IBM has published the following technical articles, tutorials, and downloads on its developerWorks Website. They cover a range of interesting (though not necessarily embedded) technical topics. Some require free registration. Enjoy . . . !

• Bob Sutor's comments on IBM's release of Patents to Open Source — Bob is the VP of IBM Standards. He says: “To be clear, this is not a “donation,” but rather a pledge of the patents to seed and then maintain a patent commons for open source projects.” Go here to see his other comments and his extensive list of links to articles on the subject from all the major developer and business publications. There is also a link to the Patent Description Document, which provides the nitty-gritty of the patent release.
• Dissecting shared libraries — Shared libraries use version numbers to allow for upgrades to the libraries used by applications while preserving compatibility for older applications. This article reviews what's really going on under the book jacket and why there are so many symbolic links in /usr/lib on a normal Linux system.
• Making the transition to 64 bits — As 64-bit PowerPC processors become more widely available, it becomes desirable to make applications run in the 64-bit computation mode, providing access to larger address space and faster 64-bit arithmetic. This excerpt from a longer Technical Library article covers some of the issues faced when porting existing 32-bit code to the new computing model — or when embarking on new 64-bit development.
• Self-Managed Data Buffer Memory — The C programming language defines two standard memory management functions: malloc() and free(). C programmers frequently use those functions to allocate buffers at run time to pass data between functions. In many situations, however, you cannot predetermine the actual sizes required for the buffers, which may cause several fundamental problems for constructing complex C programs. In this article, Xiaoming Zhang advocates a self-managing, abstract data buffer. He outlines a pseudo-C implementation of the abstract buffer and details the advantages of adopting this mechanism.
• Programming the cache on the PowerPC — While many programs can obtain acceptable performance by simply letting the processor manage its own caching, programs with special requirements may obtain dramatically improved performance by giving the processor explicit instructions and manipulating the cache directly. More typically, boot firmware may need to flush and enable the cache.
• Better programming through effective list handling — Singly linked lists are a powerful abstraction that allow programmers to represent numerous types of data; extending those lists to handle arbitrary data types can offer effective tools for processing data. This article looks at these processes and examine the Lisp variation Scheme, an easy-to-use list-oriented language that delivers list-manipulation capabilities without the complexities of C.
• The Year 2004 in Microprocessors — From spintronics to clockless CPUs, 2004 was a year of process and research in the microprocessor industry. As a way to transition into the new year, this article offers a month-by-month look at the highlights of the 2004 microprocessor timeline.
• POWER Expert: Regina Darmoni — This question and answer article features the IBM Program Director of PowerPC licensing, Regina Darmoni. Regina has led the PowerPC licensing effort from the concept stage to the present and talks about general license terms and what's available — and what it's like to be the little guy.
• Migrating from x86 to PowerPC — This series on embedded development shows you how to migrate a project prototype from x86 to PowerPC. This initial installment explains the realities and rationale of the project: it introduces the robotic submarines that were the start of the project (and where they came from), and describes the Linux/GCC development environment and the bare-bones Kuro Box PowerPC development board.
• Perfect Eclipse and Apache Derby integration — The IBM Integration plug-in for Derby provides a seamless integration between Eclipse and Apache Derby. It enables the use of the Derby database JAR files as an installable component to Eclipse. Additionally the ij SQL scripting tool and the Apache Derby Network Server can be run from the Eclipse console.

 
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