TABLE OF CONTENTS In This Chapter
Introducing the importance of being able to read a schematic diagram
Discussing the major components of an embedded board
Introducing the factors that allow an embedded device to work
Discussing the fundamental elements of electronic components
This section is especially important for embedded software engineers and programmers. Before diving into the details, note that it is important for all embedded designers to be able to understand the diagrams and symbols that hardware engineers create and use to describe their hardware designs to the outside world. These diagrams and symbols are the keys to quickly and efficiently understanding even the most complex hardware design, regardless of how much or little practical experience one has in designing real hardware. They also contain the information an embedded programmer needs to design any software that requires compatibility with the hardware, and they provide insight to a programmer as to how to successfully communicate the hardware requirements of the software to a hardware engineer.
There are several different types of engineering hardware drawings, including:
Block diagrams, which typically depict the major components of a board (processors, buses, I/O, memory) or a single component (a processor, for example) at a systems architecture or higher level. In short, a block diagram is a basic overview of the hardware, with implementation details abstracted out. While a block diagram can reflect the actual physical layout of a board containing these major components,...
