Book excerpt: The Newnes Know It All Series takes the best of what our authors have written to create hard-working desk references that will be an engineer's first port of call for key information, design techniques and rules of thumb. Guaranteed not to gather dust on a shelf! Embedded software is present everywhere - from a garage door opener to implanted medical devices to multicore computer systems. This book covers the development and testing of embedded software from many different angles and using different programming languages. Optimization of code, and the testing of that code, are detailed to enable readers to create the best solutions on-time and on-budget. Bringing together the work of leading experts in the field, this a comprehensive reference that every embedded developer will need! Proven, real-world advice and guidance from such "name” authors as Tammy Noergard, Jen LaBrosse, and Keith Curtis Popular architectures and languages fully discussed Gives a comprehensive, detailed overview of the techniques and methodologies for developing effective, efficient embedded software