ARM book recommendations - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: Arch
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 10, 2016, 01:03:22 am
content: Hey guys,I finished this book a bit agoDigital Computer Electronicswhere it takes you through building a basic old fashioned computer. I thought it was pretty good at helping me understand what is going on (although obviously outdated). Currently I'm looking at stuff that takes me from using arduino to just plain AVR (not the processor internals). I am trying to sort out my next steps though.I'd like to learn about ARM. Not the internals, more along the lines of making use of the platform and what I can do with it and some history. I know there's tons of content out there on the net but I was hoping to find one consolidated book (or two) to go through that others recommend. The main things I'm interested are:- A bit of history of ARM- A decent overview of the modern platforms and what makes them special among eachother (the three models, a, r, m, and their various levels)- In-depth information on using the Cortex-M processorsI didn't come across any good topics on here while searching so hopefully this isn't a common repeatThis bookseems to be partially in the direction I am going but it has mixed reviewsHas anyone usedthis series of books?If the books don't cover some history then that's fine I can pick that stuff up off the net some time tooThanks

author: hugo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 10, 2016, 01:38:56 am
content: Hi,A good ebook about the STM32 family is Mastering STM32 by Carmine Noviello. (65% complete !)https://leanpub.com/mastering-stm32a free sample :http://samples.leanpub.com/mastering-stm32-sample.pdf

author: sambran
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 10, 2016, 12:43:39 pm
content: Full disclosure I have not read either of the books, I am familiar with Dr. Valvanos course on edX (link) which seems similar to his book.From the table of contents it seems that the Martin book is a more in depth review of the Cortex M architecture while Valvano's is more hands on guide. So it really depends on what you are looking for.Quote from: Arch on August 10, 2016, 01:03:22 amThe Valvano course on edX (which can be taken for free) is essentially doing Arduino style development using a TI launchpad.Quote from: Arch on August 10, 2016, 01:03:22 amThe books you mentioned don't cover these topics,this bookis an overview of all things ARM. The book can be improved and it its not practical as a hands on guide but it does cover a lot of general information about ARM.

author: Arch
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 11, 2016, 02:09:44 am
content: As far as just books go, it seems like maybe I would have to make use of a few.Professional Embedded ARM developmentmight be up there on my list so farHas anyone looked atthis bookbefore?

author: JoeN
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 11, 2016, 06:08:34 am
content: Quote from: hugo on August 10, 2016, 01:38:56 amA book that is not even done and has no publisher. How can you be confident of the quality?

author: ez24
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 11, 2016, 07:46:29 am
content: Quote from: JoeN on August 11, 2016, 06:08:34 amThe chapters that are there are done. What the author is doing is keep adding new chapters to the book and it is over 600 pages now. How can you beat it for the price? It is very detailed. The only advice I have if someone buys it, is do not print out the whole book. Print just what you need to read. The reason is the page numbering changes every time the author adds a chapter due to the publishing software. The numbering changes apply only to the content pages and everything from the new chapter till the end of the book. And at over 600 pages it would be a lot of printing if you print it for each update. You get notified of updates via emails and links.The author is Italian and there are a few minor grammar mistakes that in no way interfere with understanding the book.The method that he uses to publish the book opens up a new way for people to write books.The author uses the ST 401 nucleo board for sample exercises. Do the other books?Another source of learning ishttps://imagecraft.com/, their main thing is their compiler but they also have a book using the ST 401 nucleo board.The bottom of this pagehttps://people.ece.cornell.edu/land/courses/ece4760//PIC32/index_Protothreads.htmlhas a lot of references that might be useful

author: mtdoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 11, 2016, 07:04:50 pm
content: Quote from: sambran on August 10, 2016, 12:43:39 pmHuh? I found the course very good and nothing at all like Arduino. It is an introduction to bare bones embedded ARM development in C from scratch using Keil. i.e. nothing like Arduino.There is an ebook available online that covers much of the course material:HEREValvano has a3 volume series on embedded developemnt using ARM cortex MI have the first volume. It is just ok.

author: sambran
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 11, 2016, 08:14:31 pm
content: Quote from: mtdoc on August 11, 2016, 07:04:50 pmWithout getting into semantics of what constitutes as being like Arduino. In my opinion this course is one of the simplest ways to transition from Arduino to ARM. You are supplied with and IDE, tool chain and source code for most of the basic functionality allowing you to skip many of the hurdles for getting started.There are simpler ways to develop experiment with ARM like Energia (which is really similar to Arduino) or ARM's mbed. However, in both those cases the is a high level of abstraction means you won't learn much about ARM.

author: mtdoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 11, 2016, 08:33:11 pm
content: Quote from: sambran on August 11, 2016, 08:14:31 pmYes. The thing about that course it it teaches you how to directly initialize and read/write ports/registers in hex, control UART/clock, etc. - A far cry from the abstraction that is Arduino (or Energia). And it shows you how to read the ARM MCU's data sheet so you later can use these skills with the ARM chip of your choice.I'm not sure how much more bare metal you could get with an introductory course.

author: jnshadow
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: August 13, 2016, 03:54:48 pm
content: I also found the Valvano course on edX very useful -- it really walks you into ARM development at a great pace!

author: dannyf
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2016, 03:59:16 pm
content: The most authoritative books on ARM (M mcus) are those by Joseph Yiu. It lays out all the glory details of M and each of its families. If you are into chip architecture or chip designs, those are great books.From an application engineer's perspective, those books have very limited value, however. If you program in a high level language like C (you would be crazy if you don't), the core is (mostly) transparent to you and it really doesn't matter if you are coding an ARM M0, or M3, or an AVR.What separates one vendor from another is the peripherals, tools and available code base. So I would suggest that you focus on what you want to do with your ARM chips and then pick one that fits your needs / applications.QuoteNo idea what that's all about.

author: Arch
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 14, 2016, 12:34:10 am
content: Quote from: dannyf on August 13, 2016, 03:59:16 pmIf you look on the left here you'll see the three sections for A, R, and Mhttp://www.arm.com/products/processors/cortex-r/index.php