New ZX Microcontrollers Now Shipping

Elba Corporation has begun shipping new members of the ZX series of microcontrollers. The new devices, based on the Atmel ATmega644 processor, are programmed in ZBasic a subset of Microsoft Visual Basic.

Beaverton, OR (PRWEB) August 31, 2006 -- Elba Corporation announced today the first customer shipments of a new series of multi-tasking microcontrollers intended for use by scientists, engineers, experimenters and hobbyists. The ZX-24a is a ready-to-use, 24-pin Stamp-format device that is pin compatible with the venerable Basic Stamp (Parallax Inc.) and the BasicX-24 (NetMedia Inc.). The ZX-40a and ZX-44a models are 40-pin DIP and 44-pin TQFP format devices, respectively, targeted to high volume products or applications where additional I/O lines 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 three newest members of the ZX microcontroller family are based on the Atmel ATmega644 MCU. The primary benefit offered by the new ZX models is an additional 2K bytes of User RAM for a total of 3.5K bytes available to user’s programs. The new ZX models are pin compatible and source code compatible with their previously released counterparts - the ZX-24, ZX-40 and ZX-44.

The single unit pricing of the new ZX models is as follows: ZX-24a $59.95, ZX-40a $39.95, ZX-44a $39.95. With the introduction of the new ZX models, the prices of the original models have been reduced: ZX-24 $49.95, ZX-40 $29.95, ZX-44 $29.95. Volume pricing is available.

The ZBasic programming language is a superset of NetMedia’s BasicX language, providing many advanced capabilities that help programmers write correct code more quickly. The compiler can detect common programming defects such as use of a variable before its initialization and other likely errors. The ZBasic 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-24 may be edited and compiled 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 highlighting and undo/redo. The IDE can also be used to perform field updates of the ZX-24’s internal firmware, making it simple to upgrade to new firmware releases as they become available.

More information and a free download of the compiler, IDE and documentation are available at http://www.zbasic.net.

ZBasic, ZX-24, ZX-24a, ZX-40, ZX-40a, ZX-44, ZX-44a, and Elba are trademarks of Elba Corp. Other product or service names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

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