Embedded Systems References

This section contains links and interesting references for embedded issues, with a special focus on debugging.  While design and development are important, the debugging process is usually overlooked; perhaps because we all hope we do it right the first time so we don't have to go there.

Good Free Websites and Stuff

If you are serious about embedded systems programming, you already visit Embedded.com and have a free subscription to Embedded Systems Programming magazine.  It comes out once a month in print and online, and often includes a Beginner's Corner column discussing important basics like using counter/timers, interrupts, real time, pulse width modulation and more.

Another is Circuit Cellar for practical hands on advice.

Dr. Dobbs Embedded covers embedded resources and languages.

Embedded Star for Embedded Systems and Software Resources.

Embedded Computing Design Magazine is a "resource for the latest news, engineering methods, products, and tools necessary" for designing small to large distributed embedded systems

Great Microprocessors Past and Present is a really interesting and informative website about CPUs and changing technologies. It includes appendices with nice glossary information.

Rocket Aware is an online Webliography and index for programmers with 50,000 links. The mission promotes software reuse. "We radically reduce the time to locate software and knowledge." It has a number of excellent pages and links in areas beyond just software, including:

Embedded and Portable Systems.

Software Debugging and Testing.

Execution, a gateway to process, execution and algorithms.

Emulators.

Hardware Access for real time access and interfacing to hardware.

EmbeddedRelated for embedded resources on the web.

comp.arch.embedded is an active embedded newsgroup.

Debugging, Exterminating, De-defecting, or Call in the Bomb Squad

Debugging, a lecture form Stanford University.

Microcontroller.com provides sourcing information on microcontrollers, tools vendors, semiconductors, etc., but it is a little dated.  The site also includes some white papers and silliness like the paperless office.

Embedded Research Solutions Publications page contains references to useful articles, books, and conference papers.

The Embedded and Hardware section of Programmers Heaven.com. Has some nice articles and message boards with folks answering fundamental questions.

The debugging page at Softpanarama is a rambling conglomeration of links and debugging lore for a variety of hardware and software, but good debugging nuggets and philosophies can be found.

Software Architecture and Design

SoftwareArchitectures.com is all about software archicture - what it is, who does it, what documents are used, analysis and tradeoff methods, and white papers.

Debugging Articles

The ten secrets of embedded debugging by Stan Schneider and Lori Fraleigh

Introduction to Interrupt Debugging by Stuart Ball

Measuring Bugs by Jack Ganssle

Debug-Based Design Covers the Bases by John Poust

Twenty-five Most Common Mistakes with Real-Time Software Development, Part 1 and Part 2, More Pitfalls for Real-Time Software Developers  by David Stewart is a great 2-part article that started with ten problems but quickly grew, despite its title, to over 30 common mistakes.

Graceful Degradation in Distributed Embedded Systems explores failure vulnerability in embedded systems.

Organizations and Conferences

DevTown Station (The Software Developers Training Portal) lists the latest embedded systems conferences here.  The Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco (March 2005) was awesome! Get to one of these conferences if at all possible.

International Real Time Systems Symposium

IEEE Engineering Medicine and Biology Society

Books

Embedded Systems Dictionary by Jack Ganssle and Michael Barr is an excellent resource for definitions, concepts and examples for technical and non-technical folks.  This is a nice complement to all the home brew acronym and glossary excel spreadsheets out there.

Debugging Embedded Microprocessor Systems by Stuart Ball is one of the only books on the market that highlights the debugging process.  Since debugging often takes up to 50% of the development process, why is it so under-explored?  Chapter 9 has some nice real-life "debugging scenarios from the trenches."  Here is a review.

Embedded System Design by Arnold S. Berger is an easy-to-read practical book that also contains brief "From the Trenches" vignettes, and plenty of figures and references.  And I have to love an author who states, "I'm convinced that debugging is the lost art of software development."  Excellent resource.

An Embedded Software Primer by David E. Simon.  A very appropriate description of the embedded systems world: "Any rule followed by 85 percent of the engineers as part of the accepted gospel of best practice has to be broken by the other 15 percent just to get their systems to work."

C Programming Language (2nd Edition) by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie. Although this is not specifically an embedded book, it is a bible of C programming without the object oriented hoopla that can bring an embedded project to its knees. A personal favorite.

Subscriptions (fee-based)

CMP Developer Network provides internet access to Dr. Dobb's Journal, Software Development Magazine, Byte, and C/C++ Users Journal.  Although these journals are not free, they contain a ton of great information.  Online subscriptions are not expensive.

Real-Time Systems the International Journal of Time-Critical Computing Systems, publishing research papers, project reports, and case studies focusing on real time principles and applications.

War Stories and Stories from the Trenches

Debugging Rules! and the Debugging Insights "Send us your stories" page.   

Other Misc Pages

Here is a page that contains some good introductions, but quickly digresses into a more research/modeling approach.

Embedded Systems Internet Resources contains many links for software, education, companies, and news groups.

The Primer FAQ on Embedded Systems by Russ Hersch is old (1997) but contains a lot of good overview and intro information that is still very useful.

Real Time Embedded Systems Forum. According to the website, it "defines, coordinates, integrates and prioritizes real-time and embedded systems standards utilizing various existing architectural approaches. The Forum also defines test suites and certification programs for products adhering to these standards to enable the proliferation of conformant real-time and embedded systems."