Computers as Components: Principles of Embedded Computing Systems Design (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Architecture and Design) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book was used as a text book at a graduate level class in embedded design at University of St Thomas, Minnesota. I am also a professional embedded engineer (both hardware and software). What this book does the best is to provide a framework for embedded design. There are various examples in the text on the embedded design process via the requirements/specifications/hardware architecture/software architecture/component design/test process.
This has definitely impacted both my understand on a theoretical level as well as my design process at work.
Highly recommended!

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The vast majority of existing computers are embedded in the myriad of intelligent devices and applications-not in desktop machines. We are witnessing the emergence of a new discipline with its own principles, constraints, and design processes.
Computers as Components is the first book to teach this new discipline. It unravels the complexity of these systems and the tools and methods necessary for designing them. Researchers, students, and savvy professionals, schooled in hardware or software, will value the integrated engineering design approach to this fast emerging field. * Demonstrates concepts and techniques using two powerful real-world processors as case studies throughout the book: the ARM processor and the SHARC DSP (digital signal processor).* Illustrates the major concepts of each chapter with real-world design examples such as software modems, telephone answering machines, and video accelerators.* Teaches the basics of UML (Unified Modeling Language) and applies it throughout the text to help you visualize stages in the design process.* Illustrates real-time operating systems using the POSIX real-time extensions and Linux.* Describes performance analysis and optimization of embedded software, including the effects of caches.* Includes two CD-ROMs with evaluation software: One contains the ARM Developer Suite; the other contains VisualDSP for the SHARC DSP family of processors.

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ARM System-on-Chip Architecture (2nd Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is an excellent overall compendium for the ARM processor core. This book is a must for anyone doing embedded design work that has never worked with an ARM core previously. Steve Furber presents the information in a very readable format, but technical enough to capture the important details. The book covers the basic design decisions that went into the ARM originally, the entire ARM family, and then goes on to explain how ARM cores get built into ASICs, and the tools and features of the ARM that make it one of the most powerful embedded cores in the biz.
Other topics include: ARM architecture, complete assembly language listing with explanations and bit encodings, organizational considerations like the ARM 3 and 5 stage instruction pipe-lines, the Thumb instruction set (ARM's answer to CISC code density advantage), peripheral memory and on-board cache considerations (like tuning the system clock to your RAM speed for optimal performance), and others. The book is worth every penny!

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The future of the computer and communications industries is converging on mobile information appliances - phones, PDAs, laptops and other devices. The ARM is at the heart of this trend, leading the way in system-on-chip (SoC) development and becoming the processor core of choice for many embedded applications.System-on-chip technology is changing the way we use computers, but it also sets designers the very challenging problem of getting a complex SoC design right first time. ARM System-on-Chip Architecture introduces the concepts and methodologies employed in designing a system-on-chip based around a microprocessor core, and in designing the core itself. Extensive illustrations, based on the ARM, give practical substance to the design principles set out in the book, reinforcing the reader's understanding of how and why SoCs and microprocessors are designed as they are.ARM System-on-Chip Architecture: - presents and discusses the major issues of system-on-chip design, including memory hierarchy, caches, memory management, on-chip buses, on-chip debug and production test- provides an overview of the ARM processor family, enabling the reader to decide which ARM is best for the job in hand- describes the ARM and Thumb programming models, enabling the designer to begin to develop applications- covers all the latest ARM products and developments, including StrongARM, the ARM9 and ARM10 series of cores, and the ARM-based SoC components at the heart of Ericsson's Bluetooth technology, the Psion Series 5 PDA and Samsung's SGH2400 GSM handset- includes details on the AMULET asynchronous ARM cores and the AMULET3H asynchronous SoC subsystemARM System-on-Chip Architecture is an essential handbook for system-on-chip designers using ARM processor cores and engineers working with the ARM. It can also be used as a course text for undergraduate and masters students of computer science, computer engineering and electrical engineering.

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ARM System Developer's Guide: Designing and Optimizing System Software (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Architecture and Design) Review

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(More customer reviews)In the ARM tradition of charging for everything, the firmware guide by Sloss is easy to read, and comprehensive up to ARM10/StrongARM XScale/926/940. That said, the book looks like the notes from a firmware lecture delivered by an Arm Apps engineer. The book is strongest in coverage of MMU and cache, but weak on ARM11 (1136 only and as a final chapter) and essentially non-existent in Jazelle coverage. Nice features are the toy RTOS which appears early at reappears with more features (memory protection, and MMU, for example). That this book is so quickly out of date brings the point that MDR bulleted last year, that the ARM family needs birth control but that is a topic for another discussion. Sloss' book has 'non-commercial license' for all the sourcecode. huh? Regarding this book, Freescale for example publishes equivalent information (old ESS manuals) in the 860/8260 training manuals for free, on their website. If your company pays for your books, by all means have them get the sloss book for you it makes a great read on the john, but if you are a student or independent developer, you would be as well served by studying the ARM ARM and applicable ARM source code for U-Boot, Redboot and the L4 microkernel, or even Ed Sutter's book, with the added benefit that you would have a license to use the code in your project.

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