Designing Embedded Internet Devices (Book and CD-ROM)

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Summary: Designing Embedded Internet Devices
Review: The very thought of building a project using an embedded microprocessor device seems daunting, let alone putting it on the internet! Designing Embedded Internet Devices is a veritable cookbook for using the wonderful TINI single-board computer, programmed using Java, for a host of tasks. Imagine outfitting a home with gizmos to control lights, the temperature, even feeding the cat, all networked together. Imagine being able to log into your home net, and feed the cat from the other side of the world! The TINI board is cheap (around $50) and easy enough to use to do all these and more, and the Java development tools are free. The book's text, drawings and photos are clear enough that even with modest experience in programming and electronic hardware design, you could be creating embedded devices in no time. If you ever thought it would be cool to take programming and your computer to the next level, this book is a must read!

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Summary: A great primer into the world of Internet-ready devices.
Review: This book was and easy read. It is organized to get you up-and-running with the TINI microcontroller board by Dallas Semiconductor in no time. This board has Local Area Network (LAN) and communications ports built-in so it can act as a mini HTTP, FTP and Telnet server. The authors describe how to set-up a JAVA application developement system for the TINI board (or JAVA programming in general)under Windows and Linux. The book is written for someone who is familiar with JAVA to use the web-server aspects if TINI, but the programs presented in the book are explained in great detail so that any reader can easily understand the programs' flow and purpose. The last half of the book describes the many ways that the real-world can be connected to the TINI board. These sections require some electronics knowledge to connect the hardware, but the software to use the hardware is explained in an easy-to-understand format and the circuits are simple and easy to expand. This book is a great Internet device primer and reference resource. There is so much good information in this book you will be going back to it again and again for information and design inspiration. I plan to use this book a great deal to help me create a web-based electric train layout for my Senior Design Project at college.