The Hardware Hacking Handbook

Introduction

Once upon a time, in a universe not too far away, computers were massive machines that filled up big rooms and needed a small crew to run. With shrinking technology, it became more and more feasible to put computers in small spaces. Around 1965, the Apollo Guidance Computer was small enough to be carried into space, and it supported the astronauts with computation functions and control over the Apollo modules. This computer could be considered one of the earliest embedded systems. Nowadays, the overwhelming majority of processor chips produced are embedded—in phones, cars, medical equipment, critical infrastructure, and “smart” ...