It was pretty cool that TI released the MSP430 for such a low price to break into the hacker/maker/hobbyist market(s). And they have done a good job.

Now, as many have expected, another company has done the same.

ST has released a "value line" uC dev board for under $10.

TI called theirs the "Launchpad"
ST is calling theirs the "Discovery"

And as with the Launchpad, ST has set up a social/community area on their website to build on the "Discovery".

This is a 32bit ARM processor..
- Seven PWM 16-bit timers including advanced control timer for a total of 26 channels.
- On-chip 12-bit dual channel DAC with DMA support and output buffers
- CEC, 400 kHz I2C, up to12 Mbit/s master and slave SPI, up to 3 Mbit/s USART

With free IDE to code, compile, optimize, simulate, and just plain develop your project.

It will be interesting to see what other companies put forth.

It will be a very competitive time for the hobbyist market.

Being able to buy one of these little guys for "pocket change" and use it in your final design.

Very neat.

http://www.st.com/mcu/contentid-133-110-STM32VLDISCOVERY.html?wt.mc_id=enews_sep2010_STM32discovery

 

Are u tempting guys like us retched.

Is this a stand alone product. Do I have to buy separate chips like TI or microchip.
If not then you can drop one of these in to my order

 

No, this comes all in one.

Actually the TI Launchpad comes with 2 MSP430s for the $4.30. One with ADC one without.

With the TI Launchpad you have a socket to switch chips. The ST Discovery has the uC soldered to the dev board.

Thats fine with me though.

 

Oddly you don't get to own one. They remain property of ST.
Still pretty cool though.

OWNERSHIP AND COPYRIGHT. Title to the Evaluation Product, demonstration
software, related documentation and all copies thereof remain with ST and/or its licensors.
You may not remove the copyrights notices from the Evaluation Product. You agree to
prevent any unauthorized copying of the Evaluation Product and related documentation.

 

Oddly you don't get to own one. They remain property of ST.
Still pretty cool though.

Can't own after buying, that's odd

 

No, this comes all in one.

Actually the TI Launchpad comes with 2 MSP430s for the $4.30. One with ADC one without.

With the TI Launchpad you have a socket to switch chips. The ST Discovery has the uC soldered to the dev board.

Thats fine with me though.

TI had already sent me 4 pc samples for me to fiddle with

 

I said to myself, "sure, but what are the prices on the individual chips outside of the promotion."

They don't seem too bad. Some of that stuff seems extremely powerful for prices that I'd say are easily competitive with the PIC32s.

I'm not a guru enough to compare the two, but that ST micro line seems to be the real deal.

 

It was pretty cool that TI released the MSP430 for such a low price to break into the hacker/maker/hobbyist market(s). And they have done a good job.

Now, as many have expected, another company has done the same.

ST has released a "value line" uC dev board for under $10.

TI called theirs the "Launchpad"
ST is calling theirs the "Discovery"

And as with the Launchpad, ST has set up a social/community area on their website to build on the "Discovery".

This is a 32bit ARM processor..
- Seven PWM 16-bit timers including advanced control timer for a total of 26 channels.
- On-chip 12-bit dual channel DAC with DMA support and output buffers
- CEC, 400 kHz I2C, up to12 Mbit/s master and slave SPI, up to 3 Mbit/s USART

With free IDE to code, compile, optimize, simulate, and just plain develop your project.

It will be interesting to see what other companies put forth.

It will be a very competitive time for the hobbyist market.

Being able to buy one of these little guys for "pocket change" and use it in your final design.

Very neat.

http://www.st.com/mcu/contentid-133-110-STM32VLDISCOVERY.html?wt.mc_id=enews_sep2010_STM32discovery

This is war started by the americans. That I actually may support

 

This is war started by the americans. That I actually may support

HAH! Thats funny.

 

What would be really nice is chips with bootloaders so they could just be connected up to the USB port - no programmer needed. I've a feeling it is already possible but you need a programmer to get the bootloader code on.

 

What would be really nice is chips with bootloaders so they could just be connected up to the USB port - no programmer needed. I've a feeling it is already possible but you need a programmer to get the bootloader code on.

It is the modern variant of the "The chicken or the egg causality dilemma"