Chapter 1

The Embedded and Real-Time Space

If you want to travel around the world and be invited to speak

at a lot of different places, just write a Unix operating system.

Linus Torvalds

What Is Embedded?

You’re at a party when an attractive member of the opposite sex approaches and asks you what you do. You could be flip and say something like “as little as possible,” but eventually the conversation will get around to the fact that you write software for embedded systems. Before your new acquaintance starts scanning around the room for a lawyer or doctor to talk to, you’d better come up with a captivating explanation of just what the heck embedded systems are.

I usually start by saying that an embedded system is a device that has a computer inside ...

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