Product Description

Embedded computer systems literally surround us: they're in our cell phones, PDAs, cars, TVs, refrigerators, heating systems, and more. In fact, embedded systems are one of the most rapidly growing segments of the computer industry today.

Along with the growing list of devices for which embedded computer systems are appropriate, interest is growing among programmers, hobbyists, and engineers of all types in how to design and build devices of their own. Furthermore, the knowledge offered by this book into the fundamentals of these computer systems can benefit anyone who has to evaluate and apply the systems.

The second edition of "Designing Embedded Hardware" has been updated to include information on the latest generation of processors and microcontrollers, including the new MAXQ processor. If you're new to this and don't know what a MAXQ is, don't worry--the book spells out the basics of embedded design for beginners while providing material useful for advanced systems designers.

"Designing Embedded Hardware" steers a course between those books dedicated to writing code for particular microprocessors, and those that stress the philosophy of embedded system design without providing any practical information. Having designed 40 embedded computer systems of his own, author John Catsoulis brings a wealth of real-world experience to show readers how to design and create entirely new embedded devices and computerized gadgets, as well as how to customize and extend off-the-shelf systems.

Loaded with real examples, this book also provides a roadmap to the pitfalls and traps to avoid. "Designing Embedded Hardware" includes:

The theory and practice of embedded systems

Understanding schematics and data sheets

Powering an embedded system

Producing and debugging an embedded system

Processors such as the PIC, Atmel AVR, and Motorola 68000-series

Digital Signal Processing (DSP) architectures

Protocols (SPI and I2C) used to add peripherals

RS-232C, RS-422, infrared communication, and USB

CAN and Ethernet networking

Pulse Width Monitoring and motor control

If you want to build your own embedded system, or tweak an existing one, this invaluable book gives you the understanding and practical skills you need.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63001 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-16
• Released on: 2005-05-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 396 pages

About the Author
John Catsoulis lives under the tropical sun in Brisbane, Australia. He has a Bachelor of Science with Honors (Griffith University) with a triple major in quantum physics, electronics and mathematics, and a Master of Engineering (La Trobe University) in specialized computer architectures. He has been responsible for the design of more computer systems than he can remember, from tiny finger-sized machines to multi-processor compute engines. Corporations and government bodies around the world have used his designs and software. John has also taught the dark arts of computer architecture and design at several Universities. He is currently conducting research at the University of Queensland into fault-tolerant reconfigurable computers for spacecraft avionics. When not slaving over a hot microprocessor, John enjoys hiking and camping, wildlife and landscape photography, fishing, dabbling in permaculture, cooking Indian and Mediterranean food, and playing model trains with his nephews, Andrew and James.

Customer Reviews

Way above average
Some of the O'Reily books really shine and this is one of them. I'm an experienced hardware engineer, but I still got some good tidbits out of this book which is all the more impressive when you consider it's written for a relative beginner. The author does a nice job with both the content and writing style.

It covers many topics which are relatively common knowledge among experienced hardware designers but you rarely find in one book. Some of those topics I've never seen in ANY book. There's some good stuff here. That said, it's probably not the ideal book for someone who's already tackled a few successful embedded hardware designs.

Great Book
This book is great for beginners. It is very informative and easy to read. I like the way the author describes timing diagrams seen in many microcontroller datasheets. I am impressed with his love for the ATMEL AVR microcontroller.
I used this book for a small PIC project.

Good book on the embedded hw/sw domain
This book aims at a very wide domain - embedded hardware/software. While most of the books out there on the market are concerned with design patterns, agile techniques and heavy methodologies for big projects, the largest software market is actually the embedded, with most processors manufactured, and most software written.

The author is an experienced embedded engineer and has knowledge both in hardware and software - it's the connecting line between these two that is the main subject of the book. Quite well written, many topics are covered - Electronics 101 (though not really on a beginner level - it runs too fast for that), some software - assembly language of various processors, microcontroller architectures, digital design and even soldering / breadboard creation.
It looks to be possible to build a small embedded computer just from the directions given in this book - which is very nice, and gives practical-headed readers something to play with. The author clearly enjoys what he's doing and it shows through his writing - this is a nice motivational boost, embedded design is indeed very interesting.

The crowd to enjoy the book the most will be people with some experience in either software or hardware (or both), who want to get into the exciting embedded field, or just bright and curious amateurs who want to build that heat-sensing remote control for their bathroom tub.

Some downsides of the book: the chapter on Forth is dubious. (Forth ??? Gimme a break...) The Electronics tutorial is just too fast. I doubt that people without any EE background will really understand it. For a beginner's book, there's too much options given in the processors chapters (about 4) - beginners like few options that are well explained. So a suggestion to the author for the next edition - drop Forth, drop a couple of processors, spend more time on electronics basics instead, and you'll have a truly great book.