	Petri Nets for Systems Engineering Claude Girault, Rudiger Valk Springer Verlag, Nov, 2002 3540412174 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
4 Stars	Dr. Alexander Levis, USAF Chief Scientist, wrote an interesting article in "Systems Engineering, The Journal of The International Council on Systems Engineering" which illustrated the use of Petri nets and Queuing nets for performance analysis of distributed systems. Such systems are difficult to analyze even with RMA.
See also: "Programming" "Queuing Theory" "Distributed Systems" "Rate Monotonic Analysis" "Systems Engineering"

	Real-Time Design Patterns: Robust Scalable Architecture for Real-Time Systems Bruce Powel Douglass Addison Wesley Professional, Sep, 2002 0201699567 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	Once again, Douglass has written an excellent text on the application of design patterns for real-time systems using UML.
See also: "UML" "Concurrency" "Real-Time" "Programming" "Patterns" "Design"

	Patterns for Effective Use Cases Steve Adolph, Paul Bramble, Alistair Cockburn, Andy Pols Addison-Wesley, Aug, 2002 0201721848 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
4 Stars	More from the Use Case experts. See also "Writing Effective Use Cases".
See also: "UML" "Systems Engineering" "Analysis"

	Practical Reliability Engineering Patrick D. T. O'Connor Wiley, John & Sons, Inc., Aug, 2002 0470844620 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	We're looking forward to reading this promising text due out in August 2002.
See also: "Reliability" "Safety" "Process"

	Specifying Systems: The TLA+ Language and Tools for Hardware and Software Engineers Leslie Lamport Addison-Wesley, Jul, 2002 032114306X Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	This book provides a guide to the writing of unambiguous specifications of complex computer systems. It explains how to describe, with mathematical precision, the behavior properties of a system. Safety properties are stressed, but topics like liveliness, fairness, and real time are also covered. The book also supplies a reference manual for the TLA+ language and tools. Lamport is a computer scientist, best known for creating the LaTeX typesetting program. Book News, Inc.Ž, Portland, OR
See also: "latest" "logic" "mathematics" "formal methods"

	Practical Statecharts in C/C++ Miro Samek CMP Books, Jul, 2002 1578201101 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	Provides an excellent review of the design patterns available for the implementation of finite state machines. Describes the techniques and notation for modeling FSMs in UML. Establishes itself as a pioneer in the field by describing the shortcomings of FSMs, the benefits of hierarchical statecharts, the techniques for dealing with the complexities of implementing HSCs, and in providing a partial solution to the implementation of HSMs in C and C++. The second half of the book presents a middleware package for handling many of the implementation issues of reactive systems. This part is mildly interesting but is not nearly as useful and unique as is the material on state charts.
See also: "C++" "Programming" "Algorithms" "Real-time Software"

	Practical Design of Safety Critical Systems William R. Dunn Reliability Press, Jul, 2002 0971752702 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
4 Stars	The author has a fine article overviewing safety critical design in IEEE Computer 11/03. We look forward to reading this text.
See also: "Reliability" "Safety" "Availability" "Disaster Planning" "Systems Engineering"

	Exceptional C++, 47 Engineering Puzzles, Programming Problems, and Solutions Herb Sutter Addison-Wesley, Apr, 2002 0201615622 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	If you found Scott Meyers' Effective C++ boring and you like a challenge, Herb Sutter has just the book for you. Good study material if you are interviewing with Microsoft, Borland, or the FSF to become their C++ Compiler expert...
See also: "Programming" "C++" "Patterns" "Design"

	Embedded Software Development with eCOS Anthony J. Massa Prentice Hall, Mar, 2002 0130354732 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
4 Stars	Presents the history of the eCOS operating system, its architecture, installation, configuration, and APIs. Included is a CD with appropriate Linux tools to get started with eCOS. The text is getting to be a bit dated but remains valuable as a unique source of printed material on the eCOS operating system.
See also: "Operating Systems" "Real-time Software" "Programming" "C++"

	Next Generation Optical Networks: The Convergence of IP Intelligence and Optical Technologies Peter Tomsu, Christian Schmutzer Prentice Hall, Jan, 2002 013028226x Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	Presents the traditional telecommunications network of ATM and SONET/SDH equipment and its protection schemes. Then presents the new optical networking technologies, standards efforts, IP as a unifying protocol, and concludes with several case studies.
See also: "Networks" "Optics" "Telecommunications" "Protocols" "Reliability"

	Effective C++, 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs, 2ed Scott Meyers Addison-Wesley, Oct, 2001 0201924889 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	C++ is a complex language and Effective C++ helps the intermediate programmer avoid pitfalls and optimize their C++ code.
See also: "Programming" "C++" "Patterns" "Design"

	Patterns for Time Triggered Embedded Systems: Building reliable applications with the 8051 family of microcontrollers Michael J. Pont Addison-Wesley, Jul, 2001 0201331381 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	Don't let the subtitle fool you: this is not simply a programmer's manual for the 8051 microcontroller. This text exemplifies the goal of Patterns: with its patterns, the author, an experienced lecturer, trainer, consultant, and embedded engineer, successfully transmits his expert knowledge to his fellow engineers. If you seeking solutions on how to connect your embedded hardware to your physical systems and on how to design your embedded software to control your physical systems then, regardless of your specific hardware, you will find much useful advice herein. The patterns are sufficiently detailed to include code fragments for 8051-based C. (A companion CD includes all example code.)
See also: "patterns" "systems engineering" "design" "hardware" "real-time software" "control systems" "process control" "industrial automation" "data acquisition" "programming"

	Satellite Communications (3rd Ed.) Dennis Roddy McGraw Hill, Mar, 2001 0071371761 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	Reportedly the classic text for a complete introduction to satellites and communication via satellites.
See also: "Telecommunications" "Networking" "Aerospace" "Latest"

	PHP and MySQL Web Development Welling and Thomson SAMS Publishing, Mar, 2001 0672317842 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
3 Stars	A relatively handy reference to PHP and MySQL when away from the online manuals for these two languages. The book is a bit hard to navigate but eventually one can find a section or two on the sought-after topic.
See also: "Database" "SQL"

	IP Quality of Service Srinivas Vesegna Cisco Press, Jan, 2001 1578701163 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	Presents the motivation for QoS in IP networks and common techniques for managing QoS. All with a heavy Cisco IOS bias but this does not detract from the material.
See also: "Networking" "QoS" "Quality of Service" "Queuing" "DiffServ" "MPLS"

	Real-Time Systems and Programming Languages: ADA 95, Real-Time Java, and Real-Time POSIX Alan Burns, Andy Wellings Addison Wesley, Jan, 2001 0201729881 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	A comprehensive overview of the classification, analysis, and design of real-time systems using the languages of Ada, Java, and POSIX. Compares and contrasts the features of the various languages. Covers important issues of concurrency, safety, and schedulability that many other texts do not.
See also: "Design" "Ada" "C" "Java" "POSIX" "Real-Time" "UML" "Programming"

	Digital Avionics Systems : Principles and Practice, 2nd Ed. Cary R. Spitzer The Blackburn Press, Oct, 2000 1930665121 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	Recommended to us by Enea TekSci's Vance Hilderman, the text covers avionics systems design from the definition of requirements to the validation of hardware and software. Spitzer covers systems architecture, packaging, cooling, EMI, cockpit layout, HMI, reliability, bus options, life cycle costs, and government and industry standards. The result is a very useful introduction of the issues in avionics.
See also: "Aerospace" "Avionics" "DO178B" "Safety"

	Math Toolkit for Real-Time Programming Jack W. Crenshaw CMP Books, Oct, 2000 1929629095 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	A useful and entertaining guide to mathematical programming for real-time systems on practical computers with practical compilers. Jack guides you through basic principles to actual algorithms while advising you on the inevitable potholes that arise in reality when attempting to apply theory.
See also: "Mathematics" "Algorithms" "Real-time Software" "Programming"

	Control System Design Graham C. Goodwin, Stefan F. Graebe, Mario E. Salgado Prentice Hall PTR, Sep, 2000 0139586539 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	Very good and detailed mathematical coverage of digital control systems.
See also: "Control Theory" "Mathematics"

	LabVIEW: Advanced Programming Techniques Rick Bitter, Taqi Mohiuddin, Matthew Nawrocki CRC Press, Aug, 2000 0849320496 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
3 Stars	Well-reviewed text on maximizing the potential of LabVIEW for complex, multi-threaded systems. We find the writing to be poorly structured. The three chapters on exception handling, ActiveX, and multi-threading within LabVIEW are useful because they are generally not presented in detail elsewhere. A useful book.
See also: "Programming" "Data Acquisition" "Industrial Automation"

	Newton's Telecom Dictionary Harry Newton CMP Books, Jul, 2000 1578200539 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	The official dictionary of telecommunications networking and the Internet. An extremely useful, off-line information resource.
See also: "telecommunications" "journalism"

	Real-Time Specification for Java James Gosling,Greg Bollella Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., Jun, 2000 0201703238 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	The definitive specification of the new real-time specification for Java.
See also: "Java" "Concurrency" "Programming"

	Real-Time Systems Jane Liu Prentice Hall PTR, Apr, 2000 0130996513 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	A comprehensive presentation of the mathematics within real-time scheduling theory.
See also: "Real-Time Software" "Schedulability" "Analysis" "Rate Monotonic Analysis"

	Voice over IP Fundamentals Jonathan Davidson,Jim Peters Cisco Press, Mar, 2000 1578701686 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	We still need to finish reading this one but it is off to a good start
See also: "VoIP" "Voice" "IP" "Multimedia" "Networking" "Telecommunications"

	Designing Concurrent, Distributed, and Real-time Applications with UML Hassan Gomaa Addison-Wesley, Jan, 2000 0201657937 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	An excellent text on the practical use of UML for embedded, real-time, distributed systems. Unlike many other texts which either present collections of patterns or gloss over real-time systems, this book contains several case studies that present detailed application of UML for typical real-time systems.
See also: "UML" "Concurrency" "Real-Time" "Programming" "Patterns" "Design"

	Writing Effective Use Cases Alistair Cockburn Addison-Wesley, Jan, 2000 0201702258 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
4 Stars	Very popularly reviewed. We have yet to read it ourselves but have it on our reading list.
See also: "Systems Engineering" "UML" "Analysis"

	Blueprints for High Availability Evan Marcus, Hal Stern Wiley, John & Sons, Inc., Dec, 1999 0471356018 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	With all the industry marketing hype about High Availability, you'd think there would be a ton of books on HA. But, there aren't. This one does an excellent job presenting all the many issues, above redundant hardware, that determine Availability.
See also: "High Availability" "Reliability" "Systems Engineering" "Disaster Planning"

	Essential Guide to Digital Set-Top Boxes and Interactive TV Gerard O'Driscoll Prentice Hall PTR, Nov, 1999 0130173606 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
4 Stars	We hear this is good but it remains on our ToDo list. Perhaps when the Telecomm market returns...
See also: "Multimedia" "Audio" "Television" "MPEG" "Interactive"

	Concurrent Programming in Java. Second Edition: Design Principles and Patterns Doug Lea,Douglas Lea Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., Oct, 1999 0201310090 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	Illustrates how to implement concurrent applications within traditional Java.
See also: "Java" "Concurrency" "Programming" "Real-Time Software"

	Getting Started with Qnx Neutrino 2 : A Guide for Realtime Programmers Robert Krten Parse Software Devices, Sep, 1999 0968250114 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	Explains the microkernel and message-passing architecture of QNX. This book literally has no competition!
See also: "QNX" "Operating Systems" "Real-Time Software" "Concurrency" "Programming"

	Industrial Electronics: Applications for Programmable Controllers, Instrumentation & Process Control, and Electrical Machines & Thomas E. Kissell Prentice Hall, Jul, 1999 0130126977 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	A very useful and practical discussion of the history, devices, algorithms, and issues in Industrial Automation. A nice and useful complement to the typically more theoretical texts on control systems.
See also: "Process Control" "PLC" "Industrial Automation"

	High Speed Transmission Networking.: Covering T/E-Carrier Multiplexing, SONET, and SDH Gilbert Held Wiley, John & Sons, Inc., Jun, 1999 0471983586 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	Nitty-gritty details on signal encoding, protocols, connectors, cabling, and so forth for traditional and optical network equipment.
See also: "Telecommunications" "SONET" "SDH" "T1/E1"

	Programming Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Francesco Balena Microsoft Press, May, 1999 0735605580 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	Visual Basic 6.0 is assuredly not an optimal programming environment for predictable response systems - but if you find that you have to use it for some subsystem within your application, then Francesco's book is the lifesaver you'll need. He even covers the topic of VB's gruesome support for threading.
See also: "programming" "user interface" "database" "object oriented"

	Doing Hard Time Bruce Powell Douglass Addison Wesley, May, 1999 0201498375 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	Using UML, this book presents many of the issues and design patterns involved in the specification and implementation of real-time systems. While the reader will need additional sources to fully cover each of the topics this is an excellent overview.
See also: "Analysis" "UML" "Real-Time Software" "Patterns"

	The Unified Modeling Language Reference Manual Rumbaugh, Jacobson, Booch Addison-Wesley, Dec, 1998 020130998X Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
4 Stars	Describes the intent and meta-model behind the Unified Modeling Language. (It's very useful for defending against audience hecklers who claim, "yes, you can do XYZ with UML!")
See also: "UML"

	The New Way Things Work David Macaulay Houghton Mifflin, Sep, 1998 0395938473 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	Humorous, entertaining, and filled with excellent, comprehensible descriptions and diagrams of how systems work. Recently updated to include information on computer technology. David describes mechanics, thermal dynamics, fluid dynamics, propulsion, wave theory, electricity, and much more.
See also: "Systems Engineering" "Mechanics"

	Linux Device Drivers, 1st Ed Alessandro Rubini, Jonathan Corbet O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., Feb, 1998 1565922921 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
4 Stars	This is becoming a bit dated but remains useful. Walks you through several simple Linux device drivers and explains the implementation of Linux Loadable Kernel Modules.
See also: "Linux" "Kernel" "Drivers" "Operating Systems" "Programming"

	Systems Engineering and Analysis (3rd Ed.) B. S. Blanchard & W. J. Fabrycky Prentice Hall, Inc., Jan, 1998 0131350471 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
4 Stars	This text focuses on the engineering of systems - the synthesis of new systems from components - and on the analysis of existing systems - the comprehension of existing systems via decomposition to constituent components. Material covered includes the System Design process, Decision Making processes, Economic Analysis, Optimization, Queuing Theory, Reliability, Human Factors engineering, Salvage issues, Life Cycle affordability, and Systems Engineering management. The text does not discuss how to integrate traditional Systems Engineering with modern UML...
See also: "Systems Engineering" "Analysis" "Requirements"

	Multithreaded Programming with Pthreads Bil Lewis,Daniel J. Berg Prentice Hall PTR, Dec, 1997 0136807291 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	A very thorough presentation of the POSIX Pthreads API for the leading operating systems. Includes excellent discussion of general multi-threading design and performance implications.
See also: "POSIX" "Programming" "Concurrency"

	Concurrency in ADA Alan Burns, Andy Wellings Cambridge University Press, Nov, 1997 052162911x Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	Presents issues in the implementation of distributed, concurrent, multi-tasking systems and do so using Ada95. Assumes that one is familiar with the concepts but not necessarily with Ada. Ada's incorporated concurrency presents relatively unique solutions compared to solutions based on sequential languages running on multitasking operating systems.
See also: "Ada" "Concurrency" "Programming"

	Linux Kernel Internals with Cdrom Michael Beck, Kunitz Verworner, Harald Bohme, Mirko Dziadzka, Ulrich Kunitz, Mirko Dziadzka Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., Aug, 1997 0201331438 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
4 Stars	This is getting to be a bit dated but there's not yet a good Linux Kernel internals book for the later 2.2 and recent 2.4 kernels.
See also: "Linux" "Kernel" "Operating Systems" "Programming"

	Safety Critical Computer Systems Neil R. Storey Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., Aug, 1996 0201427877 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	Books on implementing Safety Critical software are even rarer than books on HA design.
See also: "Reliability" "Safety" "DO178B" "Process"

	Distributed Algorithms Nancy A. Lynch Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Jan, 1996 1558603484 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	Presents the theory behind the significant distributed algorithms.
See also: "Algorithms" "Distributed" "Concurrency" "Programming"

	An Introduction to the Analysis of Algorithms Sedgewick and Flajolet Addison-Wesley, Nov, 1995 020140009X Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	People who analyze algorithms have double happiness. First of all they experience the sheer beauty of elegant mathematical patterns that surround elegant computational procedures. Then they receive a practical payoff when their theories make it possible to get other jobs done more quickly and more economically... The appearance of this long-awaited book is therefore most welcome. Its authors are not only worldwide leaders of the field, they also are masters of exposition. -- D.E. Knuth. Enough said.
See also: "algorithms" "programming" "mathematics"

	Reliability Toolkit: Commercial Practices Edition Seymour Morris, Preston MacDiarmid, et al Rome Laboratory and the Reliability Analysis Center, Oct, 1995 xxxxxxxxx1 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	An excellent and comprehensive guide for practical Reliability Engineering by the folk who wrote MIL-STD 217.
See also: "Availability" "Reliability" "Safety"

	Computer-Related Risks, 1st edition Peter G. Neumann Addison-Wesley, Oct, 1995 020155805X Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
4 Stars	Summarizes many computer-related risks via case stories. This is on my reading list.
See also: "Reliability" "Safety" "Programming" "Quality" "Risk"

	Applied Cryptography Bruce Schneier John Wiley and Sons, Oct, 1995 0471117099 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	An excellent introduction to cryptography with thorough coverage of the underlying algorithms.
See also: "Cryptography" "Security" "Algorithms"

	CRE Primer Quality Council of Indiana Quality Council of Indiana, Jan, 1995 xxxxxxxxx2 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
4 Stars	Still waiting for my copy to arrive. A guide for preparing for the ASQ CRE exam.
See also: "Certification" "Reliability" "Availability" "Quality"

	Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object Oriented Software Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, John Vlissides, Ralph Johnson, Grady Booch Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., Oct, 1994 0201633612 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	The groundbreaking text on design patterns and chock full of practical programming solutions.
See also: "Analysis" "Design" "Patterns" "Programming"

	Data Structures, Algorithms, & Software Principles in C Thomas A. Standish Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., Sep, 1994 0201591189 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	When you need to remember that sorting algorithm or abstract data type and understand its computational complexity, this is the book.
See also: "Algorithms" "Analysis" "C" "Programming"

	Practitioner's Handbook for Real-Time Analysis: Guide to Rate Monotonic Analysis for Real-Time Systems Mark H. Klein, Ray Obenza, Thomas Ralya, Bill Pollak Kluwer Academic Publishers, Aug, 1993 0792393619 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	Presents Rate Monotonic Analysis theory sufficiently to understand the concepts but is more valuable as a set of Design Patterns for using RMA in practical, complex, real-time systems.
See also: "Analysis" "Rate Monotonic Analysis" "Real-Time Software" "Schedulability"

	How Things Work: Boats, Ships, Submarines, and other Floating Machines Ian Graham Kingfisher Books, Apr, 1993 1856978672 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
4 Stars	Not quite as entertaining as Macaulay's "How Things Work" but still very good in its own right at explaining the basic fundamentals of ships and shipping transport systems.
See also: "Systems Engineering" "Mechanics"

	How Things Work: Planes, Gliders, Helicopters, and other Flying Machines Terry Jennings Kingfisher Books, Apr, 1993 1856978699 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
4 Stars	Not quite as entertaining as Macaulay's "How Things Work" but still very good in its own right at explaining the basic fundamentals of planes and air transport systems.
See also: "Systems Engineering" "Mechanics" "Aerospace"

	How Things Work: Cars, Bikes, Trains, and other Land Machines Ian Graham Kingfisher Books, Apr, 1993 1856978710 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
4 Stars	Not quite as entertaining as Macaulay's "How Things Work" but still very good in its own right at explaining the basic fundamentals of automobiles and motorized transport systems.
See also: "Systems Engineering" "Mechanics" "Automotive"

	Synchronous Programming of Reactive Systems Nicolas Halbwachs Kluwer Academic Publishers, Jan, 1993 0792393112 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
4 Stars	We're just getting into synchronous programming and look forward to reading this text.
See also: "Programming" "Rate Monotonic Analysis" "Control Systems" "Real-time Software" "Concurrency" "Process Control"

	Queueing Systems Volume 1: Theory Leonard Kleinrock Wiley, John & Sons, Inc., Jan, 1975 0471491101 Buy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
5 Stars	Every real-time system has one or more queues. This book presents how to analyze the behavior of these queues.
See also: "Queuing Theory" "Analysis" "Mathematics"