ARM book recommendations

[Arch]

Hey guys,

I finished this book a bit ago Digital Computer Electronics where 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 I thought it was pretty good at helping me understand what is going on (although obviously outdated).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 processors

I didn't come across any good topics on here while searching so hopefully this isn't a common repeat
This book seems to be partially in the direction I am going but it has mixed reviews
Has anyone used this 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 too

Thanks

[hugo]

Hi,

A good ebook about the STM32 family is Mastering STM32 by Carmine Noviello. (65% complete !)

https://leanpub.com/mastering-stm32

a free sample :

http://samples.leanpub.com/mastering-stm32-sample.pdf

[sambran]

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.

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.

The Valvano course on edX (which can be taken for free) is essentially doing Arduino style development using a TI launchpad.

- 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)

The books you mentioned don't cover these topics, this book is 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.

[Arch]

As far as just books go, it seems like maybe I would have to make use of a few. Professional Embedded ARM development might be up there on my list so far
Has anyone looked at this book before?

[JoeN]

Hi,

A good ebook about the STM32 family is Mastering STM32 by Carmine Noviello. (65% complete !)

https://leanpub.com/mastering-stm32

a free sample :

http://samples.leanpub.com/mastering-stm32-sample.pdf

A book that is not even done and has no publisher.  How can you be confident of the quality?

[ez24]

Hi,

A good ebook about the STM32 family is Mastering STM32 by Carmine Noviello. (65% complete !)

https://leanpub.com/mastering-stm32

a free sample :

http://samples.leanpub.com/mastering-stm32-sample.pdf

A book that is not even done and has no publisher.  How can you be confident of the quality?

The 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 is  https://imagecraft.com/  , their main thing is their compiler but they also have a book using the ST 401 nucleo board.

The bottom of this page  https://people.ece.cornell.edu/land/courses/ece4760//PIC32/index_Protothreads.html

has a lot of references that might be useful

[mtdoc]

The Valvano course on edX (which can be taken for free) is essentially doing Arduino style development using a TI launchpad.

Huh?   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: HERE

Valvano has a 3 volume series on embedded developemnt using ARM cortex M

I have the first volume. It is just ok.

[sambran]

Huh?   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.

Without 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.

[mtdoc]

Huh?   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.

Without 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.

Yes. 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.

[jnshadow]

I also found the Valvano course on edX very useful -- it really walks you into ARM development at a great pace!

[dannyf]

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.

the three models, a, r, m, and their various levels

No idea what that's all about.

[Arch]

...

the three models, a, r, m, and their various levels

No idea what that's all about.

If you look on the left here you'll see the three sections for A, R, and M
http://www.arm.com/products/processors/cortex-r/index.php