NEW
PRODUC
■ HARDWARE
■ SOFTWARE
■ GADGETS
■ TOOLS
T
S
NEW ZX MICROCONTROLLER
Elba Corporation announces the first shipments of a new,
more powerful multi-tasking microcontroller intended for
use by scientists, engineers, experimenters, and hobbyists. The
ZX-1281 is a 64-pin TQFP format device targeted to high volume products or resource-intensive applications where additional I/O capabilities are required. All ZX-series microcontrollers are programmed in ZBasic, a
subset of Microsoft’s Visual Basic (VB6)
with microcontroller-specific extensions
and other productivity enhancements.
The newest member of the ZX
microcontroller family is based on the
Atmel ATmega1281 MCU. The primary benefits offered by the new ZX
model are increased execution speed,
expanded user RAM ( 7.5K standard,
63K maximum), extended user program space (60K total), additional
PWM channels (up to six), and a second hardware serial port. The new ZX-
1281 is largely source code compatible with the previously released ZX
family members — the ZX- 24, ZX-24a,
ZX- 40, ZX-40a, ZX- 44, and ZX-44a.
The single unit pricing of the new
ZX-1281 is $49.95. Volume pricing is
available. A ZX-1281 Development
Board is available to facilitate quick prototyping of a ZX-1281 application. The
Development Board, which includes a
ZX-1281 device, is priced at $79.95
The ZBasic programming language
is a subset of VB6 with extensions suitable for microcontroller programming.
The ZBasic compiler can detect common programming defects such as use
of a variable before its initialization and
other likely errors. The compiler incorporates advanced optimization techniques that help programmers pack
more functionality into the available
code and data spaces by, for example,
eliminating unused or superfluous variables and unreachable code.
Programs for the ZX-1281 may be
edited, compiled, and downloaded
using a state-of-the-art Integrated
Development Environment. The ZBasic
IDE provides productivity-enhancing
features such as word completion, call
tips, auto-indenting, syntax highlight-
30
May 2007
