Firmware Demystified: Building Embedded Systems from the Ground Up (BOOK)

Although the primary emphasis of this book is firmware development, a good firmware developer must have a reasonable understanding of the hardware on which the firmware resides. Compare a firmware programmer to someone who changes oil at a gas station... If all that person knows how to do is change the oil, he will probably do the job, but he won't have the skills to notice warning signs that a mechanic would pick up right away. The oil may get changed, but a leaky head gasket won't be noticed and metal filings in the old oil will be ignored, so sooner or later something else will go wrong due to the lack of knowledge of the mechanic. It's good to know at least a little bit about the hardware, but let me assure you, at the end of this chapter, it you aren't already a hardware designer... you still won't be! The goal here is to discuss, in general terms, how the processor does its job and what some of the common CPU support peripherals are.