>* The unit will serve both as a demo/design board and as a programmer. So
it's
>  not YAPP (Yet Another PIC Programmer). It will come with a fully hooked
up
>  array of peripherals (LCD,LEDs,7 segment, buttons/switches, pots, opamps,
IR)
>  along with a breadboard prototyping area and I/O connector so that other
>  items can be added to the design as needed.

Could I suggest that some of these items not necessarily have the hardware
supplied, but have the necessary tracking on the PCB. I ma thinking in terms
of really keeping the "foot in the door" cost way down for the student
hobbyist. Perhaps a kit of loose parts to fill all the empty holes could be
supplied as an add-on.

Also have the tracking set up so that some of the peripherals are accessible
from the breadboard area. Do not tie them totally to the chip that is
supplied on the PCB. For minimal effort this makes the peripheral devices
much more useful.


>* The unit will have a mechanism for programming other PIC parts.

I do like this idea as well.


>* Both serial and USB interfaces will be available to connect the unit
>  to the the host machine.

I would suggest that it be set up as a serial system, with an FTDI chip to
do the serial to USB conversion. A set of jumpers on a header need to
changed over to select the USB interface. This would seem a much more
sensible solution than attempting to use a USB PIC for both serial and USB.


>* A CD will be delivered with the product that will contain development
>  software and a body of tutorial style exercises that illustrates the
theory
>  and practice of developing for the PIC and the common associated
periperals
>  that are routinely encountered in common microcontroller projects.

Early "exercises" should run correctly once transferred across to the
destination device, as an assurance that the whole system runs correctly,
and the end user can assemble/link/compile/program the chip correctly. Later
exercises should have deliberate errors built in that they have to find as
part of the exercise (why does the LED not have equal off/on times).


>* The primary development language will be assembly.

Well I did suggest that PICC-Lite be included on the CD, and this would need
some exercises in that language as well. It may be that those on the list
who have done BASIC and JAL compilers/interpreters any be willing to allow
their software to also go on the distribution.

Unfortunately many of the exercises may need to be done in multiple
languages. I can envisage people who are already competent in a high level
language on a PC or other environment, wishing to get into microcontrollers
for any of a number of reasons, but not wanting to deal with assembly
language. The availability of high level languages with the starter kit may
well make it considerably more attractive for them, even if they cannot fill
the whole ROM because it is a cut down version. Suitable pointers would be
on the CD to take them to the suppliers site to purchase full versions if
they wish.

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