Introduction

I can remember buying my first electronic calculator. I was teaching a graduate level statistics course and I had to have a calculator with a square root function. Back in the late 1960s, that was a pretty high-end requirement for a calculator. I managed to purchase one at the “educational discount price” of $149.95! Now, I look down at my desk at an ATmega2560 that is half the size for less than a quarter of the cost and think of all the possibilities built into that piece of hardware. I am amazed by what has happened to everything from toasters to car engines. Who-da-thunk-it 40 years ago?

I am coming to the microcontroller world from a different direction than many people who have a similar interest. My primary area of expertise ...

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