Hardware/Firmware Interface Design

CHAPTER 5. Documentation

Proper documentation is the most important tool for collaborative development between hardware and firmware engineers. Firmware engineers need it to write device drivers for the blocks. Hardware engineers need it to convey their designs to others. Both sides use it as they develop their respective components. Quality documentation is essential for hardware and firmware engineers to do their jobs.

Lack of good documentation was the number-one complaint among the firmware engineers whom I interviewed for this book. The documentation is the primary source of information for firmware engineers as they develop and debug their code, but it tends to be inaccurate and incomplete. A few of the engineers interviewed told me that ...