Mar 16 2009
Microchip Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHP), a leading provider of microcontroller and analog semiconductors, today announced the PICDEM™ Lab Development Kit (part # DM163035), a comprehensive, entry-level development platform for all of Microchip's 8-bit Flash PIC® microcontrollers (MCUs) with 20 or fewer pins. Geared toward educators, students and those who are new to microcontrollers, the PICDEM Lab Development Kit comes complete with a development board containing five popular 8-bit PIC MCUs; a bag of discrete components; a PICkit™ 2 Debugger/Programmer; and a CD containing a User's Guide, labs and application examples. The kit provides everything needed to quickly and easily develop applications using Microchip's 8-bit PIC MCUs.
A solderless prototyping area on the PICDEM Lab development board allows users to explore a number of application examples described in the “hands-on” labs from the PICDEM Lab User's Guide that comes with the kit. The easy-to-follow labs provide an intuitive introduction to common peripherals and then move into a variety of application examples to reinforce core concepts. Even users with little or no knowledge of how to integrate microcontrollers into analog circuits can do so with ease. Additionally, expansion headers provide complete access/connectivity to all MCU pins and mounted components on the PICDEM Lab development board, enabling designers to evaluate the various 8-bit MCUs and choose the right one for their application.
“The PICDEM Lab Development Kit is a great addition to Microchip's 8-bit tool suite, offering an off-the-shelf evaluation kit for many of Microchip's low pin count 8-bit MCUs,” said Derek Carlson, vice president of Microchip's Development Tools group. “The kit provides an affordable solution for new customers who wish to learn how our advanced peripherals can help simplify their designs, as well as an excellent resource for educators who design microcontroller-based engineering courses.”
Code examples for each lab in the PICDEM Lab Development Kit are available in the high-level C programming language, using the free HI-TECH C Compiler in the main user's guide, which is available as a free download from http://www.microchip.com/HI-TECH. Alternatively, a free version of Matrix Multimedia's Flowcode V3 Visual Programming Environment (VPE) is expected to be available in late March at http://www.microchip.com/picdemlab. The Flowcode V3 VPE provides a flowchart-based method for developing embedded applications.