Development Boards, Kits, Programmers
1 What are Development Boards, Kits and Programmers?
Development boards and kits usually include microcontrollers, peripheral interfaces, and debugging modules, providing engineers with a platform to quickly verify designs, test algorithms or learn chip functions.
Programmers are used to burn code to the target chip and support firmware updates and debugging.
2 What are the Main Product Types of Development Boards and Kits?
Educational Kits: Such as the educational kits of the Arm University Program, which are designed for teaching scenarios to help students learn the Cortex-M series architecture and embedded development technology.
Cloud Platform Integration Kits: For example, solutions provided by Enmo Technologies support uploading sensor data from STMicro SensorTile or TI SimpleLink™ SensorTag directly to the cloud.
Wireless Communication Kits: Such as Nordic Semiconductor's nRF9160 system-in-package (SiP) kit, which integrates cellular IoT and low-power Bluetooth functions.
Display Evaluation Kit: Such as the E-ink screen development kit of Pervasive Displays, which is used for prototyping of e-paper display modules.
3 Where are Development Boards and Kits Used for?
Education and Training: The learning threshold is lowered through standardized hardware and supporting teaching materials, which is suitable for university laboratories and internal training of enterprises.
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT): Supports sensor data acquisition, edge computing and remote monitoring functions, and is often used for rapid prototyping of smart devices.
Embedded System Development: Provides debugging interfaces compatible with different chip architectures (such as ARM Cortex-M) to shorten product development cycles.
4 Typical Manufacturers for Development Boards and Kits
ARM: Provides the Versatile Express series development board based on Cortex-M, which supports a variety of peripheral expansions.
Renesas: The DK-S124 development board is designed for low-power embedded systems and is suitable for sensor networks and wearable devices.
Nordic Semiconductor: With wireless communication as the core, it launches an integrated development kit that integrates radio frequency (RF) and microcontrollers.
