Texas Instruments Announces MSP430 MCU Value Line LaunchPad Development Kit

Semiconductor company Texas Instruments announced its new MSP430 MCU Value Line LaunchPad development kit that includes all of the hardware and software needed to easily launch designs based on TI's MSP430 Value Line MCUs, which start at 25 cents and offer up to 10X performance and 10X battery life over 8-bit MCUs.

 

LaunchPad supports rapid prototyping and development by allowing developers to quickly drop-in MSP430 Value Line MCUs to evaluate, program or debug devices. The open source kit is available for $4.30. For a limited time, free shipping is available from TI's eStore.

 

Flexibility of LaunchPad allows developers to remove programmed devices to be placed on a custom board, or remain plugged into LaunchPad to leverage on-board buttons, LEDs and breakout pins for external components, the company said. LaunchPad is compatible across the MSP430 MCU Value Line allowing developers to adapt to evolving design requirements in fast moving markets.

 

MSP430 LaunchPad and Value Line MCUs provide a complete development environment to enable applications including 3D glasses, gaming controls, touch sensing, smoke/fire detectors, wireless networking and more. Solutions developed using LaunchPad can be seamlessly migrated to any other MSP430 MCU for added scalability since all MSP430 MCUs are code compatible.

 

DIP target socket, supporting up to 20-pin devices in MSP430 LaunchPad Development Kit enables rapid prototyping with MSP430 Value Line MCUs so that developers can quickly drop in MCUs to evaluate, program or debug devices, according to company officials.

 

Programmed MCUs can be easily removed and placed into custom PCBs and breadboards. Developers can leverage pushbuttons, LEDs and breakout pins for external components, allowing LaunchPad to function as a standalone system.

 

LaunchPad also features an integrated, USB-powered emulator that permits flash programming, firmware debugging and serial communication and eliminates need for external emulator.

 

The solution interfaces with any MSP430 Value Line MCU, existing eZ430 target boards and MSP430 devices with Spy Bi-Wire capabilities. The company is also offering free compilers and debuggers for download including Code Composer Studio IDE and IAR Embedded Workbench, providing a complete software development environment.

 

32 kHz crystal increases MSP430 MCUs' integrated digitally controlled oscillator to real-time accuracy for various peripherals and timers. Two MSP430 Value Line devices included; one pre-programmed with demo firmware to demonstrate the use of on-chip peripherals, including 10-bit ADC (News - Alert), comparators and internal temperature sensor.

 

Open-source design allows developers to create their own hardware based on LaunchPad. MSP430 MCU LaunchPad Wiki provides multiple production-ready open source projects to allow easy evaluation, design and community collaboration

 

TI's software and hardware tools, extensive third-party offerings and technical support enable designers to accelerate time to market. The company also announced plans to build femtocell devices based on the new multicore System-on-a-Chip architecture, TMCnet reported.