The small electronics consultancy company that you work for has been commissioned to design a portable mixed signal heart rate monitor unit for the National Health Service. You have been allocated the digital processing element of the project. It is proposed that this element will initially be prototyped on a programmable logic device and will interface with standard analogue components for the other system elements. Higher levels of integration will be considered for the production units. The company has some previous experience with the Altera range of programmable logic devices and the Quartus II design software and it is intended that these will be utilised for design implementation. Your brief will be to :-

• Investigate appropriate programmable logic devices in the Altera range and select the most suitable, paying particular regard to required resources, performance and cost.

• Design and simulate the digital processing element of the system.

• Provide appropriate documentation for the design.

• Discuss possible alternative/higher levels of integration for the production system.