It's the fad of the moment and, we, as designers, do love these Gadgets! But what they are? Are Development Tools in USB Stick format simply toys or are they offering a complete and reliable debug system? Surely the latter, because the capability (some of them have an ARM on board) and the versatility make a quality product highly useful for the developers. Some time ago I had the opportunity to "test" the Texas Instruments' Stick USB, the Ez430, related to the MSP430 Low Power Microcontroller, and I have to say that this "Gadget" (please note the quotes) surprised me, for its capabilities and easy of use. After 10 minutes I was already in step_by_step debug with my first application on Stick! (Ok, I did flashed a LED under interrupt while I had controlled the inputs in polling with debounce software, but the start-up times were reduced to a few minutes!!! )

1. Microcontrollers USB-Stick Tool http://dev.emcelettronica.com/print/51763
Your Electronics Open Source
(http://dev.emcelettronica.com)
Home > Blog > Emanuele's blog > Content
Microcontrollers USB-Stick Tool
By Emanuele
Created 29/04/2008 - 16:26
BLOG Microcontrollers Usb
Texas Instruments
eZ430– TI’s newest development tool includes all the necessary hardware
[1]
and software in a portable USB stick enclosure. The eZ430 tools includes a
free IDE, providing full emulation with the option of designing a stand-alone
system or detaching the removable target board to integrate into an ex