsigned integer, which it then returns. (7 marks)