Basic Embedded Programming Concepts

This chapter provides the designer with some basic concepts and terminology that are used later in the book. It covers not only basic multitasking, but also binary numbering systems, data storage, basic communications protocols, mathematics, conditional statements, and state machines. These concepts are covered not only to refresh the designers' understanding of their operations, but also to provide sufficient insight so that designers are able to “roll their own” functions if needed. The knowledge about working of the commands allows a designer to create optimized functions that are smaller and/or faster than the stock functions built into the language. It also gives the designer a reference for judging the efficiency of a particular implementation of a command. Therefore, while understanding of the working of a command may not be required in order to write multitasking code, it is very valuable when writing in an embedded environment.