Whereas the latter places the emphasis on software, this course equips students with more hardware knowledge and aims to give them the ability to organise hardware and software components into useful systems. There is such a wide variety of components to choose from it is important that people should be trained to make well informed choices when designing systems. In their final year, students specialise in microelectronics design, digital signal processing, networking, advanced microprocessor systems, operating systems, distributed systems and the engineer, management and society, in addition to a substantial project. Career Opportunities Graduates from this course have a wide range of skills, which puts them in a good position to gain employment in the computer industry. This is especially the case in those industries which have a hardware design activity or industries which engage in writing embedded software for microprocessors.
Some examples are telephones, computer games, washing machines, credit card readers etc.