Students—Classes
This combined book is intended for both beginning and advanced classes in microcontrollers. You might start with the section on the general principles of microprocessors and computer architecture, do a quick overview of the assembly language, and start into the C programming section. While students benefit from prior programming experience (no matter what the language), you can use this book to learn either assembly language or C. There are summaries and questions for homework exercises. The development kit used in the examples can be readily obtained for lab, classroom, or home use and includes both the necessary hardware and software to develop applications using only a PC with a serial port.
To instructors adopting the book in their courses, I can, on request, provide drawings and program examples for inclusion in class presentations.
Students—Design Projects
In a senior design course, this book can be a stand-alone guide to intelligently putting a micro to use in a project. Graduate students or upper-level undergraduate students should be able to use this material without a formal class. They should be able to efficiently apply microcontrollers. The Silicon Labs development kit supplies all that is needed (aside from application hardware) to get going with embedded controller development, and the target board can be included in the final project hardware. The application examples also include occasional circuit ideas and schematics.
Engineers/Developers
As an engineer, system designer, or developer producing small, embedded applications, you should find this book immediately applicable. Practical hardware-oriented examples provide a quick way for experienced developers to learn. This book is full of new approaches and ideas you can store in your human memory bank for future projects.
Home Experimenter—Self Taught
For those who prefer to see interesting applications running right away rather than reading about fine points of design, this book is useful. Although reviews of the previous editions characterized the books as advanced, I have tried to make this version more than a “designers-only” book. It is a well-guarded secret that advanced math and college training are not important for most microcontroller applications. You should be able to start right in running software on the target board.
In the end, all four groups have the same requirements. They need ideas plus enough specifics to get started without wasting time and effort. That is the goal of this book.