TI Unveils Ultra Low Cost MSP430 Microcontroller Kit Called "LaunchPad"

Texas Instruments, TI, has unveiled an ultra-low cost microcontroller kit that's based on their MSP430 line of chips. The new kit, called "LaunchPad", is "is an easy-to-use development tool intended for beginners and experienced users alike for creating microcontroller-based applications." It looks to be squarely aimed at tho hobbyist market where Arduino, and the likes, are cleaning up shop.

The kit will get you:

• 2x MSP430 flash devices
• USB cable
• Devlopment board
• 2 different IDE's for programming

Oh, and get this - the kit is only $4.30 USD! Yes, you heard that right, for less than a meal at McDonalds you can get a microcontroller kit with TWO chips.This is big news for hobbyists.It'll great to have another big player in the market driving innovation up and prices down. You can order the kit from Mouser or Arrow right now.The two chips included with the kit, the MSP430G2211IPN14 and MSP430G2231IPN14 feature 2kB Flash, 128B RAM, 10 GPIO, 1x 16-bit timer, WDT, BOR, Comparator and the G2231 has USI (I2C, SPI), Internal Temp Sensor, and 8ch 10-bit ADC. [via Hack-A-Day]