Scheduling sporadic events
by Lonnie VanZandt
Sporadic events are the bugaboo of many real-time systems. Finding a way to manage aperiodic behavior can spell the difference between system failure and system success. This article presents the POSIX sporadic scheduling policy, which programmers can use to avoid critical deadline failures in overloaded systems.

Design for debugability
by Tony Gray
Hardware engineers employ all kinds of design reviews and processes, including design for manufacturability and design for testability. It's time software engineers stood up and asked for what they need most: design for debugability. Here's a list of ideas to make systems easier to debug.

Deadline timing analysis
by Andrew Coombes
Tasks running on an OSEK-compliant RTOS can be prioritized using deadline monotonic analysis. Here's a summary of the mathematics required to do so.

#include
Beyond the RTOS
Just as there are several ways of pluralizing RTOS, there are also several reasonable ways of doing without one.
by Michael Barr

Programmer's Toolbox
On getting it
by Jack Crenshaw
Being digital, embedded systems “think” in discrete time, but they interact with a continuous-time world. Jack's got the key to bridging that gap.

Beginner's Corner
Introduction to digital filters
by Brian Wagner and Michael Barr
Finite impulse response (FIR) filters are the most popular type of filters implemented in software. This introduction will help you understand them both on a theoretical and a practical level.

Programming Pointers
Enumerations as counters
by Dan Saks
Loops that step through enumerations can be very handy. With a little thought, you can make them clearer and more robust.

Break Points
Promise management
by Jack G. Ganssle
There's a science to making promises and managing expectations. Your job may be on the line if you don't master the relevant techniques.