Book Review

Embedded Systems Building Blocks
author - Jean J. Labrosse
Miller Freeman - ©2000

Reader Level

Amazon Rating

Synopsis Jean Labrosse is the author of the popular MicroC OS II (uCOSII) operating system. This book is a collection of "C" routines for common interface applications/tasks in embedded systems. The book is a good collection of basic interface techniques and code for common tasks such keyboard interfacing, LCD display control etc... If you have never programmed an LCD display using the Hitachi HD44780 chip (or equivalent) this book can save you hours of frustration trying to figure out the odd address locations of the display characters. There is also an introduction to Real Time Operating Systems (RTOS) in general, and MicroC OSII in particular. Originally the software was written for Intel 80186 architectures, and the PC environment. However, since the code is written in"C", it is easily ported to any architecture which supports a "C" compiler. Now-a-days, that is practically every one!

Area of Interest
Software Design

Audience
It is clearly intended for new software designers learning how to programming embedded systems. It does assume that the reader has a pretty good working knowledge of "C" programming.

Topics
This book covers the basics of human interfacing design (display, keyboard, switches), basic I/O interfacing and Real Time Operating Systems.

If you are new to embedded programming, there is a lot of useful design and application information which can save you a lot of time first in specifying the interface, and second in designing the interface code.

The book is primarily focused on software and programming, but does cover some basic hardware interface issues as they relate to programming. It does cover hardware and analog interface design to a limited extent - but primarily only at the function chip level used to implement the interface. External signal conditioning etc... is beyond the scope of this book.

Organization
This book is organized by topic. Each chapter covers a particular topic, such as Character LCD interfacing, in detail. You do not have to read the entire book, but can skip to topics of interest.

Chapter 1 starts out by covering software programming, the authors design conventions, compilers, etc... If you are running a PC, there is basic test program which implements to modules in MicroC OS II environment.

Chapter 2 covers Real Time Operating System (RTOS) concepts. If you are new to RTOS design, this is a compact, but pretty complete introduction to the basics of an RTOS. There is scaled version of MicroC OS II in the appendix.

Chapters 3-5 cover the basics of human interfacing to an embedded system, that is keyboards and displays. As mentioned above, if you are new to programming LCD character modules, that topic is covered pretty well in chapter 5.

Chapters 6 and 7 cover timers, time of day clocks, and time management in general. Even a non RTOS based system can benefit by time interleaving tasks.

Chapters 8, 9 and 10 cover "real world interfacing" and fixed point math. Digital and analog interfacing are covered but only at the function chip interface level (e.g. Analog to Digital Converter Chip). As stated above, signal conditioning requirements etc... are covered, but implementation is beyond the scope of this book.

Chapter 11 is devoted to Asynchronous Serial Communications. The RS232C interface, although now somewhat eclipsed by USB, it still the predominate basic embedded system interface. Again, the physical interface portions of the code is targeted at the PC programming environment, but the control and coordination concepts are valid for any architecture.

The last chapter is strictly PC-DOS based, PC services. This may be of interest for users of Industrial PCs running DOS.

Where to buy
You can purchase this book online from amazon.com

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