More MCU vendors now offer application-specific kits and designs.

Over the last year I've noticed manufacturers offer a wider variety of eval kits aimed at applications such as motor control, audio processing, display control, wireless links, power converters, and so on. Reference designs for these types of applications have existed for some time, but more and more often I see microcontrollers (MCUs) drop into the reference designs to make them programmable. And many MCU vendors extend their application tools with application-specific kits and code. That means engineers can easily customize the operations and characteristics of an eval kit to suit their needs.

In addition to offering application-specific eval kits, manufacturers also offer a cornucopia of working code, software examples, and development tools that can ease engineers' entry into a new area. If you have no experience processing audio signals, fear not. You'll find ready-to-use audio signal-processing code for an Analog Devices Blackfin MCU or a Microchip dsPIC MCU. The same holds true for motor controllers from Luminary Micro or Renesas Technology. These and other companies also have libraries of application code for their processors that engineers can use as-is or as a starting point for their own code. Do a bit of research and you can find many vendors who offer eval kits suited to specific tasks.

In many cases, engineers can use the circuits on the eval boards as a reference design for their own product. (Some vendors make available their BOMs, Gerber files, and other information.) Even if engineers simply replicate a vendor's design for, say, a motor controller, to produce a prototype. Then if they have problems or need to troubleshoot code, they can fall back on the vendor's eval kit as a similar platform they know works. I have heard from engineers about how they took a basic eval board and incorporated it into prototypes to show prospective customers. And some companies have included eval boards in final products so they can concentrate their expertise on areas in which they excel.

So, there's more to eval kits than just trying out an MCU and a vendors tools. They provide excellent starting places for engineers who need to solve a specific application problem.

How likely are you to look for an eval kit specific to your type of application? Would you like evalkits.com to write more about application-specific kits? I welcome your comments.

Jon Titus
Jon.Titus@evalkits.com
Jon will be writing a weekly blog for evalkits.com covering a wide sprectrum of topics. Shoot him an e-mail and let him know what you think of specialty eval kits!