Development boards
From Electronics Chat
There are many development boards available, for all sorts of prices and devices.
From commercial inexpensive boards with friendly development tools, to expensive and hard to get ones that require a large amount of other equipment to get them to do anything.
[edit] Analog
Breadboard -- easy to make temporary connections with 22 AWG wire; usually a grid of push terminals with .1" spacing; costs about $10
Perfboard simple grid of holes, sometimes with solderable through-hole pads; costs about $1
protoboards of various complexity
- http://www.wa5vjb.com/products4.html
- http://www.hwkitchen.com/products/prototyping-board-48-x-36-mm/
[edit] Digital
Microprocessor - larger processors, perhaps capable of running an OS
- The Bifferboard - http://bifferos.bizhat.com/ is a small (64*20mm or so) 486/200 class or so device that uses 1W, has 32M RAM, 1M ROM, USB host so you can plug lots of stuff (including mass-storage for OS) for only 26 UK pounds.
- Ebay - worth a look in many cases, for example searching for s3c24* reveals this 3.5" screen inexpensive ARM board
Microcontroller - smaller processors, usually only running one program.
