As anyone who has worked with them will know, embedded systems are a notoriously difficult beast to master. Simulation Engineering aims to assist the developer by introducing a set of engineering principles that assist the design, development and testing of the most complex embedded systems; in my opinion this aim is definitely realised.

All major aspects of simulation engineering are covered and Ledin does not shy away from any complex principles, providing comprehensive and relatively easy to understand explanations. A myriad of subject areas are covered including all areas of embedded simulation, data visualisation and analysis, verification and validation, software tools and management issues; to list the number of important principles introduced would far exceed the space I have to complete this review. The main criticism I have of this book is that many areas are extremely difficult to read, however this is mainly attributed to the complexity of the techniques being introduced; once these techniques are understood they should form an indispensable part of most simulation engineers knowledge base.

Upon initial assessment you may be put-off by the prevalence of mathematical formulae throughout the book, I would encourage you to persevere as the book introduces a number of important principles; however if you are not particularly mathematically minded, Simulation Engineering also provides evaluations and information on software tools that will perform these calculations for you and then explains how to interpret the results! Some of these tools are included on the bundled CD and walkthroughs of their use provided in the text.

In summary I would say that this is a book targeted primarily at reasonably experienced embedded developers who are interested in learning the principles of simulation engineering. I would not recommend this title to complete novices to the field, however anyone else with an interest should find this book useful - providing they have the perseverance necessary to read it!