Designing Embedded Hardware, 2nd Edition

Preface

[Enlightenment] resides as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer ... as at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower.

—Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Welcome to the second edition of Designing Embedded Hardware. In these pages, I hope to give you an understanding of the design process for creating computer hardware. Just as there is beauty in well-written software, there is beauty in well-designed hardware. With embedded computers, you get to understand the machine at all levels, at once aware of currents flowing through circuit traces and software executing complex algorithms. In fact, it is not possible to write embedded software without understanding the hardware, nor is it possible to design hardware without understanding software. You become involved with the machine to a degree beyond that which is possible with desktop computers. Best of all, it's a lot of fun.

In selecting chips and designs for this book, I have tried to choose, where possible, parts that are both trivial to use yet exceptionally useful. I have no connection, financial or otherwise, with any of the companies or businesses mentioned in this book, and I receive no benefits from them. Every component or product included in this book is there based on its own merits. You may notice a prevalence of components from certain manufacturers. This simply reflects my personal preference for using their chips, based on my experience. Such companies produce chips ...