On Feb 21, 2006, at 6:48 PM, Charles Craft wrote:
>
> http://www.silabs.com/tgwWebApp/public/web_content/products/ 
> Microcontrollers/en/ToolStick.htm
>
> The ToolStick evaluation platform is a fully contained evaluation
> system in a USB stick that demonstrates Silicon Laboratories'
> easy-to-use development tools.
>
Hmm.  I'm getting a bit pissed off at Si-labs low cost 'evaluation
kits" (to be fair, SiL doesn't CALL them "development systems.)
Both this board and the $25 C8051F064EK look like REALLY good
values on the surface, but dig a bit deeper and they're disturbingly
limited.   They're wired for a particular purpose, no general purpose
headers connecting to other pins, little or no "general purpose IO."
They're set up to demonstrate ONE particular application (apparently),
and that's about all they'll do.  the toolstick blinks LEDs, and the
C8051F064EK demonstrates some analog features.  Hmmph.

Atmel's Butterfly, or TI's new ez-430, are examples of similarly
smallish, but MUCH more versatile evaluation boards.  (Hmm.  I
wonder if Atmel will do a USB butterfly now?)

(yeah, I know.  Whine, whine...)

BillW
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