Elk K. Microcontrollers With C. Cortex-M and Beyond 2023

Textbook in PDF format

This book aims to inspire newcomers to the world of embedded programming - as well as seasoned developers looking to fill in the blanks.
In his new book, the author of "Embedded Software for the IoT” and ”SQL Server with C#”, throws the spotlight on the heart of all intelligent devices - the Microcontroller. Klaus Elk enthusiastically describes the building blocks of Microcontrollers, and debugs sample C-programs to show how compiler and linker builds the binary program for the Cortex-M Microcontroller. Along the way we get a feel for CMSIS – the libraries supplied by Arm and partners. We study the Floating-Point Unit and its alternatives, before moving on to parallel programming, and the basics of Real-Time Operating Systems. Klaus ties it all together in small demos using e.g., FreeRTOS.
Joining an embedded software project for the first time can be intimidating. As an embedded developer, you often have to start programming without hardware, and when the hardware finally arrives you cannot assume that it is working as it should. Typically, hardware is developed in parallel with your software. Your requirements to on-board resources - e.g. Flash and RAM - may be vague at the beginning. Other resources - such as display-type - might change as you go. Such changes may happen if a component becomes obsolete, and/or was replaced by something cheaper and “almost identical” - at least from the hardware designers point-of-view. Embedded programmers are faced with numerous CPU-types, board types and peripherals. These may have been selected in an earlier project - but you may be requested to offer your recommendations. This can also be a bit scary. On top of this we have the application domain. Embedded systems are typically dedicated for very specific purposes. This means that there may be many users out there, already trained by previous systems - maybe from competitors - with very special needs, that you may not yet understand. So why should you choose to go the embedded way? Because it is so satisfying to see an LED blink - or a step-motor step - or experience the sound from a phone in a prototype of a hearing aid. Embedded systems bridge the gap between the physical world and the art of programming. It is simply fascinating.
Introduction
The Tip of the Iceberg
An Embedded System
Memory and the Linker
C Startup
Toolchains and IDEs
Cortex-M Programmers Model
CMSIS & HAL
Floating-Point Unit & DSP
Memory Protection Unit
Operating Systems
Common Patterns
FreeRTOS and STM32CubeMX