Rating: 
Summary: A Really Good Explanation of Real Time Issues
Review: "Real-Time Concepts" is a book that tackles one of the most difficult subject areas of embedded systems programming. Bugs that are introduced because of problems with the behavior of a real-time system can be extremely subtle and difficult to correct. These bugs can also have disasterous effects. Even Computer Science students who take an Operating Systems class probably never deal with a Real Time Operating System. In this book, the authors attempt to explain the concepts of real time programming. In my opinion, they generally succeed at their task. They keep the code examples to a bare minimum, which I think is a good strategy, because code examples can often obscure a concept, rather than explain it. If the book has a weakness, I think that it is the introductory sections. The first 50 pages or so cover no new ground and have been covered much more extensively by other authors in the CMP Books series. However, the book really hits its stride at Chapter 4, "Introduction to Real Time Operating Systems". From then on, the book teaches you what you will need to know to be able to design a real-time system. Of particular note, I was impressed with the authors' explanation of Rate Monotonic Analysis (RMA). This is one of the more difficult to understand concepts and the authors explained it in a way that the novice reader could understand it. In summary, "Real-Time Concepts" should be required reading for anyone entering the field of embedded systems design. For the CS professional who may be new to embedded systems, investing the time to read this book before you start to code is time well-spent. Thid book should be part of every Embedded Systems professional's bookshelf.
Rating: 
Summary: Too conceptual... difficult to visualize..
Review: From the book titile, I expected to learn real time programming concept, architecture without using RTOS. Unfortunately, I think, "Concept of RTOS" should be a more appropriate than "Real-Time Concepts.." as in the book title. This book doesnt help much if you are not into RTOS.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good Embedded Systems Introduction
Review: I have 2+ years experience in the embedded industry. This book has increased my understanding of embedded systems in both breadth and scope--deepening my knowledge of basic concepts while tying these concepts together to form a more complete picture of embedded system design. The book flows well. The first chapter flushes out basic definitions of what an embedded system is. I especially enjoyed this introduction as it challenged my understanding of the embedded industry. Chapters 2 and 3 introduce concepts important in the development (from a tool's perspective) and initialization of an embedded system. Chapters 4 through 9 describe the basic objects of a RTOS kernel (e.g. tasks, semaphores, etc.). In addition to introducing these constructs, their proper use in system design is outlined. Chapters 10 through 13 describe RTOS services relating to the underlying hardware, such as exceptions, interrupts and I/O. Common issues and tradeoffs are examined in the design of these services. The last 3 chapters focus on a number of embedded application design and development issues including concurrency optimization guidelines and task synchronization and communication. The author uses clear, concise, simple language and develops concepts fully before building on them. This is a practical book that I would highly recommend to beginner and intermediate-level professionals in the industry.
Rating:
Summary: very practical, comprehensive and easy to understand
Review: I have about two years embedded industry experience and found this book very practical, comprehensive and easy to understand. It lays out most important aspects of RTOS, tools and problems. The explanation and charts are clear and simple. I would strongly recommend this book to beginners.
Rating:
Summary: A good beginners' book
Review: step by step, clear explanation and easy to understand. A good book for beginners in embedded RTOS design and support.
Rating: 
Summary: Just okay
Review: The book is well written but has a decided "VxWorks" slant to it even though this is not clearly stated on Amazon.com. If you are embarking on a VxWorks project....go ahead and get it. If not, then there are more appropo titles out there.
Rating:
Summary: A very good and useful book.
Review: This book describes essential RT concepts to developers new to real time. However, an experienced developer is likely to pick up new information especially with regard to details they did not know. There were a few places where I feel the authors could have expressed themselves more clearly, but I always understood what was conveyed in the end. John
Rating:
Summary: A very good and useful book.
Review: This book describes essential RT concepts to developers new to real time. However, an experienced developer is likely to pick up new information especially with regard to details they did not know. There were a few places where I feel the authors could have expressed themselves more clearly, but I always understood what was conveyed in the end. John
Rating: 
Summary: Good addition to an embedded designer's bookshelf
Review: This book is a good introduction to the world of designing and building embedded systems. Chapter 3's discussion on context switching and scheduling in RTOSes is quite useful. A suggestion - the discussion could also have included some of the newer scheduling techniques like rate monotonic scheduling, etc. I also found the detailed explanation of mutexes and semaphores in Chapter 6 to be of value. One feeling I had is that more examples using popular RTOSes like VxWorks™ could have been included. I liked the authors' summarization of the key points at the end of each chapter. Overall, a good book that I would recommend for an embedded designer's bookshelf.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Overview of Programming on RTOS Based Systems
Review: This book is an excellent overview of programming on RTOS based systems. It is not a theoretical book at all. The concepts are all there, but it is also very practical. I found a lot of good ideas even though I have been designing embedded systems for many years. I also found it to be an easy read, (but that may be due to my background). It is worth buying for anyone interested in RTOS based systems.
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