Introduction

For the Final Project, you will have an opportunity to write your own machine problem. For this project, you should combine the concepts you have learned from this class along with new and original ideas of your own creation. This is a team project, with a team size of 4 individuals.

• Writeups for past projects can be accessed from the Archive section of the ECE390 home page as:
  http://www.ece.uiuc.edu/~ece390/archive/

Friendly Advice

1. Choose a topic more challenging than a machine problem. This project is worth more points than a MP and you can divide the work among members of your team.
2. Don't choose an impossible topic. You need to get it working by the end of the semester. A program that doesn't do anything won't earn any points.
3. Work as a team. Start early. Set a regular work schedule. Don't wait until the last minute to verify that your code works together. Help a team member who gets stuck on a problem. Meet and talk with each other about the status of the project regularly.
4. Be sure to document the parts of your code that you borrow from other students or find on the Internet. You are welcome to use libraries and/or source code that you find elsewhere, but will only be graded on the part of the code that YOU write. Documented copying is a complement to the original author. Undocumented plagiarism is a crime. If you claim someone else's code as your own, your team will fail the final project.
5. Resources are available at the ECE 390 Resources page, http://courses.ece.uiuc.edu/ece390/resources/
6. Choose an original topic. Original projects yield original ideas!

Optional Demonstration

At the last class meeting, you may demonstrate your final project to the class. The large-screen projectors in the classroom will be available to you to demonstrate your project. The demonstration will NOT be graded.

Project Submission

You are expected to submit your project documentation, project write-up, executable code, and source code electronically.

Your hand in should have three sections (subdirectories):

\PUBLIC

• The documentation part of your project that you would like to be publicly-readable in the ECE 390 project archive. The file called index.html should contain:
• Team Members: List your team members and describe how each contributed.
• Introduction: Describe your project and major goals
• Problem Description: What are the challenging aspects of this problem that make this problem different from previous machine problems?
• Implementation: Describe how the program works. What are the major components of the program? What data structures do you use to internally represent the data? What processing is required?
• Procedures: Define the major subroutines. Define each routine's purpose, inputs, outputs, assumptions, description, and name of the team member primarily responsible for developing the code.
• External Routines: You are welcome to use code from the machine problems, code found on the Internet or ftp sites, or code written by other students. You must, however, credit the source. Plagiarism and copyright violation are unacceptable. You will only receive credit for the code that your team writes.
• PNG, GIF, or JPG Screen shots (320x240 or smaller) from your running program.
• Be sure to use local web links to reference html and images in the directory you submit. Your write-up will be be made available on-line from the ECE departmental server.

\PROGRAM

• An executable version of your program called MAIN.EXE
• All additional files (such as PCX or BMP images) that are needed for the program to run.
• Your program should run on any Pentium-class machine. Your program must not assume fixed interrupts or DMA channels.
• This part of your final project might be made available on-line. It should not contain source code.

\CODE

• The source code to your MP (All source code) and a Makefile.
• The commands make clean and make should be able to erase all object and executable code then reassemble them from source.
• Within the comments of your source code, every procedure should be commented and attributed to a primary author.

Grading

• This is a team project. You are expected to cooperate in a professional manner among your peers. The success of your project depends entirely on the success of your team.
• Everyone is expected to contribute. Each team member will privately evaluate their own contributions as well as the contributions made by each of the other team members. Your Individual score is equal to your team project score plus your individual project score. Within the source code you submit, points will only be awarded for code that is:
• Written in Assembly -AND-
• Working -AND-
• Attributed to an author

Of the code meeting criteria above, points will accumulate based on:

• Tangibility: (i.e., the effort was manifest in code, not just effort)
• Complexity: (i.e., the code had significant technical substance).
• Originality (i.e., no credit was given for borrowed routines )

Average scores will be given for average amount of work. Higher scores were given to individuals who contributed in proportion to programming efforts above the level of a machine problem.

• Don't procrastinate. Start early and avoid self-induced stress.

Milestones and Deadlines

The following table summarizes how points will be earned for the final project. There is no extra-credit bonus for early submission.