Jonathan Valvano - Embedded Systems (Introduction to Armxae Cortexu2122-M Microcontrollers), Fifth edition

Embedded systems are a ubiquitous component of our everyday lives. We interact with hundreds of tiny computers every day that are embedded into our houses, our cars, our toys, and our work. As our world has become more complex, so have the capabilities of the microcontrollers embedded into our devices. The AR M Cortex-M family represents a new class of microcontrollers much more powerful than the devices available ten years ago. The purpose of this book is to present the design methodology to train young engineers to understand the basic building blocks that comprise devices like a cell phone, an MP3 player, a pacemaker, antilock brakes, and an engine controller.

This book is the first in a series of three books that teach the fundamentals of embedded systems as applied to the AR M Cortex-M family of microcontrollers. This first book is an introduction to computers and interfacing focusing on assembly language and C programming. The second book Embedded Systems: Real-Time Interfacing to ARM Cortex-M Microcontrollers focuses on hardware/software interfacing and the design of embedded systems. The third book Embedded Systems: Real-Time Operating Systems for ARM Cortex-M Microcontrollers is an advanced book focusing on operating systems, high-speed interfacing, control systems, and robotics. The third volume could also be used for professionals wishing to design or deploy a real-time operating system onto an ARM platform. This first book is an introductory book that could be used at the college level with little or no prerequisites.

An embedded system is a system that performs a specific task and has a computer embedded inside. A system is comprised of components and interfaces connected together for a common purpose. This book is an introduction to embedded systems. Specific topics include microcontrollers, fixed-point numbers, the design of software in assembly language and C, elementary data structures, programming input/output including interrupts, analog to digital conversion, digital to analog conversion.

In general, the area of embedded systems is an important and growing discipline within electrical and computer engineering. In the past, the educational market of embedded systems has been dominated by simple microcontrollers like the PIC, the 9S12, and the 8051. This is because of their market share, low cost, and historical dominance. However, as problems become more complex, so must the systems that solve them. A number of embedded system paradigms must shift in order to accommodate this growth in complexity. First, the number of calculations per second will increase from millions/sec to billions/sec. Similarly, the number of lines of software code will also increase from thousands to millions. Thirdly, systems will involve multiple microcontrollers supporting many simultaneous operations. Lastly, the need for system verification will continue to grow as these systems are deployed into safety critical applications. These changes are more than a simple growth in size and bandwidth. These systems must employ parallel programming, high-speed synchronization, real-time operating systems, fault tolerant design, priority interrupt handling, and networking. Consequently, it will be important to provide our students with these types of design experiences. The ARM platform is both low cost and provides the high-performance features required in future embedded systems. In addition, the ARM market share is large and will continue to grow. Furthermore, students trained on the ARM will be equipped to design systems across the complete spectrum from simple to complex. The purpose of writing these three books at this time is to bring engineering education into the 21 st century.

This book employs many approaches to learning. It will not include an exhaustive recapitulation of the information in data sheets. First, it begins with basic fundamentals, which allows the reader to solve new problems with new technology. Second, the book presents many detailed design examples. These examples illustrate the process of design. There are multiple structural components that assist learning. Checkpoints, with answers in the back, are short easy to answer questions providing immediate feedback while reading. Simple homework, with answers to the odd questions on the web, provides more detailed learning opportunities. The book includes an index and a glossary so that information can be searched. The most important learning experiences in a class like this are of course the laboratories. Each chapter has suggested lab assignments. More detailed lab descriptions are available on the web. Specifically for this volume, look at the lab assignments for EE319K. For Volume 2, refer to the EE445L labs, and for Volume 3, look at the lab assignments for EE445M/EE380L.6.

There is a web site accompanying this book http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~valvano/arm . Posted here are ARM Keil uVision and Texas Instruments Code Composer Studio projects for each of the example programs in the book. You will also find data sheets and Excel spreadsheets relevant to the material in this book.

The book will cover embedded systems for AR M Cortex-M microcontrollers with specific details on the TM4C123 and TM4C1294. The web site includes corresponding examples for the LM3S811, LM3S1968, and LM3S8962. In these books the terms LM3S and TM4C will refer to families of microcontrollers with the Texas Instruments Stellari s and Tiv a lines. Although the solutions are specific for the LM3S and TM4C families, it will be possible to use these books for other ARM derivatives.