Fowler K.R. What Every Engineer Should Know About Developing Real-Time Embedded Products

Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2008. — 495 p. — (What Every Engineer Should Know).This book focuses on the processes and trade-offs used to develop real-time embedded products. It uses case studies and examples that allow you to compare and contrast design decisions made for different projects in different markets. Another goal, admittedly a distant one, is to encourage change and improvement in the business of developing embedded systems by helping you to see some of the relationships between various disciplines. The book covers smaller, self-contained devices and subsystems, ranging from handheld devices to appliances to racks of equipment. While the processes described in the book are important steps, they are not necessarily all the steps needed to guarantee success. The book is primarily for design engineers (electronic hardware and software engineers and industrial designers), their managers, and people who should have an overall perspective on product development. I hope anyone wanting to better understand how other people and disciplines interact in engineering and product development will benefit. Some technical background, two years or more of technical school or university, is needed to understand the material. This book is a curious hybrid between a textbook and a reference. Reading all the way through probably will be incredibly boring for the vast majority of you. Most likely, reading the first chapter or two and then several case studies should efficiently satisfy the knowledge uptake for your market or field of interest.What Every Engineer Should Know: Series StatementAuthorList of Abbreviations
Development Processes
Variations on the Theme—Considerations for Mission-Critical Equipment and Medical Devices
Tools of the Trade
Case Study 1—Major Appliances
Case Study 2—Telecom Products
Case Study 3—Commercial Laboratory Equipment
Case Study 4—Automobile Engine Controller
Case Study 5—Industrial Flowmeter
Case Study 6—Military Support Equipment
Case Study 7—Designing Instruments for Space Flight
Case Study 8—Aerospace Video Processor
Case Study 9—Satellite Subsystem
Case Study 10—Programmer for Implanted Stimulators
Case Study 11—Implanted Medical Devices
Summary Comparisons Across the 11 Case Studies
Some Observations on Architectural Trade-Offs in Selected Real-Time Systems
Some Observations about Consumer Appliances
Some Observations about User Interfaces