I read this book on Safari Online – great technical resource. This book serves a good refresher for me in the system design discipline. I’ve done a lot of computer system designs but I’m not exposed to the arena of embedded designs. So I’ve learned a few new things and got a taste of what it’s like to do embedded designs that go into most of the appliances. Due to the volume and competitive nature of the market. The designs tend to be very cost sensitive.

The author starts out on introducing the system design including assembly language programming, electronics 101, simple power source designs (a big part of the embedded system), The he goes into great lengths on all the major buses like SPI, I2C, RS232, LPC, Irda, Ethernet, and etc. Some of the buses are new to me. Next, he touches on the analog design for environment monitor and control, which are essential for embedded system. Finally he dives into the various kinds of controller chips, starting with the simple 8-bit controller all the way to 32-bit one.

After reading this book, I feel like dabbling with embedded designs as a hobby like creating a automatic train, and other simple controller to control the house. Heck, I may even want to design a smart trap for that gopher/mole that’s been digging up my lawn!