Microcontrollers

Development Environment

M-Station evaluation system

Introducing M-Station - a low-cost evaluation system with flash programming and source-level debugging functionality.
		Designed to get you started with NEC's 8-and 32-bit microcontrollers, M-Station provides everything you need to write, compile, download, and debug user code. Full-speed program execution allows you to test hardware and software in real time.

Designed for flexibility
M-station has two primary hardware components: the M-Station motherboard and a micro-board. The motherboard connects to the host PC via a USB 2.0 interface. It includes a built-in flash programmer, as well as EEPROM with an I2C interface, an RS-232 driver, a potentiometer, user LEDs, LCDs, and switches for testing peripherals. As an option, CAN or LIN transceivers and external SRAM chips can be added. The motherboard also has a prototyping area for wiring your own circuits.

The micro-board holds the microcontroller under evaluation and crystals for the clock and sub-clock. The micro-board mounts can mount directly onto the mother board, or can alternatively be integrated into a target system and connected to the motherboard through a 16-pin cable. On-board components include a reset switch, terminals for monitoring power consumption, and 0.1" center headers for easy access to all microcontroller pins.

For low-cost flexibility, the M-Station motherboard and micro-boards can be purchased separately. A common motherboard supports NEC Electronics' 8- and 32-bit microcontrollers, so you can easily evaluate a broad range of devices by just swapping the micro-board.

Source-level debugger
The M-Station debugger software provides full source-level and symbolic debugging with real-time code execution. Functions include reset, start, stop, single step, step over, step out, and breakpoint setting. The GUI displays coordinated source and disassembly windows, memory and special function register (SFR) windows, and a watch variables window that provides access to any C object including enums, bit fields, structs, arrays and floats.

Terminal emulation software
In addition to the source-level debugger, the M-Station system includes a terminal emulation software package (MSTTERM) similar in functionality to the well-known HyperTerminal tool included with Microsoft Windows operating systems. MSTTERM takes advantage of the M-Station USB 2.0 interface to allow users to test applications that involve serial communication between a host PC and a microcontroller's UART peripheral.

Free development software
To get your application up and running, M-station comes with a C compiler, assembler, and linker. As a further aid to developers, NEC Electronics offers a number of free software packages: Applilet device driver generator and an evaluation version of NEC's system simulator can be downloaded from the NEC Electronics' development tools Web site.