INFO & MARKET DEVELOPMENT KITS

Development

In this issue, which is bursting with FPGAs and microcontrollers, they could not possibly
be omitted: development kits! We devote attention to interesting but affordable kits
where we not only look at kits that are suitable for a commercial environment but which
are also very interesting for hobby use.

The first few steps are always difficult. This is also true of Even the choice between an FPGA and a microcontroller
course when working with FPGAs, microcontrollers and may not be that immediately obvious. A microcontroller is
DSPs. Particularly in order to acquaint commercial devel- less complex than an FPGA, but an FPGA, on the other
opers in an easy way with new products, various chip hand, offers many more possibilities.
manufacturers offer so-called ‘development kits’ (some- The development boards have a number of inputs and
times also called ‘starter kits’). But if you would like to use outputs for communication with other devices (that they
them at home for yourself, then that is generally not a may potentially control). The RS232 port remains a very
problem at all. You can usually just order a kit from the familiar interface. In many cases headers are used, so
appropriate distributor for private purposes. There is then that every pin from the IC can be accessed easily. Some
nothing to stop you from messing about with your chosen boards have a number of ADCs and DACs and occasion-
kit. The only catch is that you ‘just’ have to decide which ally CAN, SPI and 1-Wire-interfaces make an appear-
kit you would like to get started with. And this can be ance. For programming, each board has its own specific
much more involved than you would think at first glance. connector. Microchip uses a so-called ICD programming
In this article we attempt to give you an overview of inter- interface, while others use RS232, JTAG or some other
esting and affordable kits. We selected a few kits from specific interface. The same holds true here: try to think
each category and have summarised the important ahead of what you may need at a later stage.
details in a table. In the large table we have included a number of critical
characteristics so that it becomes relatively easy for you
to make the final decision.
Options Nevertheless, we will provide some guidance to the start-
As already mentioned, before you start your development ing developer by describing the broad characteristics of
effort, you have to make a choice from the different microcontrollers, DSPs and FPGAs.
options on offer from the various manufacturers. It is a
good idea to not just consider what you need at this par-
ticular moment, but also to think ahead about possible Microcontrollers
extensions you may wish to add at a later date. Imple- A microcontroller is essentially a computer in one chip
menting a small design in an FPGA is generally not a (refer Figure 1). The arithmetic unit is integrated
problem, but a larger design (i.e., more gates) can be together with all the I/O and memory in one IC, so that
more trouble to make fit. That is why development kits no additional chips are required (in contrast to a micro-
are often equipped with one of the larger members, if not processor which does need additional chips). Microcon-
the largest member, from a family. For microcontrollers trollers are used mainly for controlling electronic equip-
too, it is good to take into account your future require- ment, such as, for example, our recent SMD Oven (see
ments. Using fewer inputs and outputs is always possible. Elektor Electronics January 2006).
Wanting to use more than the IC provides is impossible. The difference between an 8-bit and 16-bit controller is

28 elektor electronics - 3/2006

Kits What’s available,
where do you start?

mainly the speed. A 16-bit controller can, compared to ations that are necessary for digital signal processing.
an 8-bit controller with the same number of MIPS (Million For example, a DSP has a special register structure and
Instructions Per Second), process twice as much data. mechanisms to carry out an FFT (Fast Fourier Transform,
Most of the demo boards have been designed in such a a mathematical operation to analyse the frequencies in a
way that they can function on their own. That means in signal) as quickly as possible and to move large blocks
most cases that there is a microprocessor on the board of data as efficiently as possible.
that runs a (demo) program. In addition there is then the These days the boundary between DSPs and microcon-
possibility to simulate the board using the bundled soft- trollers is becoming increasingly blurred, for example the
ware and, if the program is not quite 100 percent cor- PIC series from Microchip. The microcontrollers are then
rect, use debug-mode to iron out the last wrinkles. provided with the partial functionality of a DSP (which
In the text box you can read some more regarding the means additional instructions).
choices for a particular type of microcontroller.
FPGAs
DSPs An FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) is, as the
DSP means Digital Signal Processor. Such a processor is name implies, a ‘field’ with programmable logic gates
really a kind of specialised microprocessor. The signifi- and programmable internal connections (see Figure 2).
cant difference between a microcontroller and a DSP is It is a real millipede. An FPGA can be programmed so
that a DSP has been optimised for the mathematical oper- that it carries out all kinds of logical operations. Ranging

Microcontroller Configurable Logic Block

Timer
G-LUT
FPGA

H-LUT I/O Buffer

F-LUT CLB CLB CLB

I/O Buffer

I/O Buffer

ROM/
I/O CPU FLASH
PSM PSM

CLB CLB CLB

I/O Buffer

050324 - 16

RAM
Programmable Switch Matrix

Figure 1. Block diagram for a typical microcontroller. Figure 2. Typical architecture of an FPGA.

3/2006 - elektor electronics 29

INFO & MARKET DEVELOPMENT KITS

Manufacturer / Programming
Microcontrollers Type of IC supplied I/O LCD Power Supply R.R.P.
Website Interface

Microchip / standard 9V DC
PICDEM 2 Plus PIC18F452 and PIC16F877 ICD RS232 2x16 £ 59
www.microchip.com adapter

Microchip / standard 9V DC
PICDEM 4 PIC12F1320 and PIC16F627A ICD RS232; PIC16LF72 I/O expander 2x16 £ 76
www.microchip.com adapter; 9V battery

Maxim/Dallas
DS89C450-K00 Semiconductor / DS89C450 RS-232 2x RS232; 4x 8-bit I/O - 6-9 V DC adapter £ 62
www.maxim-ic.com

Z8 Encore! XP 4K Series RS232; IrDA, header for ADC

Zilog / www.zilog.com Z8F0XXA (selectable) USB or serial - 5V adapter supplied £ 35
Development Kit input (up to 8 channels),

Z8 Encore! MCU RS232, IrDA, header for ADC

Zilog / www.zilog.com Z8FXX (selectable) USB or serial - 5V adapter supplied £ 35
Development Kit input (up to 8 channels)

Infineon / RS232, CAN, LIN, JTAG; Headers

SK-XC866 Starter Kit XC866 JTAG - 8-18 V adapter £ 100
www.infineon.com for motor control and SBC board

Cyan Technology Ltd / Fast Ethernet, parallel; debugger

eCOG1 Development Kit eCOG1 Parallell port interface; 2x RS-232; I2C, SPI, 2x16 adapter supplied £ 200
www.cyantechnology.com IrDA

2x RS-232; pin-headers for I/O

AVR STK500 Atmel/ www.atmel.com AT90S8515-8PC RS232 - 10-15 V DC adapter £ 90
ports of any AVR

Elektor/Glyn / www. Renesas R8C-13 USB; 2x serial port; LCD connnec-

R8C Starter Kit elektor-electronics.co.uk; RS232 - via USB or adapter £ 62
www.glyn.com R5F21134FP#U0 tion

DSP’s

Microchip / RS232; CAN; headers for all I/O standard 9V DC

dsPICDEM 2 dsPIC30F4011 ICD 2x16 £ 58
www.microchip.com ports adapter

Microchip / PIC24FJ128GA010 and USB; RS232, JTAG; headers for

Explorer 16 ICD, JTAG and PICkit 2 2x16 9-15 V DC adapter £ 75
www.microchip.com dsPIC33F128GP710DSC all I/O ports; PICTail Plus

Maxim/Dallas semicon- RS232, JTAG, 1-Wire interface; Via JTAG-interface,

MAXQ2000-KIT ductor/ MAXQ2000 JTAG 4 1/2 5V and £ 55
www.maxim-ic.com headers for all I/O ports 6-9 V DC adapter
FPGA’s

High Volume Starter Kit XC3S200-4FT256C (FPGA),

Bundle (comprising XC9572XL-10VQ44C and RS232; JTAG; PS/2 mouse / key-
Xilinx/www.xilinx.com JTAG - supplied 75
Spartan-3 Starter Kit and XC2C256-7TQ144 Coolrunner-II board port, 3x 40-pin header
CPLD Design Kit) (CPLDs)

USB; PCI; JTAG; Altera Expansion

MAX II Development Kit Altera / www.altera.com MAX II EPM1270F256C5 (CPLD) JTAG via ByteBlaster 2x16 via USB- of PCI-bus £ 105
Prototype Headers

ADDS-21261/Cyclone Cyclone EP1C3 (FPGA) and ADSP- JTAG for FPGA, USB for USB; RS232; JTAG; expansion
Altera / www.altera.com - via adapter £ 140
Evaluation Kit 21261 (SHARC DSP chip) SHARC header

EasyFPGA’s EZ1KUSB EasyFPGA / via USB or supplied

Altera ACEX EP1K50TC144-3 USB or JTAG USB; JTAG; 58 I/Os - £ 130
Development Kit www.easyfpga.com 6V DC adapter

Morph-IC / via USB or supplied

Morph-IC Altera ACEX EP1K10TC100-3 USB USB; 2x20-pin header - £ 65
www.morph-ic.com 5V DC adapter

30 elektor electronics - 3/2006

Devices Accepted Manual Software Required for programming Miscellaneous items supplied

18-, 28,- & 40-pin PIC16XXXX PRO MATE II, MPLAB PM3, PIC-
on CD MPLAB IDE, MPASM, MPLAB C18 5k potentiometer, TC74 temperature sensor, piezo buzzer
and PIC18XXXX START PLUS or MPLAB ICD 2

8-, 14-, & 18-pin PIC16XXXX PRO MATE II, MPLAB PM3, PIC- NanoWatt technology/supercapacitor circuit, four 5k potentiometer,
on CD MPLAB IDE
and PIC18XXXX START PLUS of MPLAB ICD 2 space for LIN transceiver and motor driver

DS89C430, DS89C440,
on CD Microcontroller Tool Kit (MTK) Software only; PC (MTK) 64kB Flash memory, 128kB SRAM
DS89C450, DS5000

ZDS II Integrated Development Supplied serial or USB Smart 256-1k bytes RAM, 1-4k flash memory, 2 16-bit timers, comparator.
not exchangeable on CD
Environment, ANSI C-compiler Cable Optional: 8 channel 10-bits ADC, temperature sensor

ZDS II Integrated Development Supplied serial or USB Smart 1-64k bytes Flash/ROM, 256-4k bytes RAM, up to 60 I/Os, up to 24
not exchangeable on CD interrupts, up to 4 16-bit timers, up to 12 channels 10-bit ADCs,
Environment, ANSI C-compiler Cable optional: DMA controller, SPI and I2C.
Evaluation versions of Keil uVision and
Compatible with 8051, PWM generator, 10-bit ADC, 3 16-bit timers,
not exchangeable on CD Ulink or Hitex debugger Tantino-Eco, Tantino USB (supplied)
27 general purpose I/O, 768 bytes RAM, 16k flash, potentiometer
DAvE

CyanIDE with ANSI C-compiler, simula-

eCOG1 on CD Software only; PC 2MB 16-bit SDRAM, piezo buzzeer, 12-bit ADC, temperature sensor
tor, debugger and Configuration Tool

8-, 20-, 28- and 40-pin AVR

on CD AVR Studio Software only; PC 2Mbit dataflash
(Attiny, AT90S, ATmega)

In Elektor / KD30, NC30, HEW, Flash Development 8-bit timer, 12 channel 10-bit ADC, 5 external & 11 internal inter-
not exchangeable Software only; PC
on website Toolkit rupts, 4kB flash, 10k potentiometer

18-, 28- and 40-pin

on CD MPLAB IDE MPLAB ICD 2 potentiometer, temperature sensor, nine 10-bits ADC channels, SPI
dsPIC30FXXXX

PIC24 and dsPIC33 families on CD MPLAB IDE MPLAB ICD 2 temperature sensor TC1047A, 10k potentiometer, 256kb EEPROM

not exchangeable MAX-IDE Software only; PC MAX1407 ADC/DAC, potentiometer, JTAG interface board, LCD board

Spartan-3, Coolrunner-II, On paper and CD- Evaluation versions of Xilinx ISE &
Supplied JTAG3 cable 3-bit, 8-colour VGA display port, 1MB SRAM
XC9500XL ROM EDK

ByteBlaster II parallel download Temperature sensor, potentiometer 128kB SRAM, onboard power
not exchangeable on CD Quartus II Web Edition
cable meterr

Evaluation version Visual DSP++,

not exchangeable on CD Software only; PC 64 Mb SDRAM, 64Mb EE memory, 4Mb Flash
Quartus II Web Version

Altera ACEX EP1K10TC144-3,

ACEX EP1K30TC144-3, ACEX on CD Quartus II Web Edition, USB-drivers Software only; PC
EP1K50TC144-3

USB drivers, FPGA loader program,

Windows DLL (for use with Visual
not exchangeable on CD Software only; PC Onboard 93C56 EEPROM
C++, Visual Basic, Borland Delphi),
Quartus II Software Starter Suite

3/2006 - elektor electronics 31

INFO & MARKET DEVELOPMENT KITS

from basic logic gate functions (AND, OR, XOR, NOT, sorts out these interconnections for you, so you don’t
etc.) to complex combinational logic such as mathemati- need to do much there yourself.
cal functions and decoders. It is even possible to emulate FPGAs have evolved from CPLDs (Complex Programma-
a complete (8051) microprocessor in an FPGA (provided ble Logic Device). As a consequence of their internal
that the FPGA has enough gates, of course). architecture, FPGAs have greater design flexibility com-
pared to CPLDs. On the downside, the increased flexibil-
These ports are formed by CLBs, which are connected in ity has also increased the complexity.
a matrix arrangement. Each CLB consists of multiple However, don’t be taken aback by the overwhelming
lookup tables (LUT), a few multiplexers and optionally a number of possibilities and accompanying data, descrip-
number of flip-flops. So the CLBs carry out all logic func- tions, tutorials and other things. Once you’ve started
tions. By connecting the CLBs with programmable with FPGAs, chances are that you cannot live without
switches to each other in the right way, the desired func- them any more.
tionality is obtained. The development software generally (050324-1)

The right microcontroller for every user

Florian Schäffer but which is not very useful in real life available read-made. Examples are a
because the 8-byte buffer is too small stepping motor driver or a relay board
and the processor is much too slow to to control large loads.
The first steps into the world of micro- receive and process more than four
processors seem to be easy at first After you have made your selection
symbols at data rates from 9600 baud
glance. Countless starter kits tempt the with respect to the hardware, do not
and up.
prospective buyer with all sorts of bells forget to look at the software aspect.
With this we arrive at the next criteri- Of course, for most of the microproces-
and whistles, but on closer examination
on: instruction set and speed of the sors some form of development environ-
they tend to be much alike. A PCB with
processor. For a heating control appli-
a microprocessor, eight or more I/Os, ment is available. The question is, how
cation there is no need for the CPU to
an RS232 port for communicating with much do you have to pay for it, and
calculate at great speed. If it gets
a PC and an LCD for the displaying of with which programming language do
warmer a few seconds later, then that
text is pretty much standard. So when you have to work? Assembler is not
is not a big deal. It is different if a few
choosing the hardware you cannot something everyone is familiar with. C
thousand LEDs have to be driven via
really go wrong that much. But which and BASIC are easier for beginners to
some multiplex scheme. If the CPU is
one do you choose? use and are certainly not worse,
not fast enough, the LEDs will just
Apart from the differences in price, not appear to flash in some meaningless although hardcore assembler hackers
too many things play a part when fashion. If your program has to react will sometimes have a good laugh
choosing a development kit for person- quickly to signals ‘from the outside’, for about BASIC. The resulting machine
al use. If you are just starting out in the example keyboard input or data from code ultimately loaded into the proces-
world of microprocessors and are an interface, then it can be handy if sor is not substantially different com-
about to buy your first kit, it is a good the microprocessor is good at process- pared to handwritten code. Because in
idea to first think about what you ing interrupts. the beginning you will probably need
would like to achieve with the develop- to rely on some help from other users,
Also think about the various program-
ment kit and how much scope there is
ming solutions. Do you need additional it is best to have a look for a suitable
for expansion. Are you only going to
hardware to program the microcon- forum and see what sort of topics are
design a specific control system for
troller, can it be (re-)programmed in the being discussed. The best way is to use
which the number of inputs and outputs
are already defined? Are you just hav- system (ISP – In System Programming)? Google to search for forums that deal
ing a tentative look around and want What method do you prefer? with a specific type of controller.
to try things out in a microprocessor What are your ambitions regarding tin- It is possible that a development kit
environment, do a little bit of program- kering with these things? Most develop- contains a programming language that
ming for some flashing LEDs and react ment kits consist of one PCB. The LCD in practice is not actually used in com-
to pushbutton inputs, and get an LCD is connected with a ribbon cable and bination with that kit, for example a C
to spring into life? Or do you need the power supply consists of by a stan- development environment. If you have
some special functionality, such as a dard mains adapter, which is regulated questions in relation to that, it will take
serial port, a USB-interface or an I2C- on the board with a 780x. With very
much longer to get an answer if other
port for data exchange with other simple models it may even be possible
users use predominantly BASIC or
devices? that you have to provide your own reg-
assembler.
Depending on the purpose that you ulated power supply.
In the forums there are always people
have in mind for the board, you will Perhaps you’re looking for something
have to examine the various modules a to do some control tasks in your home. participating who are glad to help you
little closer. It is best if you do not just A module that has been designed for out. Most of the beginner’s questions
rely on the brief technical datasheets rail/rack mounting, typically used in have already been asked so it certainly
from the manufacturer, but also look at electrical installations, can be very pays to do a search of the forums first.
the discussions in various Internet practical. In order to realise your In general you have to be prepared to
forums to read user experiences. In that plans, it is probably necessary that you do a little searching to obtain a satis-
way you get to find out the a particular need more parts, which you will have factory end result. You will also have to
board does have an RS-232 interface, to build yourself or that are possibly trawl through numerous datasheets.

32 elektor electronics - 3/2006