Low Cost Micro Controller Development Systems

mfgr

Atmel

Zilog

Hitachi

MicroChip Technologies

Scenix (End Of Life)

series AT89S AT90S Z8/Z8Plus H8/300L all 16F87x SX
arch ISP 8051 clones AVR RISC Z80 H8 PIC 50-100 MIPS ISP PIC clone
Cost uController $2 - $20 (1, 2) (1, 3 2, ) $2 - $35 (1) ~$20.00 (1) $2.00 - $10.00 (1) $5.00-$10.00(1) ~$6.00
Programmer $5.00 (in parts) for PC Parallel Port programming cable / free software. (in ATICE200 below) or use Arduino bootloader (in ICE) ~$100.00 DevKit w/Prog, Asm, IDE, ICE (1) FLASH support extra for other H8/300 series. $10-$100 large selection $199  (1) $99 with MChip seminar  ICD PC prog / debug adapter, IDE, true ICE (emulation circuitry built into the production chips) $50 SXBlitz $199 (1) SXKey PC serial port prog / debug adapter, IDE, true ICE (emulation circuitry built into the production chips)
Compiler Many free 8051 compilers, etc. available. many free / low cost free ASM (in ICE) many free / low cost many free / low cost
IDE free free IDE^ or Arduino free (in ICE) free MPLAB ?
ICE N/A $200 (1, 2, 3, 4) ATICE200 $99 (1) $$$$ N/A
Simulator SIM

many free / low cost

many free / low cost

Total Cost $10.00 $20 to ~$210 ~$110 ~$120 ~$50 ~$157 $56 $206
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PICLIST

Upside Dead cheap! Lots of resources. Powerfull uP, Lots of resources Low cost in production (chip price), lots of app notes / sample code. large selection, many special features, low cost in production and developement, lots of app notes / sample code. True ICE, lots of io (a2d, uart, pwm, timers) Screaming FAST, Virtualize external hardware in code to reduce total production costs, SX48/52 have 40 io pins., True ICE, Screaming FAST, Virtualize external hardware in code to reduce total production costs, SX48/52 have 40 io pins.
Downside NO ICE, 4 uP's, single source, 2 MIPS Cost for ICE, 4 to 8 MIPS, single source? low cost versions are very low power (512b program 32b ram), 1 to 2 MIPS, single source? 4 MIPS May not have ICE, 2 to 10 MIPS limited to 4 uC's NO ICE, few uP's, single source few uP's, single source

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