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Designing Embedded Hardware

By John Catsoulis
First Edition  November 2002 
Pages: 318
ISBN 10: 0-596-00362-5 | ISBN 13: 9780596003623
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Book description

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.
Full Description

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.

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Cover | Table of Contents | Colophon

Featured customer reviews

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Great primer...,  April 05 2005
Rating: StarStarStarStarStar
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

Ok, so I'm new to embedded hardware. Hence, overall I'm impressed with this title. I'd rate it 7/10 if I could. Why?

There are a number of things that I'm annoyed with:

1) Timing of my purchase: (1/10 off; yes I know this is not the authors fault but it affects MY score)
I purchased first edition one month before the release of the 2nd edition. Wish I'd known that it was coming. I'd probably have waited especially since there seems to be an extra 100 pages in the new edition.

2) Number of corrections still needed (even with a second reprint?), especially with the figures (1/10 off)
Who ever did the proof reading [hopefully not the author!] needs to pay more attention to the captions on circuit components etc. Very annoying and distracting.

3) Content of Chapter 2 needs expanding (1/10 off).
"Electronics 101" is a good start at an introduction, and I realize that author has space limitations but it couldn't hurt to describe:
- Transistors
- Be clear when introducing Formulas as to all symbols involved.
For example current is described to be measured in Amperes (Amps), but readers should be told that captial 'I' is used to represent current in formulas

Now I have to decide whether it is worth purchasing the second edition too!



Designing Embedded Hardware Review,  March 14 2003
Rating: StarStarStarStarStar
Submitted by James McAnanama, P.Eng. Ontario, Canada   [Respond | View]

O'Reilly has done it again. Mr. Catsoulis' book is a great primer on Embedded Systems. This book allows you to very quickly understand a great deal of practical information. In his preface, Mr. Catsoulis explains that there are books out there that are focused on writing code or on microprocessors, but that none bring together all you need to create an embedded computer. I think he hit the nail on the head with this statement and has provided us with such a guide.




Designing Embedded Hardware Review,  February 06 2003
Rating: StarStarStarStarStar
Submitted by Dominic Vivek. S   [Respond | View]

A good book, after learning how to program the Embedded Systems. It gives ideas of developing our own hardware platform to work with and also to deploy.



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Media reviews

"'Designing Embedded Hardware' offers a vast amount of technical knowledge on how the machines we program work and why they are designed this way...an excellent primer for seasoned software engineers who want to learn more about computers, processor architecture, and peripherals. I hardly need to say at this point that I highly recommend it for hardware design rookies."
--Danny Kalev, IBM developerWorks, May 22, 2003
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/wireless/library/wi-lounge15.html

"In a much more efficient, practical, and accessible way than the typical textbooks, this book begins by outlining the basic principles of electronics and computer architecture. By page 77, you're ready to start applying those principles...For too long, hardware design has been a black art. Or maybe just the dearth of good books has made it seem so. I hope John Catsoulis' new book will be as successful in the market as it's been sin showing me how to design hardware. I can't wait to put my new knowledge into practice."
--Michael Barr, "Embedded Systems Programming," April 2003

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