C Programming for Embedded Applications

Course details

Learn to write embedded software in C and deliver applications that are small, efficient, and fast. In this course, instructor Eduardo Corpeño explains how C programming and the Internet of Things combine in embedded applications—software that permanently resides on a device. He reviews the challenges involved in this type of programming, ranging from memory, storage, and power limitations to hardware awareness. He explains how different data types can affect the performance of your app and reviews bit manipulation—an area where C shines. Eduardo shows how to manipulate bit-level data using bit masking and bit fields, demonstrating the strengths of both techniques with an Arduino controller. Then learn how to use the volatile and const variables to enforce data correctness and read-only access, and explore alternatives to traditional functions, which may take too long to run, and floating-point math, which consumes CPU.

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Getting started in embedded systems
02 - What you should know
03 - Using the exercise files

1. Embedded Systems

04 - Applications - OS vs. embedded
05 - Memory
06 - Storage
07 - Energy consumption
08 - Processing power
09 - Hardware awareness
10 - C vs. Embedded C

2. Data Types

11 - Integral types
12 - Floating-point types
13 - A quick analysis of memory usage with Keil
14 - Checking memory usage with Arduino

3. Bit Manipulation

15 - Masking
16 - Bit masking with Arduino
17 - Bit fields
18 - A bit field example with Keil

4. Qualifiers

19 - The volatile qualifier
20 - The const qualifier
21 - Protect variables using volatile
22 - Don't let the optimizer remove your while loop

5. Function Alternatives

23 - Lookup tables
24 - Macro functions
25 - Inline functions
26 - LUT vs. function example in Arduino
27 - LUT vs. function example in Keil
28 - Inline function example in Keil

6. Floating-Point Unit Alternatives

29 - Software implementation of float
30 - Fixed-point math
31 - Float-point vs. fixed-point example
32 - Float-point unit example in Keil

Conclusion

33 - Next steps

C Programming for Embedded Applications

Authors

Eduardo Corpeño