Getting into Embedded

I'm trying to familiarize myself with the embedded field, but also have limited resources in terms of time and equipment to buy.

What's a good language to wrap my head around embedded, without investing too much time leaning an embedded-specific language? I'm most familiar with PHP, Java, Actionscript, but unfortunately know very little C. I remember reading somewhere that someone used PERL to program embedded systems, but not sure if that's really possible.
Can learning be done without needing to buy chips, etc. via simulators or such?
Can someone recommend a simplified roadmap to show how one would get sarted? I'm a little unsure where to even start.

c embedded

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The scope of embedded computing has grown very broad, so the answers somewhat depend on what kind of device you're aiming at. On one end, there are 8-bit controllers with only a few KB of memory, usually programmed entirely in assembly or C. On the other end, processors such as those in your router are fairly powerful (200 MHz and a few MB of RAM is not uncommon) and often run an OS like Linux, which means you can use pretty much any language, though C and Java are the most common.
It's best to buy a real chip and experiment. Most of the work involved is usually in getting to know a device and how to interface with it, so using a simulator kind of defeats the purpose.

answered 2010-07-12T15:57:07.050

1 Answer