February 26, 2003 - SofTec Microsystems introduces the ultimate, low-cost yet powerful series of tools for STMicroelectronics FLASH devices. The new inDART-STX series of in-circuit debuggers/programmers, supporting the whole ST FIVE 508 and ST72F FLASH families, is now available.
The inDART-STX series takes advantage of the ISP (In-System Programming) feature to program the FLASH memory of the target microcontrollers. inDART-STX series tools seamlessly integrate into your favorite development environment: STMicroelectronics STVD7 and Metrowerks CodeWarrior for ST7 (if you are working with ST7 devices) or STMicroelectronics Visual FIVE and Raisonance RKit-ST5 (if you are working with FIVE devices). All of these development environments are conveniently included with each inDART-STX model, thus providing you with everything you need to quick-start your projects: you can write, compile (the provided compilers are limited evaluation versions), download (program), in-circuit emulate and debug your code right out of the box. The debugger/programmer unit is connected to the host PC through a USB port, while the 10-pin connector of the product fits into the target's ISP connector.
Contrariwise to traditional in-circuit emulation (where the target application is executed and emulated inside the emulator), inDART-STX tools use the very same target microcontroller to carry on in-circuit execution. This means that all microcontroller's peripherals (timers, A/D converters, I/O pins, etc.) are not reconstructed or simulated by an external device, but are the very same target microcontroller's peripherals. Moreover, the inDART-STX debugging approach ensures that the target microcontroller's electrical characteristics (pull-ups, low-voltage operations, I/O thresholds, etc.) are 100% guaranteed.
The tools are available in a Starter Kit package (universal debugger/programmer, at $249--a working user application board is required) or in Design Kit packages (starting from $299--which also include a derivative-specific, full-featured experiment board). Each demo board includes DIP-switches, jumpers, LEDs, push-buttons, a potentiometer, prototyping area and a standard ISP connector and can be used for evaluation/experiments in the absence of a target application board. Design Kits are currently available for ST7FLITE0, ST7FLITE2, ST72F264, ST72F321/521 and for the ST FIVE 508 family.
