Book excerpt: Microcontrollers and Microcomputers: Principles of Software and Hardware Engineering, Second Edition, is an ideal introductory text for an embedded system or microcontroller course. While most texts discuss only one specific microcontroller, this book offers a unique approach by covering the common ground among all microcontrollers in one volume. Since the text does not focus on a particular processor, it can be used with processor-specific material--such as manufacturer's data sheets and reference manuals--or with texts, including author Fredrick M. Cady's Software and Hardware Engineering: Motorola M68HC11 or Software and Hardware Engineering: Motorola M68HC12. Now fully updated, the second edition covers the fundamental operation of standard microcontroller features, including parallel and serial I/O interfaces, interrupts, analog-to-digital conversion, and timers, focusing on the electrical interfaces as needed. It devotes one chapter to showing how a variety of devices can be used, and emphasizes C program software development, design, and debugging.