Book excerpt: Reflecting current industrial applications and programming practice, this book lays a foundation that supports the multi-threaded style of programming and high-reliability requirements of embedded software. Using a non-product specific approach and a programming (versus hardware) perspective, it focuses on the 32-bit protected mode processors and on C as the dominant programming language--with coverage of Assembly and how it can be used in conjunction with, and support of, C. Features an abundance of examples in C and an accompanying CD-ROM with software tools. Data Representation. Getting the Most Out of C. A Programmer's View of Computer Organization. Mixing C and Assembly. Input/Output Programming. Concurrent Software. Scheduling. Memory Management. Shared Memory. System Initialization. For Computer Scientists, Computer Engineers, and Electrical Engineers involved with embedded software applications.