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µC/OS-III also provides additional features that better exploit the capabilities of today’s newer processors. Specifically, µC/OS-III was designed with 32-bit processors in mind, although it certainly works well with 16- and even several 8-bit processors.
What’s New About This Book?
The MicroC/OS-II book focused primarily on documenting the μC/OS-II product with a great, yet brief, RTOS introduction. This book changes that focus. This time, the spotlight is on real-time kernels and Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS), with μC/OS-III used as a reference. In-depth product documentation is now provided in the appendices.
By taking this approach, the intent is to reach a larger target audience, especially those from industry and academia alike that are completely new to the topic of RTOS, This book is also suitable for use as the foundation of a generic RTOS class.
From a didactic perspective, every person has four different learning styles:
- Activist (A)
- Observational (O)
- Theoretical (T)
- Pragmatic (P)
The style that is more dominant differs from person to person. Based on these learning styles, there are strong improvements over the previous book, MicroC/OS-II, The Real-Time Kernel, which primarily focused on theoretical and, thanks to the good illustrations, also the observational learning styles. However, activist and pragmatic styles were somewhat missing. This book answers more questions for the pragmatist concerning: Why would I be interested in this? What could I use this for? What does this mean for my project? How does this help me get the job done?
Typically, books completely lack an activist learning style. This is a tricky one for a book because the question then becomes, how do you get readers to become active and do something with the material? That’s where the companion evaluation board and tools come in. This two-part text, combined with tools and evaluation board, enable readers to receive the material, and begin to have a hands-on experience right away.
This book is split into two parts. The first part describes real-time kernels in generic terms, using μC/OS-III as a real-life example. The second part, which actually looks like a completely different book, provides examples using a popular microprocessor or microcontroller. As mentioned, the book is accompanied by a matching evaluation board and such tools as a compiler, assembler, linker, and debugger, which enable the reader to experiment with μC/OS-III and become proficient with its use.
In summary, the general topic of RTOS is now the prevailing topic of this book. Explaining the concept of RTOS in combination with μC/OS-III, an evaluation board and tools simply makes sense.
μC/OS-III Goals
The main goal of μC/OS-III is to provide a best-in-class real-time kernel that literally shaves months of development time from an embedded-product schedule. Using a commercial real-time kernel such as μC/OS-III provides a solid foundation and framework to the design engineer dealing with the growing complexity of embedded designs.
Another goal for μC/OS-III, and therefore this bookdocumentation, is to explain inner workings of a commercial-grade kernel. This understanding will assist the reader in making logical design decisions and informed tradeoffs between hardware and software that make sense.
Intended Audience
This book documentation is written for embedded systems programmers, consultants, hobbyists and students interested in understanding the inner workings of a real-time kernel. μC/OS-III is not just a great learning platform, but also a commercial-grade software package ready to be part of a range of products.
To get the most from this bookdocumentation, it is assumed that the reader has a good working knowledge of microprocessors, microcontrollers, and/or Digital Signal Processors (DSPs). That knowledge should extend to CPU instructions, interrupts, I/O devices, RAM and ROM or Flash, memory addresses, and stack pointers.
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First and foremost, I’d like to thank my loving and caring wife Manon for her unconditional support, encouragement, understanding and patience. This new book and μC/OS-III software was project was again a huge undertaking, and I could not have done it without her.
I would also like to thank many fine people at Micriμm who have tested the code and reviewed the bookdocumentation. In alphabetic order:
- Brian Nagel
- Eric Shufro
- Hong Soong
- Freddy Torres
A special thanks to Frank Voorburg from Feaser and to Ian Hall and Robert Mongrain from Renesas for feedback and corrections to the book, to Michael text to Michael Barr for sharing his real life RTOS experiences, and to Carolyn Mathas for the incredible job of editing this huge project.
A very special thanks to my long-time friend, colleague and partner, Christian Legare, who has provided his advice and support throughout this project and on a day-to-day basis at Micrium. Thank you also to the dozens of people who provided feedback about the μC/OS-III code, as well as reviewers of the book.
Finally, I listen to music when I write software, and artist Gino Vannelli’s awesome music has provided a creative environment for me for over three decades. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge his contribution here as well.
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