Marilyn Wolf - Computers as Components, Third Edition: Principles of Embedded Computing System Design

Digital system design has entered a new era. At a time when the design of microprocessors has shifted into a classical optimization exercise, the design of embedded computing systems in which microprocessors are merely components has become a wide-open frontier. Wireless systems, wearable systems, networked systems, smart appliances, industrial process systems, advanced automotive systems, and biologically interfaced systems provide a few examples from across this new frontier.

Driven by advances in sensors, transducers, microelectronics, processor performance, operating systems, communications technology, user interfaces, and packaging technology on the one hand, and by a deeper understanding of human needs and market possibilities on the other, a vast new range of systems and applications is opening up. It is now up to the architects and designers of embedded systems to make these possibilities a reality.

However, embedded system design is practiced as a craft at the present time. Although knowledge about the component hardware and software subsystems is clear, there are no system design methodologies in common use for orchestrating the overall design process, and embedded system design is still run in an ad hoc manner in most projects.

Some of the challenges in embedded system design come from changes in underlying technology and the subtleties of how it can all be correctly mingled and integrated. Other challenges come from new and often unfamiliar types of system requirements. Then too, improvements in infrastructure and technology for communication and collaboration have opened up unprecedented possibilities for fast design response to market needs. However, effective design methodologies and associated design tools havent been available for rapid follow-up of these opportunities.

At the beginning of the VLSI era, transistors and wires were the fundamental components, and the rapid design of computers on a chip was the dream. Today the CPU and various specialized processors and subsystems are merely basic components, and the rapid, effective design of very complex embedded systems is the dream. Not only are system specifications now much more complex, but they must also meet real-time deadlines, consume little power, effectively support complex real-time user interfaces, be very cost-competitive, and be designed to be upgradable.

Wayne Wolf has created the first textbook to systematically deal with this array of new system design requirements and challenges. He presents formalisms and a methodology for embedded system design that can be employed by the new type of tall-thin system architect who really understands the foundations of system design across a very wide range of its component technologies.

Moving from the basics of each technology dimension, Wolf presents formalisms for specifying and modeling system structures and behaviors and then clarifies these ideas through a series of design examples. He explores the complexities involved and how to systematically deal with them. You will emerge with a sense of clarity about the nature of the design challenges ahead and with knowledge of key methods and tools for tackling those challenges.

As the first textbook on embedded system design, this book will prove invaluable as a means for acquiring knowledge in this important and newly emerging field. It will also serve as a reference in actual design practice and will be a trusted companion in the design adventures ahead. I recommend it to you highly.

Lynn Conway

Professor Emerita, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan