Handy FPGA Laboratory

Want to learn real digital hardware design? You might want to consider Field Programmable Grid Arrays or FPGAs. There are a lot of FPGA learning kits available today. Some are specially designed to target developments of commercial projects which are, of course, very expensive. Some are a little bit price friendly specially for students and FPGA newbies (like me).

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All-in-One AVR Development Tool

If you are an AVR fan, you must be familiar with most of Atmel’s AVR development  tools: STK500, AVR Studio, AVRISP, AVR TJAGICE, AVR JTAGICE mkII, AVRISP mkII, STK600, etc. But there is one Atmel AVR development tool that provides ISP programming, High Voltage Programming, and debugging which comes in small form, beautiful box, and cheap price. 

The development tool that I am talking about is the AVR Dragon.

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Quick Review: eZ430-F2013

The MSP430 family of Texas Instruments  is one of the most popular 16-bit microcontroller families  because of its performance, architecture, and ultra low power consumption. Just recently, I received my eZ430-F2013, a USB Stick Development Tool for MSP430.  This includes an MSP430 USB stick, IAR Embedded Workbench (Kickstart Version) IDE, and a CD-ROM containing related  software and documentation. [Read more...]