Embedded Software Development with eCos [Paperback]

Anthony J. Massa (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0130354732 | ISBN-13: 978-0130354730 | Publication Date: December 5, 2002

Embedded Software Development with eCos is the first complete guide to building solutions with this flexible, low-cost, royalty-free embedded software development platform. Author Anthony J. Massa covers eCos architecture, installation, configuration, coding, deployment, and the entire eCos development platform, including support components. Extensive code examples and a full application case study demonstrate every key programming concept, including exceptions, interrupts, virtual vectors, threads, synchronization, networking, Web connectivity, debug/bootstrap, and even porting eCos to new hardware.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

• How to build low-cost, royalty-free embedded solutions with eCos
• Covers eCos architecture, installation, configuration, coding, debugging, bootstrapping, porting, and more
• Incorporates additional open source software components to extend the features and functionality of eCos, meeting the requirements of a wide range of embedded systems
• Includes open source tools for a complete embedded software development environment with eCos as the core
• Contains extensive code examples and complete application case study

Foreword by Michael Tiemann, CTO, Red Hat Software and Co-founder of Cygnus Solutions

"Anthony's book is easily the most complete treatment of eCos system development. I believe it is destined to become part of every eCos developer's library."

—Michael Tiemann, CTO, Red Hat Software and Co-founder of Cygnus Solutions

Build low-cost, royalty-free embedded solutions with eCos—step by step.

The Embedded Configurable Operating System (eCos) gives professionals a low-cost, royalty-free embedded software development solution that works in highly constrained hardware environments, while scaling smoothly to larger products. In this start-to-finish guide to eCos solution building, Anthony Massa covers eCos architecture, installation, configuration, coding, deployment, and the entire eCos open source development system. Additional open source tools are included to configure a complete embedded software development environment. Massa's code examples and application case study illuminate techniques for building virtually any embedded system, from the simplest device to complex Internet-enabled wireless systems. Coverage includes:

• Understanding eCos architecture: kernel, hardware abstraction layer, and other components
• Preparing your eCos embedded development environment
• Incorporating additional open source tools for a complete embedded software development environment
• Working with exceptions, interrupts, and virtual vectors
• Managing threads and synchronization
• Utilizing the eCos networking stack, I/O system, and file system
• Covering additional eCos functionality, including third-party open source contributions
• Using RedBoot, the standardized embedded debug and bootstrap solution
• Porting eCos to new hardware platforms

About the Author

ANTHONY J. MASSA earned a dual B.S./B.A. degree in electrical engineering from the University of San Diego. He has developed embedded software, device drivers, and applications on a wide range of processors and embedded RTOS platforms, for successful products including satellite PC receiver cards and modems, set-top boxes, networking broadcast equipment, and Internet-enabled wireless modems. Massa has written extensively on eCos in many leading publications including Doctor Dobb's Journal, Embedded Systems Programming, and Software Development.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 399 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall (December 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130354732
• ISBN-13: 978-0130354730
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,437,223 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Index is worthless, January 22, 2003

By 

Ralph E. Richardson (Wayzata, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Embedded Software Development with eCos (Paperback)

This is an OK book, bringing together a lot of the eCos documentation and some sage experience.

However, the author did not spend very much time on the index, and this limits the usefullness of the book compared to the online documentation.

For example, all of the eCos functions start with "cyg_", yet none of them appear in the index.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars eCos Explained - All in One Place, December 9, 2002

By 

William M. Knight Jr. "BillK" (Plano, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Embedded Software Development with eCos (Paperback)

Just got the book yesterday and have been reading through it ever since. This book will be an immense help for both first time eCos users as well as those of us who don't have it quite figured out yet. While much of the information presented in the book might be found by wandering about the eCos web site, reading documents, FAQs, and previous postings to the mailing lists, Anthony has presented it all in one place in a consise, logical order. It will be a great help.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Organization is not its strong point, August 4, 2003

By 

C. McManis "Chuck McManis" (Sunnyvale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Embedded Software Development with eCos (Paperback)

Currently (as of ECOS 2.0) you need this book in order to get up to speed and programming ECOS. Unfortunately it isn't very well organized and it is very well written.

Like many "open source" books, there is a lot of zeal that isn't necessary to communicate the point :-) Lots of discussion about how the source directory is layed out, and then how not everything follows the layout (this is classic open source, here is the standard, but many people don't follow it.)

For me I read this book out of order, how to install first, then the examples, then started reading the chapters on internals. The book re-hashes reference documentation on the redhat site, but organizes it a bit better.

The book comes with a CD that has cygwin and basically the Gnu Pro kit on it for Windows users. That's great, but I'm a FreeBSD user. There is very little information about using ecos from a shell using ecosconfig & and gdb. That is the books worst failing, there should be a couple of chapters devoted to non-Windows users. (or maybe split the book into an ECOS reference and then a platform users guide).

Once you're finally up an running and have gotten your first target "application" to boot, the book is a handy printed reference and it does explain the internals better than the web pages do. All in all, I wanted "ECOS in a Nutshell" and got "Learn ECOS in 21 days"