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"Best" way to break into ARM programming

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DigiTan

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I haven't followed through on this much before, and I'm probably way over-due, but I'm looking for the best tools for getting started with ARM programming.

Background:
Right now I'm in the process of re-designing and re-purposing a lot of my old projects. Most of the jobs are still within the capabilities of the 8 bit-AVRs I use standard, but there are a few upgrades requiring higher sample rates, USB/MMC, A/V codecs, VGA graphics and other demands that I currently can't deal with at the moment.

Basically what I'm need of first is an ARM device to focus on. Experience says it'll be best for me if it has an active online community behind it in case I run into trouble or need a library. I looked at Gumstix, Beagleboard, the AT91SAM Series, and they all look pretty promising. What I could use on advice on a family of ARM devices that is pretty easy to get started in, has an active community, and has an inexpensive tool chain compared to most others.

Any ideas?
 
Rowley Crossworks and COde Sourcery both have C compilers in the range of $100-$150 though COde Sourcery seems to have more device support right now. And the J-Link Segger JTAG for ARM can be bought at Digikey for $70 (the EDU version- no need to go through the company itself to get the educational programmer and pay for blasted UPS shipping if you're not in the US).

I'd start with scratch ARM COrtex M3 or the new ARM Cortex M4 that's being released soon by Freescale and others (basically an M3 with some DSP and floating point)
 
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i would suggest getting a LPC2xxx dev board. It has a huge community and LPC2000 Yahoo group which is very active. Sparkfun has tons of boards you can check there site and also Development and Prototype boards and tools for PIC AVR and MSP430 has tons of LPC boards. A programmer is easy and $5 ( parallel tho )JTAG Wiggler Clone

You can also just search google for wiggler clone. The wiggle can program tons of LPC's i think. a

Take a look at : LPC2103FHN48,551 NXP Semiconductors Microcontrollers (MCU)

Its a LPC2103... $4 and nice stuff. (70mhz)
 
I am having same question as DigiTan's.
There are two boards in my mind
LPCXpresso and blueboard.
Didn't finalize my choice.

Can you guys compare these two, cost (board cost + Shipping) is main concern.
As far as cost is concerned, blueboard is cheaper to me because, i can save shipping costs (The manufacturer is not very much far from my location).
But I am still confused, about these two choices.
 
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Okay, with these dev boards (like the mbed with the attached NXP LPC1768), is it possible to also program identical chips that are not on the board?
 
MBed is like an arduino hardware-wise, you can't program other chips with it. LPCXpresso you can, because it comes with a breakaway SWD programmer, but the programmer only works with limited development environments. Same with the STM32 Discovery board. By Blueboard, I assume you mean specifically one of the LPC17xx breakouts. These are just breakout boards and you will still need a programmer to go with them.
 
Okay, it looks like I'll be going with the mbed board. This should provide an excellent basis to practice the code until I find out what I can do with the LPCXpresso and probably focus on the NXP LPC1768.

I may be getting ahead of myself here, but is there also an embedded Linux community working with these NXP chips or the mbed itself?
 
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