Thread: Preparing for Embedded C test

  1. #1
    Registered User MartinR's Avatar
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    Post Preparing for Embedded C test

    Hello,


    I am preparing myself for General Embedded test.
    Issues:
    - Microcontrollers,
    - C programming,


    So I would like to ask for good knowladge references (links, books, articles,.., whetever) where I can read more about stack, heap, memeory allocation, software sections (.bss, .txt) and other low level stuff behind C?


    PS: Some references to uCs are also very welcome


    Thanks in advance!

  2. #2
    and the hat of int overfl Salem's Avatar
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    How long have you got to study?

    What do you know already?
    If you dance barefoot on the broken glass of undefined behaviour, you've got to expect the occasional cut.
    If at first you don't succeed, try writing your phone number on the exam paper.

  3. #3
    Registered User MartinR's Avatar
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    I have a month. I would say I am intermediate+ in those subjects.

  4. #4
    and the hat of int overfl Salem's Avatar
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    So will the test focus on being able to talk about the subject with some degree of knowledge?

    Or will it have some testing of prior actual experience?
    Eg, how would you debug corrupted characters on an LCD?

    You already know enough to go digging for yourself IMO.
    Consider it a test of your self motivation, the kind you're going to need if you want to be an embedded C programmer.
    If you dance barefoot on the broken glass of undefined behaviour, you've got to expect the occasional cut.
    If at first you don't succeed, try writing your phone number on the exam paper.

  5. #5
    Registered User MartinR's Avatar
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    @Salem, you are right, I can prepare myself however I am looking for these most difficult questions from what's behind C like:

    1. Memory mapped I/O
    2. SW sections

    What can you suggest here? I mean keywords like in my two points....hardware related questions are very welcome too!

  6. #6
    and the hat of int overfl Salem's Avatar
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    Memory-mapped I/O - Wikipedia
    The main gotcha's are
    - making sure you're memory aligned
    - making sure you read and write carefully. Some reads are destructive (like reading from a buffer).
    - making sure your I/O isn't cached.
    - making sure you respect timings (I/O can be a lot slower than main memory).


    Here is an example of a linker script with sections.
    A Sample Linker Script * Hertaville.com
    If you're using a COTS development board, you'll typically have this already provided to you.

    Here's how you specify sections in GCC. For other compilers, read the documentation.
    How do I specify output sections in C files compiled using GCC? - Stack Overflow
    If you dance barefoot on the broken glass of undefined behaviour, you've got to expect the occasional cut.
    If at first you don't succeed, try writing your phone number on the exam paper.

  7. #7
    Registered User MartinR's Avatar
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    Thank you very much Salem!

    Following this scheme what question would you ask? I am seeking question which probably omitted or wasn't aware of

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