Embedded systems have become increasingly popular in the last two decades, thanks to the technological progress made by microelectronics manufacturers and designers, aimed at increasing the computing power and decreasing the size of microprocessors' and peripherals' logic.
Designing, implementing, and integrating the software components for these systems requires a direct approach to the hardware functionalities in most cases, where tasks are implemented in a single thread and there is no operating system to provide abstractions to access CPU features and external peripherals. For this reason, embedded development is considered a domain on its own in the universe of software development, where the developer's approach and workflow need to be adapted accordingly.
This book briefly explains the hardware architecture of a typical embedded system, introduces tools and methodologies to get started with development of a target architecture, and then guides the readers through the interaction with system features and peripheral interaction. Some areas, such as energy efficiency and connectivity, are addressed in more detail to give a closer view of the techniques used to design low-power and connected systems. Further on, a more complex design, incorporating a (simplified) real-time operating system, is built from the bottom up, starting from the implementation of single system components. Finally, an overview of valid existing open source operating systems designed for embedded devices is provided, including considerations about their internal implementation and indications about their ideal fields of application.
The discussion is often focused on specific security and safety mechanisms, by suggesting specific technologies aimed at improving the robustness of the system against programming errors in the application code, or even malicious attempts to compromise its integrity.
Most of the content of this book has been addressed to software developers and designers with experience in different fields, who are willing to learn about embedded systems.
Beginners and less experienced embedded programmers can extend their knowledge in specific areas of development.
More experienced embedded software engineers might be inspired by the discussion points raised in the book, particularly about safety, secure connectivity, and energy efficiency for the next generations of embedded systems.
Chapter 1, Embedded Systems – A Pragmatic Approach, is an introduction to microcontroller-based embedded systems.
Chapter 2, Work Environment and Workflow Optimization, describes the tools used and the development workflow.
Chapter 3, Architectural Patterns, is about strategies and development methodologies for collaborative development and testing.
Chapter 4, The Boot-Up Procedure, analyzes the boot phase of an embedded system, boot stages, and bootloaders.
Chapter 5, Memory Management, suggests optimal strategies for memory management.
Chapter 6, General-Purpose Peripherals, describes access to GPIO pins and other generic integrated peripherals.
Chapter 7, Local Bus Interfaces, guides the reader through the integration of serial bus controllers (UART, SPI, I2C).
Chapter 8, Low-Power Optimizations, explores the available techniques of reducing power consumption on energy-efficient systems.
Chapter 9, Distributed Systems and IoT Architecture, introduces the available protocols and interfaces required to build distributed and connected systems.
Chapter 10, Parallel Tasks and Scheduling, explains the infrastructure of a multi-tasking operating system through the implementation of a real-time task scheduler.
Chapter 11, Embedded Operating Systems, is an overview of the available open source operating systems for the embedded world, focusing on the safety and security mechanisms implemented.
- It is expected that the reader is proficient in the C language and understands how computer systems work
- A GNU/Linux development machine is required to apply the concepts explained
- Going through the example code provided is sometimes necessary to fully understand the mechanisms implemented
- The reader is encouraged to modify, improve, and reuse the examples provided, applying the methodologies suggested
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There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.
code_in_text: Indicates code words in text, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, user input, and interaction with the command console. Here is an example: "Compile the source file, hello.c, to produce the executable."
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#include <stdio.h>
int main(void) {
printf("Hello, world!");
return 0;
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CFLAGS=-Wall hello.o: hello.c gcc -c -o $(@) $(^) $(CFLAGS)
Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
$ gcc -c -o hello.o hello.c $ make clean
Commands for the debugger console are written as follows:
> add-symbol-file app.elf 0x1000
> bt full
Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen.
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