A microprocessor development board is a printed circuit board containing a

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circu ...

and the minimal support logic needed for an

electronic engineer Electronics engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering which 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 ...

or any person that 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, 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 In computing, a serial port is a serial communication 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 parallel. ...

flash memory Flash memory is an electronic 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 the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both us ...

, 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 National Semiconductor's INS8060, or SC/MP (pronounced ''scamp'') for Simple Cost-effective Micro Processor, is an early 8-bit microprocessor which became available in April 1976. A unique feature of the SC/MP is a daisy-chained control pin that al ...

development board from

National Semiconductor National Semiconductor was an American semiconductor manufacturer which specialized in analog devices and subsystems, formerly with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The company produced power management integrated circuits, display drive ...

, the "

NS introkit NS as an abbreviation can mean: Arts and entertainment Gaming * Natural Selection (video game), ''Natural Selection'' (video game), a mod for the game ''Half-life'' * ''NetStorm: Islands At War'', a real-time strategy game published in 1997 by Ac ...

". Although these development boards were not designed for hobbyists, they were often bought by them because they were the earliest cheap microcomputer devices you could buy. 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 in response to the open letter published by Bill Gates complaining about users pirating Altair BASIC, which ...

. The most popular microprocessor board, the

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

, received the most attention from the hobby community, because it was much cheaper than most other development boards, and you could get more software for it (Tiny Basic, games, assemblers), 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. How ''kilobaud'' started Wayne Green, the editor and publisher of ''kilobaud'', had been the publisher of ''BYTE'' magazine, (another i ...

" 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 Reference design refers to a technical blueprint 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 desi ...

". 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 based built-in machine language monitor, 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 switches that older systems used. The popular 6800 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 keyboard, using a machine language monitor 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. Initia ...

interface was used to read (or punch) a

papertape Five- and eight-hole 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 storage ...

. 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 originally introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' (''data terminal equipment'') such a ...

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 de ...

serial port, so a

terminal Terminal may refer to: Computing Hardware * Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together * Terminal (telecommunication), a device communicating over a line * Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output devic ...

, printer, or Teletype could be connected.

List of historical development boards

8085AAT 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

, 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 compatible with the more-famous Intel 8080 with only two minor instructions added to support its added in ...

microprocessor training unit from Paccom * CDP18S020 evaluation board for the

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

CDP1802 microprocessor *

EVK 300 EVK or evk can refer to: * Evonik Industries, a German chemicals company, by stock ticker * Estonian Sign Language, the national sign language of Estonia * Evenkite, a rare hydrocarbon mineral, by mineral code * Entomologischer Verein Krefeld, an ...

6800 single board from

American Microsystems onsemi (stylized in lowercase; legally ON Semiconductor Corporation; formerly ON Semiconductor until August 5, 2021) is an American semiconductor supplier company, based in Phoenix, Arizona and ranked #483 on the 2022 ''Fortune'' 500 based on it ...

(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 com ...

expandable learning system based on the 8085, by Netronics's research and development ltd. *

ITT experimenter ITT may refer to: Communication * Infantry-Tank Telephone, a device allowing infantrymen to speak to the occupants of armoured vehicles. Mathematics *Intuitionistic type theory, other name of Martin-Löf Type Theory *Intensional type theory B ...

used switches and LEDs, and an intel 8080 *JOLT was designed by Raymond M. Holt, co-founder of Microcomputer Associates, Incorporated. *

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 mo ...

/ 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 te ...

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 popul ...

a slightly improved KIM-1 with better software, more memory, and I/O. Also known as the VIM **

AIM-65 The Rockwell AIM-65 computer is a development computer introduced in 1978 based on the MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor. The AIM-65 is essentially an expanded KIM-1 computer. Available software included a line-oriented machine code monitor, ...

an improved KIM-1 with an alphanumerical 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: Arts and entertainment Music * ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959 * ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009 * ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010 * ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019 Films * ''Junior'' (1994 ...

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 ...

, and the

MCS Alpha 1 Music * Motion City Soundtrack, a pop punk / rock band from Minneapolis, Minnesota Science and technology * Matrix cable system, submarine communications cable connecting Indonesia and Singapore * Megawatt Charging System, electric vehicle charg ...

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 M ...

* 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 se ...

the official development board for the

Motorola 6800 The 6800 ("''sixty-eight hundred''") is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit microprocessor designed and first manufactured by Motorola in 1974. The MC6800 microprocessor was part of the Motorola 6800 family, M6800 Microcomputer System (latter dubbed ''68xx' ...

microprocessor. The name of the monitor software was

* MicroChroma 68 color graphics kit. Developed by Motorola 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 6 ...

Microprofessor I The Micro-Professor MPF-I, introduced in 1981 by Multitech (which, in 1987, changed its name to Acer), was the first branded computer product from Multitech and probably one of the world's longest selling computers. The MPF-I, specifically design ...

(MPF-1) Z80 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, which could be expanded into, what was for its day, a comprehensive and powerful system. The design became the basis for what la ...

6502 development system with VDU, that could be expanded to a more capable system. * MST-80B 8080 training system by the

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a federal research facility in Livermore, California, United States. The lab was originally established as the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore Branch in 1952 in response ...

featuring the

, the predecessor to the Sinclair

NRI microcomputer NRI or Nri may refer to : * Kingdom of Nri, an Igbo kingdom that flourished between the 10th century and early 20th century * National Radio Institute, a now defunct post-secondary vocational correspondence school * National Resources Inventory * N ...

, a system developed to teach computer courses by

McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referenc ...

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, DC from 1914 to 2002. The school originally trained students to become radio operators and tec ...

(NRI) *

Training system for the SC/MP microprocessor from

Sinclair Research Ltd. Sinclair Research Ltd is a British consumer electronics company founded by Clive Sinclair in Cambridge. It was originally incorporated in 1973 as Westminster Mail Order Ltd, renamed Sinclair Instrument Ltd, then Science of Cambridge Ltd, the ...

* SDK-80 Intel's development board for their

8080 The Intel 8080 (''"eighty-eighty"'') is the second 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel. It first appeared in April 1974 and is an extended and enhanced variant of the earlier 8008 design, although without binary compatibili ...

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 were p ...

* SDK-85 Intel's development board for their

8085 The Intel 8085 ("''eighty-eighty-five''") is an 8-bit microprocessor produced by Intel and introduced in March 1976. It is software-binary compatible with the more-famous Intel 8080 with only two minor instructions added to support its added i ...

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 (allowi ...

microprocessor *

Siemens Microset-8080 Siemens AG ( ) is a German Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal ...

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 N.V. commonly referred as ST or STMicro is a Dutch multinational corporation and technology company of French-Italian origin headquartered in Plan-les-Ouates near Geneva, Switzerland and listed on the French stock market. ST ...

Nanocomputer z80. *

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

. a 1802 learning system with an RCA 1861

Video Display Controller A video display controller or 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 su ...

the development board for

NEC is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It prov ...

's clone of

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

i8080 The Intel 8080 (''"eighty-eighty"'') is the second 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel. It first appeared in April 1974 and is an extended and enhanced variant of the earlier 8008 design, although without binary compatibili ...

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

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globall ...

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

* TM 990/180M evaluation board for the

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 MOS integrated circuit chips. They are widely used in audio si ...

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 software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source code editor, build automation tools a ...

(IDE).

and

Spectrum Digital A spectrum (plural ''spectra'' or ''spectrums'') is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary, without gaps, across a Continuum (measurement), continuum. The word was first used scientifically in optics to describ ...

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 that represents real numbers approximately, using an integer with a fixed precision, called the significand, scaled by an integer exponent of a fixed base. For example, 12.345 can be ...

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Microprocessor Development Board Early microcomputers History of computing hardware Telecommunications engineering

History

Features

List of historical development boards

DSP evaluation boards

See also

References