ELEC424/COMP424: Mobile & Embedded Systems
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Useful Resources

PCB Design

You can use whatever PCB design tools available to you. We have been using EAGLE and have the Standard version installed in the VLSI Lab computers. There is also a free version that you can install on your own computers. All libraries we provide are for EAGLE too.

Please find more information here.

Software Development for MSP430 and Stellaris

TI Code Composer Studio

TI Code Composer Studio is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). It supports both MSP430 and Stellaris. We have licenses for CCS 4 at Rice. CCS 4.2.4 is installed in the AL A116 Lab. You can download it from here. There are many online resources from TI that you can use. The example code for IAR Embedded Workbench can be easily ported to CCS.

IAR Embedded Workbench

IAR Embedded Workbench is another IDE and we have the full version for MSP430 installed in the AL A116 Lab. There is also a free evaluation version that you can install on your own computers but it expires in 30 days. You can find a simple tutorial to get started. To learn more about C programming of MSP430 with IAR Embedded Workbench, read MSP430 IAR C/C++ Compiler reference guide. In particular, you need to understand how interrupt handlers are supported by the IAR IDE. You can also use example code to understand this.

IAR Embedded Workbench also supports Stellaris as it supports ARM processors. Unfortunately, we do not have licenses for it.

GNU/Linux

 If you are really geeky, you can even try to use open-source GNU/Linux to program MSP430.    

Example code

TI provides resources for MSP430 in particular from the home of each variant, e.g., MSP430F5438a and MSP430F169. For instance, These code examples include an example for almost every port. Additionally, you can always Google to find out more. For instance, you can find out how to use MSP430 as the I2C Master and Slave.

You can find the example code from TI for Stellaris from here.

Because there are many variants of MSP430 and Stellaris, make sure you are using the example code and application notes that work for your particular variant. Otherwise, you may want to adapt the code for your particular variant.