Patterns for Time-Triggered Embedded Systems

Full Title: Patterns for Time-Triggered Embedded Systems: Building Reliable Applications with the 8051 Family of Microcontrollers
Author/s : Michael J. Point
Publisher : Addison Wesley
Category : Other
Review by : John Volkar
Rating : horseshoes
Not your typically software patterns book.
Real engineering, hardware and software making stuff happen! Yeah! Probably the best example that I've ever seen of how patterns should be described and discussed, clear, concise, and with sufficient background to make each pattern feel meaningful and complete.
While this book deals specifically with the 8051 family of microcontrollers, almost all of the patterns given are generally applicable to any microcontroller family. Even if you're just a software engineer, and even if you don't do embedded work, at least half of this book contains information that will pique your interest, and cause you to rethink some of your assumptions.
Pretend that you have to write an embedded program that responds in real time and has a bounded response window. Now you have the choice of a preemptive or cooperative scheduler. (For all you nonhardware folks: A scheduler is a microoperating system that you either buy of build yourself for your microcontroller.) I'd say most folks would choose the preemptive scheduler. Needless to say, the patterns in this book give clear guidelines as to which to choose and when. Furthermore, they illustrate that for the most reliable (most predicable) operation, a cooperative scheduler is probably a better choice. Now think about some business systems architectures, response times, latency, liveness, robustness, the discussions on embedded schedulers have relevancy!
The world needs more books of this caliber and utility. If you're even remotely interested in embedded systems, GET THIS BOOK!
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