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ASK YC: Do you know a good book to learn embedded system programming?

4 points by VinzO ↗ HN
I learnt programming during my studies, but now I have to do some embedded SW on a PowerPC. This is very specific and there are a lot of things that I never learnt at school or in programming books. How to manage memory, what is a heap, manage the stack, define memory sections, bootloader, RTOS... do you know a good book that cover these kind of things?

4 comments

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st3fan
No matter what you do, teaching yourself all that stuff will take months at least. It's not something you master in a weekend.

The best people in that area probably have a long history with (embedded) programming and started when computers were a lot simpler.

So, this might sounds as really crazy advice, but I think it could help lot: find an Apple ][ on eBay and some old Apple ][ programming books. Then start hacking on some assembly code to understand the things you describe above.

Another option would be to buy some more modern (:-) development boards for CPUs like the PPC or ARM. Some are very well documented and come with tutorials.

The Apple ][ approach is more fun IMO and you will learn a LOT from it :-)

S.

VinzO
I had a quick look. It seems not so easy to get an apple II. Probably even more difficult to find the programming books. I will check more in details. Probably that a development board for modern CPU will be easier to get.
jwturner
Jack Gannsle's books: http://www.ganssle.com/book.htm or check Amazon. Also has articles at his site which might interest you.

Also articles at embedded.com

VinzO
Thanks, I never heard about Jack Gannsle. His books and website looks very interesting. I will have a look at it more in details.