Customer Reviews

Embedded C

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I believe the real title of this book is more like "Introduction to embedded systems programming and software design with 8051 using C". Most of the C and C++ programmers will not find anything more about the C language they do not already know. The author claims that the target audience is desktop developers with C++ and Java programming. Probably this involves a portion of this programming crowd, who have not done any low level programming and are relying on existing libraries or have very little experience. One obvious advantage of the book is its clear style. The touch of many important topics and well selected examples from very small to a decent size projects is another plus. Selecting a well known microcontroller flavor (Intel 8051) is a plus, for the specific points that could be illustrated when one has to use such a cheap and not very powerful device for a project. The choice to demonstrate the examples with the Keil development environment makes it very convenient for the reader to follow the text. For the experienced embedded programmer most topics are pretty well known and they may find the style very easy and not so rich in new information. For example interrupts are not discussed until chapter 7 and the book has 4 more chapters. The users of bigger microcontrollers ,16 and 32 bit, may find that the code does not cover some of the more complex issues they have to face in their software designs. I am mostly refering to the developers creating code for Motorola 32 bit and the ARM family. Looking forward for the forthcoming book "Embedded Operating Systems" from the same author due for publication Jan, 2004.

This is a good introduction to Keil's C51 compiler. I have 1 year experience writing PIC code using CCS C compiler. My latest project is to develope 8051 microcontroller firmware using Keil's C Compiler. The documentation provided by Keil is limited and confusing, not a good one to beginner.

"Embedded C" is definitely a rather good introductory book to Keil's C51 compiler. It is suitable to reader who already has knowledge of C programming. In this book, some special features and instructions are explained, such as sbit and the I/0 pin (which bother me the most in the beginning stage, as 8051 I/O is different from PIC and Motorola).

Furthermore, the author also introduce the Real Time Concept, RS232 etc which differ the Embedded C with the desktop C. This is especially useful to beginner of embedded programming.

As a desktop applications programmer this was a good introduction to the embedded world for me. Whenever I try to learn some new technology, there always tends to be a knowledge gap that needs bridged. Once it has been, I am able to start using whatever that technology is. I feel this book is my bridge for learning to write code for embedded systems.

When I first bought the book, I would just try to read it from chapter to chaper starting with chapter one. I've started to read it several times. This method, I now realize, was a mistake as there is some terminology that doesn't make sense even to a seasoned programmer such as myself. Embedded systems are quite different from building applications for an operating system running on a robust microprocessor.

I found that what I should have done from the start was to install the demo compiler from Keil and the project examples. Once I did this, the book really started to come to life as I could step through the code with the debugger and see what was really going on. I got through the first four chapters with a strong understanding in the very first evening I did this.

The book seems to do a good job of covering all of the main topics you would want to know about. It is not short on examples which is a great feature. I, do, however, have a single complaint. In chapter 5, Pont talks about code organization. Now, while I feel that this is a reasonable things to learn, for someone who is just getting started with embedded programming it would have been better to save that as a bonus chapter at the end and instead let all of the preceeding chapters contain everything in a single file. I'm not suggesting that it's a bad idea to organize your code. I'm simply stating that I was able to understand the first four chapters much quicker because I didn't have to jump around from file to file to figure out where a certain function or variable had been declared. Some might complain that keeping all of the code in a single file would create "spaghetti" code, however, for learning purposes, I feel this is a reasonable trade-off. Not to mention, the code examples are not terribly long.

In the end this book has been really great. The prose Pont uses is very approachable and he does a good job (especially at the beginning) to explain what is happening in the code. I definitely recommend this book and the 8051 is a great choice of processor. There is a lot of sample code on the web and it is a very well documented MCU. Plus the tools for development using this chip are very inexpensive as are the chips themselves.

I read this alongside C and the 8051 (4th edition) by Thomas Schultz and it worked well.

I saw a comment about the over-emphasis on code structure, that's where this book is strong and the other less so.

A good pairing my opinion.

Thanks Michael!!

This book was fantastic. Well written and organized. I think I have all the tools I need to start designing my software intelligently. I will be picking up his other book.

He includes a lot of code that I found somewhat useless (it's on the CD, after all). I would have preferred to see ONLY small snippets taken out and discussed. A minor gripe.

If you are going to be developing embedded code for the 8051 family of processors (or if you are new to embedded software), you need this book.

This may be the best technical book that I've ever read, and I've read a bunch. I can't say enough about Dr. Pont's accomplishment with this book.
He clearly and concisely takes the reader/student through the basics of programming embedded devices. He uses the 8051 with the Keil compiler as an example platform and provides adequate code listing examples. If you're an embedded guru with decades of experience in microcontroller programming this book may not be for you. However, if you're one of us, from a computer science background, whose embedded experience comes from programming at the application level, then I highly recommend "Embedded C" without reservation.

This book covers the basics of embedded programming on an 8051 microcontroller. It is very easy to read and understand and comes with an evaluation version of the keil compiler. Simulation software is built into the compiler so you can test your code on a simulated 8051 device. This is a good book for a beginner to embedded programming.

I've read several books on using C code to program the 8051 microcontroller (Shultz's [1st ed], Parab's and Calcutt's) and this one is by far the best - no doubt. I had a only basic understanding of c programming before reading the book.

First off, I am a hobbyst and this is my first book to buy on embedded microcontrollers so I dont have much to compare it to. I found this book easy to read. It has some very useful information on the programming side but you are left hanging a little bit on the hardware side. Just a note: you need to be pretty familiar with C# to find this book useful. If you have never taken a class or gone through an online tutorial over C# then you will be a little lost. I recommend going through an online tutorial before starting this book. The CD that is provided with the book includes an 8051 microcontroller simulator. This simulator is used as the source of your hardware. You write a program in the simulator, run the code, and you will see a few check boxes blinking on the screen that represent the in/out pins on the microcontroller. The simulator will also allow you to pull up some timing graphs and a few other tools but that is about it. Overall this book was helpful and probably a good place to start if you are familiar with C#, as I stated before I wish there was a little more explanation on wiring and other hardware components. I have ordered another book that should arrive in a few days that comes with a hardware kit to experiment with. "C Programming for Microcontrollers". If you go to the authors website you can buy the hardware kit that goes with the book. When I get done with the next book and hardware kit hopefully I will have a better understanding for the hardware.