Development board add-on facilitates microcontroller swops
Microcontrollers can be easily swopped during development using the SiBrain standard add-on for development boards, says MikroElektronika.
The Serbian company says that it can be used to swop Microchip, NXP, STMicro and other microcontrollers on a development board equipped with the SiBrain socket during development with no hardware penalty.
This allows embedded designers to try out different microcontrollers in a prototype system without having to invest in expensive hardware or learn new tools. Currently, the SiBrain cards are available to support microcontrollers from major manufacturers including Microchip, STMicroelectronics, NXP and Texas Instruments, with others to follow shortly.
Nebojsa Matic, CEO of MIKROE explained: “There is no universal standardisation, [so] for every different microcontroller there is a specific set of operating instructions, new tools to learn, new boards and licenses to buy and new processes to adopt.” The SiBrain card and socket standard can save months of wasted development time and money and providing enormous design flexibility, he added.
Depending on the microcontroller type, its pin count, and the number of required external components, there are different SiBrain add-on boards available. Each board is a self-contained unit, allowing the development system to operate on a logic level, without having to facilitate the specific requirements of many different microcontrollers. This gives designers a free hand in the choice of microcontroller, regardless of the pin count or pin compatibility. This approach also enables designers to swap SiBrain microcontroller cards easily during the development phase, without any additional hardware.
Each SiBrain card is equipped with two high-speed 168-pin mezzanine connectors (one male and one female) with the standard SiBrain socket pin-out. Cards can be installed on any development board with the SiBrain socket. The design eliminates the possibility of incorrect orientation and placement.
There are over 100 SiBrain boards covering popular microcontrollers such as STM32, PIC32, TIVA, MSP432, Kinetis. New cards are added on a weekly basis.
