Hands-On RTOS with Microcontrollers

Low-cost demonstration boards

Low-cost demonstration boards have really come into their own in recent years. Prices have come down significantly; manufacturers will occasionally sell demonstration boards for the same cost as the bare IC that sits on them (occasionally, they were actually less expensive than buying individual ICs!). Unlike hardware platforms, these boards will often have similar footprints, but not necessarily the same connectors or pinouts.

Recently, more low-cost demonstration boards that blur the line between platforms and demonstration boards (also called demo boards) have come to the market. Thanks to the ubiquity of Arduino®, most low-cost boards will have at least a set of Arduino headers that are pin-compatible. However, ...