Low-Cost Kits

Sept. 12, 2007

Technology editor Bill Wong takes a look at a collection of development kits for the Texas Instruments MSP430, Cypress Semiconductor's PSoC and STmicroelectronics STR9.

William G. Wong

If there is a microcontroller being released there is likely to be one or more low cost development kits for it. This time I take a look at a collection from Cypress Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, and STmicroelectronics. The Cypress Semiconductor USB dongle provides access its PSoC (programmable-systems-on-a-chip) microcontroller. The PSoC's (Breaking News: Analog PSoC Family, ED Online ID #5936) soft architecture can be programmed using PSoC Designer or the simpler PSoC Express (Visual Design Tool Tackles Multiple MCUs, ED Online ID #13364). This platform provides access to the capacitive sensing capabilities. The TI eZ430-RF2500 is based on the USB-based eZ430 kits (see $1 Arms And $20 Development Kits). This time around TI has added 2.4GHz wireless support in a complete, compact package. The TI MSP430 Experimenters Board is for those looking to experiment with a wider range of peripherals. It is small but exposes everything and even has a socket for 802.15.4/ZigBee support. The STmicroelectronics STR9-comStick is another USB-based solution although it does not have a separate the target board like the eZ430 but it is a powerhouse. It runs a 96MHz ARM966E processor and includes Ethernet and CAN support. Read the reviews here: Cypress PSoC First Touch eZ430 Goes Wireless MSP430 Experimenters Board STMicroelectronics STR9-comStick Related Links Cypress STMicroelectronics Texas Instruments

About the Author

William G. Wong | Senior Content Director - Electronic Design and Microwaves & RF

I am Editor of Electronic Design focusing on embedded, software, and systems. As Senior Content Director, I also manage Microwaves & RF and I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, programmers, developers and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

You can send press releases for new products for possible coverage on the website. I am also interested in receiving contributed articles for publishing on our website. Use our template and send to me along with a signed release form.

Check out my blog, AltEmbedded on Electronic Design, as well as his latest articles on this site that are listed below.

You can visit my social media via these links:

I earned a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters in Computer Science from Rutgers University. I still do a bit of programming using everything from C and C++ to Rust and Ada/SPARK. I do a bit of PHP programming for Drupal websites. I have posted a few Drupal modules.

I still get a hand on software and electronic hardware. Some of this can be found on our Kit Close-Up video series. You can also see me on many of our TechXchange Talk videos. I am interested in a range of projects from robotics to artificial intelligence.