Real-Time Software Design: A Guide for Microprocessor Systems

Computers these days spend a fairly low fraction of their time computing. In fact, the very word "computer" has become something of a misnomer. In the American History museum of the Smithsonian Institute in Wash­ ington, D.C., there is an exhibit of early computers. Three features of these machines are striking. First, they are enormous, especially in com­ parison to their capabilities. The museum visitor who has just come from the Natural History building next door may be reminded of fossi...