Customer Reviews

MicroC/OS-II: The Real Time Kernel

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had never used a real-time kernel. I bought MicroC/OS-II and Embedded Systems building Blocks to get started. The books are very well written. The kernel works great. And in a couple of days I was up and running my first application based on the MicroC/OS-II kernel.

No need to shop for another kernel, no need to shop for other books to explain how a kernel works. This book is the answer to all your questions about "What is a real-time kernel? And how does it work?"

I highly recommend this book to beginners as well as experienced embedded programmers.

I have a general background in computer science and am trying to learn about embedded systems from this book. My main objection is that the writing needs to be edited to improve clarity. For example on page 61, the author states "Generally, the first message inserted in the queue is the first message extracted from the queue (FIFO). In addition, to extract messages in a FIFO fashion, uC/OS-II allows a task to get messages Last-In-First-Out (LIFO)." The second sentence is ambiguous. Does it mean "In addition to the ability to extract messages in a FIFO fashion, ..." or "In addition, in order to extract messages in a FIFO fashion, ..."? On the next page the author states "Interrupts allow a microprocessor to process events when they occur, which prevents the microprocessor from continuously polling (looking at) an event to see if it has occurred." In this sentence, "prevents the microprocessor from" should be changed to "removes the need for the microprocessor to be". The average reader already knows enough about LIFOs, FIFOs, and interrupts to interpret these sentences correctly, but in many other cases the lack of clarity is a serious impediment to understanding. The book also contains various errors. For example, the path name of a .xls file, given on pages 370 and 403, is incorrect.

If you want to implement uCOSII, then yes this book is the reference manual. It is not very nice looking and is made of thick paper but the content is good.
If you only want to learn the different aspects of writing and debugging code for embedded systems, I highy recommand "An Embedded Software Primer" by D.E. Simon. If you have Simon's, you don't need uCOSII.

If you are just starting to learn RTOS this book may have some value. If you have played with RTOS for a few years this book may not have much value to you. The concept is very lean and I completed reading it in about 3 hours...

Whether or not you end up using this RT Operating System - or another - or not be using an Operating System at all - this book gives you a very good illustration of all concurrency issues you should consider when desgining an embedded application.

never in my career i've seen a so good, clear written book!
exceptional value for money! you can learn the basics of real
time os in a very short time thanks to mr labrosse's style of
explanation. invaluable for the embedded world. good work jean j., a very good work! BUY THIS!!

This RTOS book can almost be read as a design doc for the uCOS-II RTOS. There are plenty of descriptions, explanation of the API, pseudocode, flowcharts, and diagrams to help the reader to understand not only how it works, but also how it was designed. Ch. 13 on Porting the RTOS to a given platform stands out in my mind - I was able to rely on all the information in just that chapter alone to port the RTOS !!! Of course, I would recommend everyone to read the other chapters to gain a real sense of appreciation for just how portable and robust this RTOS really is.

There is no equivalent to this book. The knowledge offered here, along with the complete source code for the µC/OS real-time operating system is everything you need to know to understand preemptive priority-based multitasking. Whether you just want to learn what goes on behind the scenes in your commercial RTOS or you're looking for a small, inexpensive RTOS with source code, this is the book for you.

I have not actually read many technical books... I usually reference them when I have to during a project. This book is different.. it is structured to be read (1st 7 chapters) and explains the RTOS extremely well. I liked the instances where info is re-iterated, because it is quite alot to take in and any redundancy helps. I am a hardware designer of 20 yrs and plan on using the RTOS in my latest Rabbit based Wireless LAN gadget mainly because of the clarity of it's operation expressed in this publication.

Jean LaBrosse is one of those people who has that uncanny knack for taking a complicated issue and making it seem simple. His MicroC/OS is a wonderful example. The book does much more than simply present usable source code (though it does that also). It explains _WHY_ the code is the way it is.

MicroC/OS II is very much in today's spirit of open-source software. It is rapidly becoming, for real-time embedded systems, what Linux represents for desktops. I also agree with another reader, who points out that the OS is not just a good OS for real-time systems, but a good, _RELIABLE_, OS in general. If only we could get Microsoft to follow LaBrosse's KISS approaches.