A uCHobby reader informed us of a design contest Renesas is running with prizes of $15,000 in cash. Renesas provides a free $80 evaluation board to work with as part of the contest so no one actually looses. Thanks to Daniel Johnson for passing the news.
The theme of the contest is applications for their new Target Server COM object. Which is their name for a new way to communicate with their microcontrollers. Instead of adding another serial or USB interface to your design which uses up I/O on the processor you can take advantage of the built in debug interface as a communications channel. The possible applications should be endless as they are looking for a neat microcontroller application that works with a PC.
The free HTS demo kit includes a MC16C/26A hardware board, USB cable, and CDs with example code for both the hardware and the PC in C++ and Visual Basic. Also included is Microsoft Visual Studio Express C++ and VB.
There is also an opportunity to get a free H8/36077 kit just by filling out an application form. This is not part of the contest, just a celebration giveaway.
I also got my free brd today... I hope to see your projects there... and it is FREE! :)
