A microprocessor development board is a

printed circuit board A printed circuit board (PCB), also called printed wiring board (PWB), is a Lamination, laminated sandwich structure of electrical conduction, conductive and Insulator (electricity), insulating layers, each with a pattern of traces, planes ...

containing a

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor (computing), processor for which the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit (IC), or a small number of ICs. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, a ...

and the minimal support logic needed for an

electronic engineer Electronic engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering that emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and control electric current flow ...

or any person who wants to become acquainted with the microprocessor on the board and to learn to program it. It also served users of the microprocessor as a method to prototype applications in products. Unlike a general-purpose system such as a

home computer Home computers were a class of microcomputers that entered the market in 1977 and became common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a s ...

, usually a development board contains little or no hardware dedicated to a user interface. It will have some provision to accept and run a user-supplied program, such as downloading a program through a

serial port A serial port is a serial communication Interface (computing), interface through which information transfers in or out sequentially one bit at a time. This is in contrast to a parallel port, which communicates multiple bits simultaneously in Pa ...

flash memory Flash memory is an Integrated circuit, electronic Non-volatile memory, non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for t ...

, or some form of programmable memory in a socket in earlier systems.

History

The reason for the existence of a development board was solely to provide a system for learning to use a new microprocessor, not for entertainment, so everything superfluous was left out to keep costs down. Even an enclosure was not supplied, nor a power supply. This is because the board would only be used in a "laboratory" environment so it did not need an enclosure, and the board could be powered by a typical bench power supply already available to an electronic engineer. Microprocessor training development kits were not always produced by microprocessor manufacturers. Many systems that can be classified as microprocessor development kits were produced by third parties, one example is the Sinclair

MK14 The MK14 (Microcomputer Kit 14) was a computer kit sold by Science of Cambridge of the United Kingdom, first introduced in 1977 for £39.95. The price was very low for a complete computer system at the time, and Science of Cambridge eventually ...

, which was inspired by the official SC/MP development board from

National Semiconductor National Semiconductor Corporation was an United States of America, American Semiconductor manufacturing, semiconductor manufacturer, which specialized in analogue electronics, analog devices and subsystems, formerly headquartered in Santa Clara, ...

, the "NS introkit". Although these development boards were not designed for hobbyists, they were often bought by them because they were the earliest cheap microcomputer devices available. They often added all kinds of expansions, such as more memory, a video interface etc. It was very popular to use (or write) an implementation of

Tiny Basic Tiny BASIC is a family of dialects of the BASIC programming language that can fit into 4 or fewer KBs of memory. Tiny BASIC was designed by Dennis Allison and the People's Computer Company (PCC) in response to the open letter published by Bi ...

. The most popular microprocessor board, the

KIM-1 The KIM-1, short for ''Keyboard Input Monitor'', is a small MOS Technology 6502, 6502-based single-board computer developed and produced by MOS Technology, MOS Technology, Inc. and launched in 1976. It was very successful in that period, due to ...

, received the most attention from the hobby community, because it was much cheaper than most other development boards, and more software was available for it (Tiny Basic, games,

assemblers Assembler may refer to: Arts and media * Nobukazu Takemura, avant-garde electronic musician, stage name Assembler * Assemblers, a fictional race in the ''Star Wars'' universe * Assemblers, an alternative name of the superhero group Champions of ...

), and cheap expansion cards to add more memory or other functionality. More articles were published in magazines like "

Kilobaud Microcomputing ''Kilobaud Microcomputing'' was a magazine dedicated to the computer homebrew hobbyists from 1977 to 1983. It was one of the three influential computer magazines of the 1970s, along with ''BYTE'' and ''Creative Computing''. It focused mostly o ...

" that described home-brew software and hardware for the KIM-1 than for other development boards. Today some chip producers still release "test boards" to demonstrate their chips, and to use them as a "

reference design A reference design is a technical design of a system that is intended for others to copy. It contains the essential elements of the system; however, third parties may enhance or modify the design as required. When discussing computer designs, th ...

". Their significance these days is much smaller than it was in the days that such boards, (the

being the canonical example) were the only low cost way to get "hands-on" acquainted with microprocessors..

Features

The most important feature of the microprocessor development board was the

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...

-based built-in

machine language monitor A machine code monitor ( machine language monitor) is software that allows a user to enter commands to view and change memory locations on a computer, with options to load and save memory contents from/to secondary storage. Some full-featured ma ...

, or "debugger" as it was also sometimes called. Often the name of the board was related to the name of this monitor program, for example the name of the monitor program of the KIM-1 was "Keyboard Input Monitor", because the ROM-based software allowed entry of programs without the rows of cumbersome

toggle switch In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type o ...

es that older systems used. The popular

Motorola 6800 The 6800 ("''sixty-eight hundred''") is an 8-bit microprocessor designed and first manufactured by Motorola in 1974. The MC6800 microprocessor was part of the M6800 Microcomputer System (later dubbed ''68xx'') that also included serial and parall ...

-based systems often used a monitor with a name with the word "bug" for "debugger" in it, for example the popular "

MIKBUG MIKBUG is a ROM monitor from Motorola for the Motorola 6800 8-bit microprocessor. It is intended to "be used to debug and evaluate a user's program". MIKBUG was distributed by Motorola in 1974 on a 1 K ROM chip part number MCM6830L7. It ...

". Input was normally done with a

hexadecimal Hexadecimal (also known as base-16 or simply hex) is a Numeral system#Positional systems in detail, positional numeral system that represents numbers using a radix (base) of sixteen. Unlike the decimal system representing numbers using ten symbo ...

keyboard, using a

program, and the display only consisted of a 7-segment display. Backup storage of written assembler programs was primitive: only a cassette type interface was typically provided, or the serial

Teletype A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is an electromechanical device that can be used to send and receive typed messages through various communications channels, in both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint configurations. Init ...

interface was used to read (or punch) a

papertape Five- and eight-hole wide punched paper tape Paper tape reader on the Harwell computer with a small piece of five-hole tape connected in a circle – creating a physical program loop Punched tape or perforated paper tape is a form of data st ...

. Often the board has some kind to expansion connector that brought out all the necessary CPU signals, so that an engineer could build and test an experimental interface or other electronic device. External interfaces on the bare board were often limited to a single

RS-232 In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' (''data terminal equipment'') such as a compu ...

current loop In electrical signalling an analog current loop is used where a device must be monitored or controlled remotely over a pair of conductors. Only one current level can be present at any time. A major application of current loops is the industry ...

serial port, so a

terminal Terminal may refer to: Computing Hardware * Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output devices for a computer * Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together ** Battery terminal, electrical contact used to ...

, printer, or Teletype could be connected.

List of historical development boards

*8085AAT, an

Intel 8085 The Intel 8085 ("''eighty-eighty-five''") is an 8-bit microprocessor produced by Intel and introduced in March 1976. It is software-binary-code compatibility, binary compatible with the more-famous Intel 8080. It is the last 8-bit microprocesso ...

microprocessor training unit from Paccom *CDP18S020 evaluation board for the

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

CDP1802 microprocessor *EVK 300 6800 single board from

American Microsystems ON Semiconductor Corporation (stylized and doing business as onsemi) is an American semiconductor supplier company, based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Products include power and signal management, logic, discrete, and custom devices for automotive, c ...

(AMI) *

Explorer/85 The Netronics Explorer 85 was an Intel 8085 based computer produced by Netronics R&D Ltd. located in New Milford, Connecticut between 1979 and 1984. Netronics also produced the more well known ELF II computer, and the ill-fated Explorer 88 comp ...

expandable learning system based on the 8085, by Netronics's research and development ltd. *ITT experimenter used switches and LEDs, and an

Intel 8080 The Intel 8080 is Intel's second 8-bit computing, 8-bit microprocessor. Introduced in April 1974, the 8080 was an enhanced successor to the earlier Intel 8008 microprocessor, although without binary compatibility.'' Electronic News'' was a week ...

*JOLT was designed by Raymond M. Holt, co-founder of

Microcomputer Associates, Incorporated Microcomputer Associates, Inc., was an American computer company founded by Manny Lemas and Ray Holt. It produced the low-cost Jolt Microcomputer, designed by Holt and released in 1975 for . Microcomputer Associates introduces the 6502 based J ...

. *

the development board for the

MOS Technology MOS Technology, Inc. ("MOS" being short for Metal Oxide Semiconductor), later known as CSG (Commodore Semiconductor Group) and GMT Microelectronics, was a semiconductor design and fabrication company based in Audubon, Pennsylvania. It is ...

/ Rockwell/

Synertek Synertek, Inc. was an American semiconductor manufacturer founded in 1973. The initial staff consisted of Bob Schreiner (the CEO), Dan Floyd, Jack Balletto, and Gunnar Wetlesen and Zvi Grinfas. Schreiner, Floyd, Balletto and Wetlesen were all forme ...

6502 The MOS Technology 6502 (typically pronounced "sixty-five-oh-two" or "six-five-oh-two") William Mensch and the moderator both pronounce the 6502 microprocessor as ''"sixty-five-oh-two"''. is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by a small ...

microprocessor. The name KIM is short for "keyboard input monitor" **

SYM-1 The SYM-1 is a single board "trainer" computer produced by Synertek Systems in 1975. It was designed by Ray Holt. Originally called the VIM-1 (Versatile Input Monitor), that name was later changed to SYM-1. The SYM-1 is a close copy of the po ...

a slightly improved KIM-1 with improved software, more memory, and I/O. Also known as the VIM ** AIM-65 an improved KIM-1 with an alpha-numerical LED display, and a built-in printer. **The KIM-1 also lead to some unofficial copies, such as the super-KIM and the

Junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Aircraft * Ekolot JK-05L Junior, a Polish ultralight aircraft * PZL-112 Junior, a Polish training aircraft * SZD-51 Junior, a Polish-made training and club glider Arts and entertainment Characters * Bowser Jr., ...

from the magazine

Elektor :''Elektor (ἠλέκτωρ) is also an ancient Greek name or epithet of the Sun, see Helios.'' ''Elektor'', also known as ''Elektor Magazine'', is a monthly magazine about all aspects of electronics, originally published in the Netherlands as ''E ...

, and the MCS Alpha 1 *

LC80 The educational computer LC80 was a single-board computer manufactured in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and intended for teaching purposes. It was the first computer that retail customers could buy in the GDR. History and development ...

Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt VEB Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt was an important manufacturer of active electronic components in East Germany. It should not be confused with the more well-known VEB Kombinat Robotron Dresden which used integrated circuits from Kombinat ...

*MAXBOARD development board for the Motorola 6802. *

MEK6800D2 The MEK6800D2 was a Microprocessor development board, development board for the Motorola 6800 microprocessor, produced by Motorola in 1976. It featured a keyboard with hexadecimal keys and an LED display, but also featured an RS-232 asynchronous s ...

the official development board for the Motorola 6800 microprocessor. The name of the monitor software was

*MicroChroma 68 color graphics kit. Developed by

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

to demonstrate their new 6847 video display processor. The monitor software was called TVBUG * Motorola EXORciser development system (rack based) for the

Motorola 6809 The Motorola 6809 ("''sixty-eight-oh-nine''") is an 8-bit microprocessor with some 16-bit features. It was designed by Motorola's Terry Ritter and Joel Boney and introduced in 1978. Although source compatible with the earlier Motorola 6800, the ...

Microprofessor I The Micro-Professor MPF-I is a microcomputer released by Multitech (later renamed Acer) in 1981. The company's first branded product, it was marketed as a training system to learn machine code and assembly language for the Zilog Z80 microp ...

(MPF-1)

Z80 The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by Zilog that played an important role in the evolution of early personal computing. Launched in 1976, it was designed to be software-compatible with the Intel 8080, offering a compelling altern ...

development and training system by Acer *

Tangerine Microtan 65 The Tangerine Microtan 65 (sometimes abbreviated M65) was a 6502-based single board microcomputer, first sold in 1979, that could be expanded into what was, for its day, a comprehensive and powerful system. The design became the basis for what la ...

development system with VDU, that could be expanded to a more capable system. *MST-80B

8080 The Intel 8080 is Intel's second 8-bit microprocessor. Introduced in April 1974, the 8080 was an enhanced successor to the earlier Intel 8008 microprocessor, although without binary compatibility.'' Electronic News'' was a weekly trade newspa ...

training system by the

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Livermore, California, United States. Originally established in 1952, the laboratory now i ...

*NS introkit by

featuring the SC/MP, the predecessor to the Sinclair

*NRI microcomputer, a system developed to teach computer courses by

McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American education science company that provides educational content, software, and services for students and educators across various levels—from K-12 to higher education and professional settings. They produce textbooks, ...

and the

National Radio Institute The National Radio Institute-McGraw Hill Continuing Education Center was a private, postsecondary, for-profit correspondence school based in Washington, D.C., from 1914 to 2002. The school originally trained students to become radio operators an ...

(NRI) *

Training system for the SC/MP microprocessor from Sinclair Research Ltd. * SDK-80 Intel's development board for their

microprocessor * SDK-51 Intel's development board for their

Intel MCS-51 The Intel MCS-51 (commonly termed 8051) is a single-chip microcontroller (MCU) series developed by Intel in 1980 for use in embedded systems. The architect of the Intel MCS-51 instruction set was John H. Wharton.. Intel's original versions w ...

* SDK-85 Intel's development board for their 8085 microprocessor * SDK-86 Intel's development board for their

8086 The 8086 (also called iAPX 86) is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel between early 1976 and June 8, 1978, when it was released. The Intel 8088, released July 1, 1979, is a slightly modified chip with an external 8-bit data bus (allo ...

microprocessor *Siemens Microset-8080 boxed system based on an 8080. *

Signetics Signetics Corporation was an American electronics manufacturer specifically established to make integrated circuits. Founded in 1961, they went on to develop a number of early microprocessors and support chips, as well as the widely used 555 time ...

Instructor 50 based on the

Signetics 2650 The Signetics 2650 was an 8-bit microprocessor introduced in July 1975. According to Adam Osborne's book ''An Introduction to Microprocessors Vol 2: Some Real Products'', it was "the most minicomputer-like" of the microprocessors available at the ...

. *

SGS-ATES STMicroelectronics NV (commonly referred to as ST or STMicro) is a European multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. It is the largest of such companies in Europe. It was founded in 1987 from the merger of two st ...

Nanocomputer Z80. *RCA Cosmac Super Elf by

. a 1802 learning system with an RCA 1861

Video Display Controller A video display controller (VDC), also called a display engine or display interface, is an integrated circuit which is the main component in a video-signal generator, a device responsible for the production of a TV video signal in a computing ...

. *

TK-80 The TK-80 (μCOM Training Kit TK-80) was an 8080-based single-board computer kit developed by Nippon Electric Company (NEC) in 1976. It was originally developed for engineers who considered using the '' μCOM-80 family'' in their product. It was ...

the development board for

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...

's clone of

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

's i8080, the μPD 8080A *TM 990/100M evaluation board for the

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American multinational semiconductor company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It is one of the top 10 semiconductor companies worldwide based on sales volume. The company's focus is on developing analog ...

TMS9900 The TMS9900 was one of the first commercially available single-chip 16-bit microprocessors. Introduced in June 1976, it implemented Texas Instruments's TI-990 minicomputer architecture in a single-chip format, and was initially used for low-end ...

*TM 990/180M evaluation board for the Texas Instruments TMS9800 *XPO-1 Texas Instruments development system for the PPS-4/1 line of microcontrollers

DSP evaluation boards

A DSP evaluation board, sometimes also known as a DSP starter kit (DSK) or a DSP evaluation module, is an electronic board with a

digital signal processor A digital signal processor (DSP) is a specialized microprocessor chip, with its architecture optimized for the operational needs of digital signal processing. DSPs are fabricated on metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuit chips. ...

used for experiments, evaluation and development. Applications are developed in DSP Starter Kits using software usually referred as an

integrated development environment An integrated development environment (IDE) is a Application software, software application that provides comprehensive facilities for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source-code editor, build automation tools, an ...

(IDE).

and Spectrum Digital are two companies who produce these kits. Two examples are the DSK 6416 by Texas Instruments, based on the TMS320C6416 fixed point digital signal processor, a member of C6000 series of processors that is based on VelociTI.2 architecture, and the DSK 6713 by Texas Instruments, which was developed in cooperation with Spectrum Digital, based on the TMS320C6713 32-bit

floating point In computing, floating-point arithmetic (FP) is arithmetic on subsets of real numbers formed by a ''significand'' (a signed sequence of a fixed number of digits in some base) multiplied by an integer power of that base. Numbers of this form ...

digital signal processor, which allows for programming in C and assembly.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Microprocessor Development Board Early microcomputers Telecommunications engineering

History

Features

List of historical development boards

DSP evaluation boards

See also

References