Take full control of your microcontroller hardware and master the art of bare-metal embedded programming. This comprehensive guide teaches you how to write firmware that runs directly on the processor, with no operating system, abstraction layers, or unnecessary overhead. Designed for engineers, developers, and embedded enthusiasts, this book focuses on STM32, ARM Cortex-M, and Raspberry Pi platforms to help you understand the true foundations of real-time system design and direct hardware control.
You will learn to configure registers, manage interrupts, control GPIOs, and implement real-time behaviors using pure C. Each chapter combines hardware-level explanations with complete, functional code examples that you can compile, flash, and test on real hardware.
This book is not a tutorial on using vendor libraries or IDE wizards—it is a practical engineering manual that shows you how every component of your microcontroller works at the register and clock cycle level.
Inside, you will learn how to:
• Understand the architecture and operation of ARM Cortex-M processors.
• Write startup code, linker scripts, and interrupt vector tables from scratch.
• Configure GPIO ports, timers, and communication interfaces (UART, SPI, I2C).
• Build real-time control applications without an operating system.
• Implement PWM control for LEDs, motors, and signal generation.
• Manage interrupts using the Nested Vectored Interrupt Controller (NVIC).
• Debug and flash firmware using ST-Link, JTAG, and GDB.
• Optimize performance, memory layout, and code size for efficiency.
• Design cooperative multitasking and time-critical functions.
• Port firmware between STM32, ARM Cortex-M, and Raspberry Pi boards.
What makes this book different:
Focus on bare-metal C programming, not vendor-specific HAL libraries.
Step-by-step register-level configuration for every example.
Compatible with STM32CubeIDE, ARM GCC toolchain, OpenOCD, and GDB.
Real-world embedded projects: LED controllers, data loggers, UART command interfaces, and sensor-driven systems.
Includes complete appendices on register maps, peripheral tables, and toolchain configuration scripts.
Whether you are a professional developer looking to eliminate software overhead or a student learning the fundamentals of embedded systems, this book delivers the clarity and depth needed to understand how real-time firmware interacts directly with hardware.
By the end of this book, you will know how to:
Build complete bare-metal systems from the reset vector up.
Configure hardware without prebuilt frameworks.
Create deterministic real-time embedded applications.
Understand and optimize firmware for performance and reliability.
