At 12:24 PM 10/30/2001, you wrote:
>Anyone ever programmed one of the MSP430xxx chips from Texas Instruments?
>How do they compare with other RISC chips like the AVR and PIC. Also is it
>worth getting a programmer to program these for hobby use?

We now use the MSP430 series exclusively. They are (very) low power, have
all the typical peripherals, a very configurable clock and timer system,
and they're inexpensive. The instruction set is good. Plug in a clock xtal
(no caps needed!) and go. Or run off the tunable internal RC oscillator.

At $49 for the MSP430F11x(1) dev kit (which includes a flash programmer w/
ZIF socket, and a very nice IDE for Windows), I think it's worth a try!!
Some people put down the documentation that's available, but I think it's
fine -- in fact much better than I've seen elsewhere.

In the last few months TI has announced several new varieties of the MSP430
with various flash sizes, i/o capabilities, packages, etc. There is a lot
more choice now.

If you can't tell yet, I like these chips.

Kris Wilk
ReefNet Inc.
www.reefnet.on.ca

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