Books

Books : reviews

Warren W. Gay.
Raspberry Pi Hardware Reference.
Apress. 2014

The Raspberry Pi is deceptively simple. Plug it in, boot it up, use it as a personal computer or attach a million gizmos, modules and invent something amazingly new. Either way, what it can actually do is not simple, and you should know exactly what the Raspberry Pi hardware is all about. Raspberry Pi Hardware Reference, from Mastering the Raspberry Pi, is the hardware guide you need on your desk or workbench.

Every detail is covered: from power to memory, from the CPU to working with USB. You’ll find all the details about working with both wired and wireless Ethernet, SD cards, and the UART interface. The GPIO chapter is invaluable, covering power budgeting, access, and even small but important details like the correct usage of sudo when working with GPIO pins. You’ll also find details about the 1-Wire driver, the I2C bus. and the SPI bus. If you need to know anything about your Raspberry Pi’s hardware, you will find it here, in Raspberry Pi Hardware Reference.

Warren W. Gay.
Raspberry Pi System Software Reference.
Apress. 2014

Raspberry Pi is Linux, but it's a unique flavor of Linux, specifically for the ARM-based Pi. Raspberry Pi Software Reference, from Mastering the Raspberry Pi, guides you through the boot process, including options for tweaking HDMI, memory, and other boot options. You'll learn the details of run levels and creating new services, and how to use the custom command vcgencmd for doing things like reporting temperature, clock speeds, and voltage. And while there are cross-compilers available for some flavors of Linux, one of the most important things you'll get from Raspberry Pi Software Reference is how to build your own Raspberry Pi cross-compiler on your Mac OSX, Linux or Windows computer.