New Frontiers of Microcontroller Education: Introducing SiLabs ToolStick University Daughter Card

Educational support available is an important criterion for selecting a microcontroller for teaching embedded programming in an under graduate university course. The paper presents and discusses two things - first the criteria employed to choose a microcontroller that has been used as the base for teaching the undergraduate course on Design for Computer & Communication Systems at Massey University, New Zealand and second the design and development of an 'expansion board' which can be used in conjunction with the microcontroller development board to do meaningful experiments. The expansion board has many peripheral resources. Silicon Labs Inc, USA has amalgamated the microcontroller development board and the 'expansion board' to create a versatile University daughter card which is detailed in the paper. Software implementation of instruments and displays, such as oscilloscope and LCD, has eliminated the need to use bench top lab instruments. The introduction of the Silabs University Daughter card has helped to substantially increase the standard and completion rates of final year projects.