Intelligent readers who want to build their own embedded computer systems-- installed in everything from cell phones to cars to handheld organizers to refrigerators-- will find this book to be the most in-depth, practical, and up-to-date guide on the market. Designing Embedded Hardware carefully steers between the practical and philosophical aspects, so developers can both create their own devices and gadgets and customize and extend off-the-shelf systems. There are hundreds of books to choose from if you need to learn programming, but only a few are available if you want to learn to create hardware. Designing Embedded Hardware provides software and hardware engineers with no prior experience in embedded systems with the necessary conceptual and design building blocks to understand the architectures of embedded systems. Written to provide the depth of coverage and real-world examples developers need, Designing Embedded Hardware also provides a road-map to the pitfalls and traps to avoid in designing embedded systems. Designing Embedded Hardware covers such essential topics as:

• The principles of developing computer hardware

• Core hardware designs

• Assembly language concepts

• Parallel I/O

• Analog-digital conversion

• Timers (internal and external)

• UART

• Serial Peripheral Interface

• Inter-Integrated Circuit Bus

• Controller Area Network (CAN)

• Data Converter Interface (DCI)

• Low-power operation

This invaluable and eminently useful book gives you the practical tools and skills to develop, build, and program your own application-specific computers.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 18 Ratings

Good book but low level - 2006-06-20
Reviewer Rating:
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.

Good book on hardware common to embedded systems - 2005-12-16
Reviewer Rating:
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.

Not for anyone but REAL beginner - 2006-11-07
Reviewer Rating:
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 !

Pretty good! - 2009-05-02
Reviewer Rating:
I bought this book just after reading "Getting started with Arduino" - hoping that this book would enhance my knowledge enough that I would not break everything I plug into the Arduino with its Atmel Microcontroller.

Sofar it has been great. I have a degree in Computer Science, so some of the "This is a microprocessor, this is what makes it up" stuff was redundant for me, but this will not be the case for everyone.

The "Electronics 101" section is really helping me a lot - I don't have to pester my EE friend with nearly as many questions!

Great book for programmer - 2009-09-01
Reviewer Rating:
Well, it is not a book for experienced hardware engineers. But it is a Great book for the programmers in the embedded system team.
The author short introduce the basic of electronics, power, and SPI bus, I2C bus, UART serial port in the beginning. Unfortunately, he talks too little of IrDA, USB, CAN bus in the middle of this book. Though the ICs he used is seldom seem in Taiwan, and you cannot establish a embedded system after reading it. Anyway, it is very useful for the programmer to know the business of the hardware engineers. I think the programmers should got one.
I love the latter of this book. The author briefly introduce (Microchip) PIC, (ATMEL) AVR, (Motorolla) 68HC11, (Dallas) MAXQ, (Motorola) DSP6800/68000 CPU from chapter 14 to 19.
Most important is that he Clearly explain what the "memory management unit (MMU)" exactly be done in the electronic element and scheme. Most software programmer learn the MMU from Linux kernel -system call, and have no idea of what it works in the electronic scheme/ICs. The author show you these things quite frankly.
It is great!

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