Embedded programming is the term for the computer programming that lives in and operates the great many computer-controlled devices that surround us in our homes, cars, workplaces and communities. For every desktop or notebook computer you have, you may have a dozen or more (perhaps a great deal more) microcontrollers quietly doing their embedded duty, and in these devices most people donÕt even realize thereÕs a computer running a program. But there is, and it is, and those programs had to be written, and thatÕs why the world needs embedded programming. Embedded computers (microcontrollers) add intelligence to countless devices and systems, enabling those devices and systems to operate better, faster, more safely, more efficiently, more conveniently, more usefully, and in many cases allowing the very existence of devices and systems that could not be built otherwise.