Embedded Microcomputer Systems: Real Time Interfacing, Second Edition,

Jonathan W. Valvano, Thomson-Engineering Publishers, ISBN 0534551629

A detailed outline,
A detailed lab manual to be used with the book,
Lots of extra questions for each chapter,
A list of errors,  
UPGRADE TExaS to the newest version,  
Information about automated on-line Homework to be used with the book
Programs from the book

Embedded computer systems, which are electronic systems that include a microcomputer to perform a specific dedicated application, are ubiquitous. Every week millions of tiny computer chips come pouring out of factories like Motorola and Mitsubishi and find their way into our everyday products. Our global economy, our production of food, our transportation systems, our military defense, our communication systems, and even our quality of life depend on the efficiency and effectiveness of these embedded systems. As electrical and computer engineers we play a major role in all phases of this effort: planning, design, analysis, manufacturing, and marketing.

This book is unique in a couple of ways. Like any good textbook, this book strives to expose underlying concepts that can be learned today and applied later in practice. The difference lies in the details. I think you will find this book rich with many detailed case studies that illustrate the basic concepts. After all, engineers don't simply develop theories, but rather continue the process all the way to an actual device. Over my years of teaching I have found that the combination of concepts and examples is an effective method of educating student-engineers. Even as a mature engineer, I continue to study actual working examples whenever I am faced with the task of learning new concepts.

The second way in which this book is unique is its simulator, called Test EXecute And Simulate (TExaS). This simulator, like all good applications, has an easy learning curve. It provides a self-contained approach to writing and testing microcomputer hardware and software. It is unique from other simulators in two aspects. If enabled, the simulator shows you activity internal to the chip like the read/write address/data bus, the instruction register and effective address register. In this way the application is designed for the educational objectives of understanding how a computer works. On the other hand, you have the ability to connect external hardware devices like switches, LED's LCD's keyboards, serial port devices, and analog circuits. Logic probes, voltmeters, oscilloscopes and logic analyzers are used to observe the external hardware. The simulator supports many of the I/O port functions of the microcomputers, like interrupts, serial port, output compare, timer overflow, and the A/D. You will find it on the CD that accompanies this book.

Universities that adopt this textbook have the following teaching resources available to them:
1) Lecture note slides (Word documents) for a course based on the first half of the book. For pdf versions of these slides, see
 http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~valvano/EE345L/Lectures/ 
2) Lecture note slides (Word documents) for a course based on the second half of the book. For pdf versions of these slides, see
http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~valvano/EE345M/  
3) Lab manual (Word documents) for a course based on this book. For pdf versions of these labs, see
http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~valvano/EE345L/Labs/Fall2010/
http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~valvano/metrowerks/   and
http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~valvano/manual/index.html 
4) lots of microcomputer programs, see
ICC12 C programs http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~valvano/programs/  and
Metrowerks C programs http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~valvano/metrowerks/   and
Many 6811/6812 assembly/C programs included with the TExaS simulator installation
5) TExaS simulator, see
http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~valvano/sim.html  
6) Low cost web-based homework service, see
 http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~valvano/homework/  and
 https://hw.utexas.edu/overview.html 
7) Lots of extra questions for each chapter, see
 Lots of extra questions for each chapter