Filled with the excitement of a child opening a present, the engineer might find inside the box a set of design resources, including an evaluation board with a processor or microcontroller, an FPGA, memory and peripherals, as well as software development tools, perhaps even a complete IDE and possibly some kind of operating system. Today, the box is very likely to contain even more resources, but is it still the starting point for new design projects? It's becoming increasingly unclear.
Starting a Project:
For many designs, development kits were ideal for producing the first prototype. Combined with embedded software development and the assembly of a plethora of components and a handful of wires, kits allowed designers to create at least an approximation of their intended final product. Development kit enthusiasts are often software developers who prefer not to get too involved in PCB layout and distribution issues. PCB design problems can be difficult and expensive to solve. By using a kit, the software developer benefits because it removes the hardware from the embedded design equation, allowing them to focus on what they do best: writing code.
Creating hardware prototypes.
However, for many companies that develop electronic hardware, PCB distribution often comes before software development. This can introduce a significant cost and element of risk, as hardware designers will need to develop a highly functional prototype to allow for proper debugging.
However, a significant reduction in the cost of creating prototype boards over the years has made it increasingly competitive. For this reason, developers have considered it a serious alternative to the development kit. It has allowed them to provide an initial hardware design (including power management, processor, memory, and peripherals) for prototyping at increasingly lower costs and in smaller quantities. The result is that developers can use the prototype board as a first iteration of their design: it becomes the development kit. The prototype will approximate the final product much more closely than would have been possible using a traditional off-the-shelf kit. Furthermore, it will lead to design improvements, primarily due to the debugging iterations on the first prototype.
Open Source Tools:
In addition to the reduced cost of custom boards, there has also been a significant resurgence in the availability of free and increasingly feature-rich PCB design tools, such as DesignSpark PCB, as well as testing software. And of course, there is the vast availability of open source software, including operating systems, design templates, and code libraries. Recently, we have also witnessed a proliferation of open source hardware designs and more liberal intellectual property licensing.
Thus, for example, a high-speed memory interface can now be reused on a board along with software architecture and drivers that can be easily downloaded. Developers are no longer forced to use the most basic standard boards with a variety of components selected for the kit in order to meet all customer needs; nor do they have to tolerate the lack of appropriate peripherals in common kit configurations, which makes them unsuitable for those developing more specialized applications.
Adapting to the Environment:
It could be said that all of this has led to a gradual shift in the very purpose of the development kit. It has to adapt to survive in a changing market. A very important consequence of this is that the price of kits has fallen significantly. Now, many development kits also include many more resources, including specific software tools integrated into free IDEs, as well as basic design libraries that streamline the design process. Manufacturers of MCUs, processors, and FPGAs are also offering kits with hardware reference designs and specific software architectures tailored to the application in question. In this way, they can offer engineers a rapid development option at a low cost. An example of application-oriented kits is provided by Texas Instruments (TI), which sells a digital video development platform based on the DaVinci DSP for use in digital video applications. This same company also offers specific kits for the medical, wireless communication, automotive, security, and consumer application markets.
Processor Selection:
There's no doubt that the kit is a very useful tool when selecting the microcontroller or system processor for a new project. Kits are usually based on the most popular and readily available MCUs: continuity of supply is something that must be carefully considered, and choosing an MCU that is nearing the end of its life can pose a significant risk.
The most important thing about using a kit is that engineers can quickly perform a design to prove the concept: they can ensure that the MCU delivers the necessary performance and confirm that all communication channels are working correctly, while running the program, or see if the idea can work on a low-cost FPGA.
Building a Community
. Furthermore, major silicon chip vendors are focusing much more on building their respective design communities to foster brand loyalty and strengthen their connection with engineers.
These communities are helping to gather information for developers. They offer free online software tools and intellectual property resources, as well as providing technical support and discussion forums that encourage the exchange of ideas among engineers and contribute to
solving problems, which helps to speed up development.
A changing role?
Even with all this increased differentiation and functionality, as well as greater technical support, one still wonders: are we reaching the point where kits will cease to play a leading role in the development cycle?
Author:
By Mark Cundle, technical marketing director, RS Components.
