-- Designing in reliability without compromising time to market.

-- Includes several detailed case studies.

-- CD-ROM: Extensive C source code library, evaluation versions of Keil's industry-leading C compiler and hardware simulator, and much more.

In embedded software development, maximizing response time and reliability is absolutely critical. In this book, Michael J. Pont introduces 50 powerful, proven design techniques ("patterns") for enhancing rapid development and reliability in embedded systems based on the popular 8051 microcontroller family. Demonstrating how system reliability can be "designed in" from the outset, Pont introduces embedded software techniques for developing LCD and LED displays; interfaces to switches and keypads; networking and communication protocols (including 1"2"C); control systems utilizing PD algorithms; working with neural networks, and more. After demonstrating why embedded systems that rely on interrupt inputs and multitasking operating environments are inherently less reliable, he shows how to restrict the use of interrupts to the generation of timing signals; and presents C-based cooperative schedulers that avoid reliability problems. Pont offers several detailed case studies, from a simple alarm clock to a complete intruder alarm system, as well as two automotive applications: cruise control and engine misfire detection. All techniques and C code are applicable to processors across the 8051 family, including small and extended 8051s. The book includes a foreword by renowned patterns expert Kent Beck.