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OT: Ridiculous STM eval board — Parallax Forums

OT: Ridiculous STM eval board

pedwardpedward Posts: 1,642
edited 2012-05-09 14:31 in General Discussion
http://www.st.com/internet/evalboard/product/253215.jsp

This eval board is for the STM32F0 micro, a $3.77 Cortex-M0 design.

The USB interface/programming chip on the board is a ~$5+ Cortex-M3 chip with more capability and speed!

Does this make any sense at all? You need a $5 chip to interface to a $3 chip?

Comments

  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2012-05-09 12:09
    That sort of thing is quite common with ARM evaluation and development boards. The LPCxpressso and mbed boards are similar. It's actually much cheaper than buying someone else 's chip for the USB interface; they still have to implement the JTAG function, which needs a lot of speed.

    That board is very cheap, so it isn't ridiculous.
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2012-05-09 12:15
    You apparently need the $5 chip, a crystal and a rather large tool chain to work with the $3 chip. :smile:
  • RobotWorkshopRobotWorkshop Posts: 2,307
    edited 2012-05-09 12:22
    That doesn't seem unreasonable to have a $5 chip for programming. As I recall the FTDI chip that many of us use to program the Propeller can cost $5 from some places. That is about the difference in buying a Propeller Protoboard with or without the onboard USB connection for programming.

    Robert
  • tonyp12tonyp12 Posts: 1,951
    edited 2012-05-09 12:23
    It's the same thing with the TI 430 Launchpad.
    A $3 usb ic plus a $8 MSP430F1612 to program a $1 430G2231
    http://processors.wiki.ti.com/images/a/af/LaunchPad_BOM.pdf
  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2012-05-09 12:26
    And TI sells the kit for $4.30!
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2012-05-09 12:44
    Leon wrote:
    And TI sells the kit for $4.30!
    I'll bet TI wishes now that they'd given the chip a higher part number! :)

    -Phil
  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2012-05-09 12:53
    They've been working the number 430 into their publicity for many years. They used to have a 430 day on the 30th of April, with seminars, lunch and a free MSP430 board which changed every year. They were repeated world-wide. I went to two or three of them.
  • jmgjmg Posts: 15,184
    edited 2012-05-09 14:31
    Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) wrote: »
    I'll bet TI wishes now that they'd given the chip a higher part number! :)

    -Phil

    Yes, like 200*pi ?! aka 628 ?
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