Texas Instruments unveils the Stellaris LaunchPad - a fully-functional, flexible and low-price kit for ARM Cortex - M4 developers

Engineers of all experience levels can now explore Stellaris ARM Cortex-M4F microcontrollers with an easy-to-use kit priced at less than $5 USD

AUSTIN, Texas -- Sept. 25, 2012 -- Expanding its innovative LaunchPad portfolio to the ARM ecosystem, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NASDAQ: TXN) today announced a new low-price, easy-to-use Stellaris® LM4F120 LaunchPad evaluation kit. The tool allows professional engineers, hobbyists and university students to begin exploring ARM Cortex-M4F microcontrollers and TI's Stellaris family of microcontrollers for under $5 USD. The core of the new LaunchPad is a Stellaris LM4F120 MCU with best-in-class low power, integrated analog and floating point performance and lends itself to the highly flexible and modular design environment of the LaunchPad with abundant peripherals for real-time digital signal control. The Stellaris LaunchPad brings consumer electronics, human interface control, health & fitness and many more applications to a wider audience of developers. The kit includes all the hardware and software needed for developers, hobbyists and university students to get started in 10 minutes or less.

The Stellaris LaunchPad is the latest addition to the Texas Instruments LaunchPad ecosystem, an innovative portfolio of low-price evaluation kits and expansion boards that lets engineers experiment and develop with easy-to-use, modular design environments. The Stellaris LaunchPad uses the BoosterPack XL connection standard that consists of two pairs of dual gender 20-pin stackable headers. Those forty easy-to-access pins allow interface with external components (BoosterPacks) or custom daughter boards. Two sets of 20 pins on the outer rows of the board have similar functions to the primary header pins on existing MSP430™ and C2000™ LaunchPad kits, allowing developers to add greater functionality and speed design and exploration. Two inner rows offer an additional 20 pins of Stellaris-based expansion signals for BoosterPack development.

Features and benefits of the Stellaris LM4F120 LaunchPad evaluation kit:

• Includes a 32-bit LM4F120H5QR Cortex-M4 MCU with floating point operating up to 80 MHz that provides targeted performance headroom for application differentiation, 64 KB flash with 100,000 write/erase cycles and two 12-bit 1MSPS ADCs and up to 27 timers, some configurable up to 64-bits.
• License- and royalty-free StellarisWare® software pre-loaded in ROM to conserve Flash memory; software eases design and allows developers to speed time to market.
• Incorporates USB connectivity and other peripherals including serial ports for UART, I2C, SSI/SPI and CAN controllers so developers can support the communication standard best suited for their application.
• Out-of-the-box RGB LED example application lets developers start experimenting with the Stellaris LaunchPad in minutes.
• Compatible with several existing MSP430 and C2000 MCU BoosterPacks so developers can now quickly and easily evaluate functionality across TI's broad portfolio of microcontrollers.
• Planned BoosterPacks include capabilities for sensors, wireless connectivity and many more third-party BoosterPacks.

BoosterPack development

Texas Instruments is committed to supporting third parties as they develop and promote new BoosterPacks that expand the functionalities of TI's LaunchPad ecosystem. TI will help selected third parties with BoosterPack design, promotion and sales support throughout the development and marketing process. Third-party BoosterPack developers enjoy various benefits including use of the TI and LaunchPad logos, support from TI for news releases, promotions on TI social media sites and guaranteed placement on the high-traffic BoosterPack web page. For more information on the third party BoosterPack development, visit www.ti.com/boosterpacks.

Pricing and availability

Developers can immediately purchase the Stellaris EK-LM4F120XL LaunchPad evaluation kit at the promotional price of $4.99 USD. Developers ready to begin expanding the functionality of their Stellaris LaunchPad can purchase numerous BoosterPacks by visiting www.ti.com/stellaris-boosterpacks.

Find out more about TI's MCUs, LaunchPads, tools and software:

• Stellaris Cortex-M microcontrollers: www.ti.com/stellaris-launchpad-pr-hp
• Texas Instruments LaunchPad site: www.ti.com/launchpad
• Third-party LaunchPad BoosterPack development site: www.ti.com/boosterpacks
• Stellaris microcontroller forum on TI E2E™: www.ti.com/stellarise2e
• Make the Switch to TI MCUs: www.ti.com/make-the-switch-pr-lp
• TI eStore: www.ti.com/stellaris-launchpad-pr-es
• Follow TI microcontrollers on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/TIMicrocontrollers

TI's broad portfolio of microcontrollers (MCUs) and software

From general purpose, ultra-low power MSP430™ MCUs, to Stellaris® Cortex™-M MCUs to real-time control C2000™ MCUs, and Hercules™ safety MCUs, TI offers the broadest range of microcontroller solutions. Designers can accelerate time to market by tapping into TI's complete software and hardware tools, extensive third-party offerings and technical support.

About Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments semiconductor innovations help 90,000 customers unlock the possibilities of the world as it could be – smarter, safer, greener, healthier and more fun.  Our commitment to building a better future is ingrained in everything we do – from the responsible manufacturing of our semiconductors, to caring for our employees, to giving back inside our communities.  This is just the beginning of our story.  Learn more at www.ti.com.