Embedded systems developers should have a fundamental understanding of electrical concepts and components.
Sub-Topics
- Electrical Engineering, which includes key topics like:
- PCB Design contains a wide array of information on PCB design. Major sub-topic pages include:
- Schematics
- Thermal Management
- Electrical Components
- Historical Electrical Systems, which collects teardowns, analyses, and reverse engineering of classical hardware systems
- Hardware Teardowns, which collects teardowns and analyses of contemporary hardware systems
Related Areas
Core Electrical Skills
We think that all embedded systems developers must be able to:
- Read and interpret schematics so you can see how components in the system are connected together, debug problems in a system, and provide schematic review feedback
- Read and interpret datasheets so that you can identify the basic information on interacting with the component in firmware
- Know the basic electrical components and understand how they are used
- Understand how processors work
- Jack Ganssle gives us specific advice (pulled from his newsletter): “Learn, in detail, how a computer works and about computer architecture. You should be able to draw a detailed block diagram of one. Even if you have no interest in the hardware, it’s impossible to understand assembly language and other important aspects of creating firmware without understanding program counters, registers, busses and the like.”
- Understand how memory and caches work
- Understand how heat is generated by circuits, how it impacts a system, and how you can reduce it
- For instance, the clock rate and rate of activating outputs will impact heat generation in a system
- Understand power consumption, leakage, and power saving techniques, especially if you are working on battery powered systems
Hardware-Related Entries
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