Microprocessor development board
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A microprocessor development board is a
Unlike a general-purpose system such as a home computer, usually a development board contains little or no hardware dedicated to a user interface. It will have some provision to accept and run a user-supplied program, such as downloading a program through a serial port to flash memory, or some form of programmable memory in a socket in earlier systems.
History
The reason for the existence of a development board was solely to provide a system for learning to use a new microprocessor, not for entertainment, so everything superfluous was left out to keep costs down. Even an enclosure was not supplied, nor a power supply. This is because the board would only be used in a "laboratory" environment so it did not need an enclosure, and the board could be powered by a typical bench power supply already available to an electronic engineer.
Microprocessor training development kits were not always produced by microprocessor manufacturers. Many systems that can be classified as microprocessor development kits were produced by third parties, one example is the Sinclair
Although these development boards were not designed for hobbyists, they were often bought by them because they were the earliest cheap microcomputer devices available. They often added all kinds of expansions, such as more memory, a video interface etc. It was very popular to use (or write) an implementation of
Today some chip producers still release "test boards" to demonstrate their chips, and to use them as a "reference design". Their significance these days is much smaller than it was in the days that such boards, (the KIM-1 being the canonical example) were the only low cost way to get "hands-on" acquainted with microprocessors..
Features
The most important feature of the microprocessor development board was the
Input was normally done with a
Often the board has some kind to expansion connector that brought out all the necessary CPU signals, so that an engineer could build and test an experimental interface or other electronic device.
External interfaces on the bare board were often limited to a single
List of historical development boards
- 8085AAT, an Intel 8085 microprocessor training unit from Paccom
- CDP18S020 evaluation board for the RCA CDP1802 microprocessor
- EVK 300 6800 single board from American Microsystems(AMI)
- Explorer/85 expandable learning system based on the 8085, by Netronics's research and development ltd.
- ITT experimenter used switches and LEDs, and an Intel 8080
- JOLT was designed by Microcomputer Associates, Incorporated.
- KIM-1 the development board for the MOS Technology/Rockwell/Synertek 6502 microprocessor. The name KIM is short for "keyboard input monitor"
- I/O. Also known as the VIM
- AIM-65 an improved KIM-1 with an alpha-numerical LED display, and a built-in printer.
- The KIM-1 also lead to some unofficial copies, such as the super-KIM and the Junior from the magazine Elektor, and the MCS Alpha 1
- LC80 by Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt
- MAXBOARD development board for the Motorola 6802.
- MEK6800D2 the official development board for the Motorola 6800 microprocessor. The name of the monitor software was MIKBUG
- MicroChroma 68 color graphics kit. Developed by Motorola to demonstrate their new 6847 video display processor. The monitor software was called TVBUG
- Motorola EXORciser development system (rack based) for the Motorola 6809
- VDU, that could be expanded to a more capable system.
- MST-80B 8080 training system by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- NS introkit by National Semiconductor featuring the SC/MP, the predecessor to the Sinclair MK14
- NRI microcomputer, a system developed to teach computer courses by McGraw-Hill and the National Radio Institute(NRI)
- Sinclair Research Ltd.
- microprocessor
- Intel MCS-51
- SDK-85 Intel's development board for their 8085microprocessor
- SDK-86 Intel's development board for their 8086microprocessor
- Siemens Microset-8080 boxed system based on an 8080.
- Signetics Instructor 50 based on the Signetics 2650.
- SGS-ATESNanocomputer Z80.
- RCA Cosmac Super Elf by Video Display Controller.
- i8080, the μPD 8080A
- TM 990/100M evaluation board for the Texas Instruments TMS9900
- TM 990/180M evaluation board for the Texas Instruments TMS9800
- XPO-1 Texas Instruments development system for the PPS-4/1 line of microcontrollers
DSP evaluation boards
A DSP evaluation board, sometimes also known as a DSP starter kit (DSK) or a DSP evaluation module, is an electronic board with a digital signal processor used for experiments, evaluation and development.[6] Applications are developed in DSP Starter Kits using software usually referred as an integrated development environment (IDE).[7] Texas Instruments and Spectrum Digital are two companies who produce these kits.
Two examples are the DSK 6416 by Texas Instruments,
See also
References
- ^ http://www.old-computers.com/MUSEUM/computer.asp?st=1&c=1147 Archived 2010-11-21 at the Wayback Machine description of the National Semiconductor introkit
- ^ http://oldcomputers.net/kim1.html KIM was very popular with hobbyists
- ^ why Kilobaud published KIM software
- ^ "The MEK6800D2 system with MIKBUG". Archived from the original on 1 October 2011.
- ^ http://retro.hansotten.nl/index.php?page=micro-kim Micro-KIM is a retro remake of the KIM for which many programs are available that were originally released on papertape
- ^ "DSP Starter Kits". DSP. Kane Computing. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
- ISBN 978-0750677592. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
- ISBN 978-0780387003. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
- ^ ISBN 978-0471690078. Retrieved 23 April 2012.