October 28, 2013, Seoul — STMicroelectronics (ST), a global semiconductor company providing a wide range of electronic applications, has released a new Discovery Kit for the STM32F030 Value Line microcontroller announced in July of this year. The STM32F030 Value Line microcontroller offers 32-bit performance at a low price of just 32 cents.

ST’s STM32F0308 Discovery Board is an affordable and easy-to-use development kit that enables designers to rapidly test and develop with the STM32F030 Value Line microcontroller. Additionally, it is pre-configured, allowing for immediate use.

It is powered by a USB socket or a separate power supply, and has an extension header that allows for fast connection to all microcontroller I/O. The onboard 64-pin STM32F030R8T6 microcontroller is equipped with 64KB of flash memory and 8KB of RAM.

ST's latest STM32F030 Value Line microcontroller family has abandoned the conventional approach of low-end embedded designs that provided only the bare minimum. While discarding the resource-minimizing methods familiar only to 8-bit users, it simplifies design, enhances application performance, and provides scalability so that hardware requires minimal replacement. These devices offer excellent features, including a 48MHz ARM® Cortex™-M0, 5-channel DMA, core, and versatile peripherals (motor-control timer, 5 general-purpose timers, 1M sample/s 12-bit ADC, etc.), combined with a price similar to that of older 8-bit architectures.

Meanwhile, to match the convenience and simplicity of the 8-bit microcontroller family, the STM32F030 Value Line device is supported by a 100% free development toolchain, in addition to a low-cost discovery kit and generic tools that support ARM Cortex-M devices.

ST's latest STM32F0308 Discovery board is available for purchase at $8.90 per unit through distributors and online orders ( http://www.st.com/web/catalog/tools/FM116/SC959/SS1532/PF259100 ).