The vast majority of existing computers are embedded in the myriad of intelligent devices and applications-not in desktop machines. We are witnessing the emergence of a new discipline with its own principles, constraints, and design processes.
Computers as Components is the first book to teach this new discipline. It unravels the complexity of these systems and the tools and methods necessary for designing them. Researchers, students, and savvy professionals, schooled in hardware or software, will value the integrated engineering design approach to this fast emerging field.
* Demonstrates concepts and techniques using two powerful real-world processors as case studies throughout the book: the ARM processor and the SHARC DSP (digital signal processor).
* Illustrates the major concepts of each chapter with real-world design examples such as software modems, telephone answering machines, and video accelerators.
* Teaches the basics of UML (Unified Modeling Language) and applies it throughout the text to help you visualize stages in the design process.
* Illustrates real-time operating systems using the POSIX real-time extensions and Linux.
* Describes performance analysis and optimization of embedded software, including the effects of caches.
* Includes two CD-ROMs with evaluation software: One contains the ARM Developer Suite; the other contains VisualDSP for the SHARC DSP family of processors.
Wayne Wolf is Professor, Rhesea "Ray" P. Farmer Distinguished Chair in Embedded Computing, and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Before joining Georgia Tech, he was with Princeton University and AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He is well known for his research in the areas of hardware/software co-design, embedded computing, VLSI CAD, and multimedia computing systems. He is a fellow of the IEEE and ACM. He co-founded several conferences in the area, including CODES, MPSoC, and Embedded Systems Week. He was founding co-editor-in-chief of Design Automation for Embedded Systems and founding editor-in-chief of ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems. He has received the ASEE Frederick E. Terman Award and the IEEE Circuits and Society Education Award. He is also series editor of the Morgan Kaufmann Series in Systems on Silicon.