Lab track

The lab track teaches machine-facing C through small device-shaped exercises. Each lab has an overview of the device model, implementation tasks with intentional gaps, and checks with commands and external reading. Every lab also explains the controller protocol and its modern equivalent.

Before you start

Install lcom-ng, then create a workspace:

lcom-ng setup student
cd student
make

Run lab checks from the workspace root. Commands that name build/examples/ or scripts/ use the repository checkout. A generated workspace builds build/student_project and keeps its scripts under .mlab/scripts/.

Sequence

Lab	Device idea	Check
Lab 1	bit masks, CMOS/RTC, BCD	lcom-ng test rtc
Lab 2	PIT divisors and timer IRQs	lcom-ng test timer
Lab 3	i8042 keyboard and scancodes	lcom-ng test kbd
Lab 4	PS/2 mouse packets	lcom-ng test mouse
Lab 5	VBE framebuffer and sprites	lcom-ng test graphics
Lab 6	AC97-lite PCM audio	lcom-ng test audio
Lab 7	16550 UART and serial protocols	lcom-ng test uart

Method

1. Read the overview.
2. Run the failing starter test.
3. Implement the requested functions.
4. Keep reusable helpers small.
5. Produce one artifact: test output, screenshot, WAV, trace, or replay.

TIP

Fresh stubs are expected to fail. The first failure is the starting point, not evidence that setup is broken.