Designing Embedded Hardware

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.

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Not for anyone but REAL beginner, 2006-11-07
All of the topics could be easily found by a google search in much more details. The only good point after reading this book : a beginner knows how to pick from the smorgasbord of the Net.

Pretty useless for Engineers, even beginner Engineers already in the trade. And the book is not cheap !


9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

Good book but low level, 2006-06-20
I am a Firmware Engineer currently but have a degree in Electrical Engineering so I felt this book would help me relate my Electrical experience to the Firmware world. I was disappointed when I realized how basic this book was. They dedicate a full chapter to basic voltage, resister, capacitor, etc concepts. Even with no on the job experience outside of school I found almost nothing that I did not already know. It is good for people who need to learn the basics but if you have any computer architecture experience or electrical engineering experience then this book is not for you.


4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Good book on hardware common to embedded systems, 2005-12-16
This is a practical introduction to embedded hardware, so to write software for the hardware presented in this book, you will need to consult other books. This book is only an introduction and if you want to gain more knowledge and experience in the field of hardware design, further study is required. In the first part of the book the author gives an introduction to computer architecture and describes the components that you find in a PC. The author goes on to explain basic electronics, just enough to understand the explanations about the electronic components. There are the basic equations to calculate voltage and current. The functionality of resistors, capacitors, inductors, diodes and crystals is explained. There is advice on how you can build or have built your own integrated circuit board. Some simple microprocessors and micro controllers are described including the currently available and commonly used PIC and AVR micro controllers, the 68000-series microprocessor and a DSP based controller. The functionality of the components is described and it is shown how the component can be used with a few other basic components to exercise a minimum of functionality. The book also covers useful topics like the protocols SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) and I2C, Inter Integrated Circuit, which show how components can communicate with each other or the outside world. Various serial port and network protocols are discussed like RS232C and USB. Chapter 13 was particularly interesting, covering analog to digital conversion and applications. For example, the book explains how to use an amplifier to connect a digital circuit to a temperature or light sensor, or a motor control. The one thing I did not like about the book was the dedication of an entire chapter to the ancient language of Forth. This space might have been better spent on expanding the book's discussion of assembly language or the more timely topic of embedded networks.
This book might be too elementary for practicing engineers, particularly if they are already familiar with the devices commonly used in embedded circuits. However, for those engineers that have been writing software since they graduated, this book is a good fast-paced introduction to the hardware commonly found in embedded systems. A good follow-on to this book is "Programming Embedded Systems with C and C++" by the same publisher.



4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

Great for the Application Developer, 2005-09-30
This is a great beginners book from basic electronics up to developing for specific chips. I've been an application developer for years and I've been looking to make the switch to lower level programming. This book will definitely get you started and even walk you through the design of the beginners microprocessors (PIC & AVR).
As mentioned above, it should have "beginner" in the title.


12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

Good book on the embedded hw/sw domain, 2005-08-07
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.

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