The current version of Embedded Systems A Contemporary Design Tool (Wiley 2007) was designed to build on the students existing knowledge about the design and development of embedded systems.  This welcome second edition will extend that base by bringing together and addressing several of the major challenges facing the designers and developers of such systems today.   The new edition will continue to be a valuable tool to the student in the traditional undergraduate or first year graduate electrical or computer engineering program as well as for the practicing engineer who wishes to review or learn some of the basic concepts.  They should have a background in the basic digital design and the modeling of combinational and sequential logic, a working knowledge of a software development language such as C and a hardware design language such as Verilog or VHDL, and fundamental knowledge of linear analog circuits and networks.   The second edition will present, discuss, and address four of the challenges encountered in the design of todays embedded systems: safety, reliability, need for low power, and support for new features; which are manifest herein as signal integrity, system security, low power, and the hardware-software co-design process. Included will be an enhanced introduction into modeling and synthesis using the Verilog hardware design language and the incorporation of real-world effects into such models. Key to the presentation will be a substantial number of worked examples illustrating the fundamental ideas as well as how the basics of electrical physics underlie some of the subtleties in application that go beyond basic concepts.  The text will conclude with case studies of several designs of sufficient complexity to illustrate the serious application of the methods studied, yet simple enough that the material can be easily understood.  Such designs could easily be extended by the instructor to form the basis for a series of lab projects or studied by the student to gain additional insight into the thought process and trade-offs that go into contemporary designs.