Programming Embedded Systems in C and C++

54 Chapter 5: Getting to Know the Hardware

more than a collection of software routines that control the operation of the

peripheral and isolate the application software from the details of that particular

hardware device. I’ll have a lot more to say about device drivers in Chapter 7,

Peripherals.

Initialize the Hardware

The final step in getting to know your new hardware is to write some initializa-

tion software. This is your best opportunity to develop a close working relation-

ship with the hardware—especially if you will be developing the remainder of the

software in a high-level language. During hardware initialization it will be impossi-

ble to avoid using assembly language. However, after completing this step, you

will be ready to begin writing small programs in C or C++.

*

If you are one of the first software engineers to work with a new

board—especially a prototype—the hardware might not work as

advertised. All processor-based boards require some amount of soft-

ware testing to confirm the correctness of the hardware design and

the proper functioning of the various peripherals. This puts you in

an awkward position when something is not working properly. How

do you know if the hardware or your software is to blame? If you

happen to be good with hardware or have access to a simulator, you

might be able to construct some experiments to answer this ques-

tion. Otherwise, you should probably