Lite cross compilers
Performance Through Simplicity
Cortex-Mx and MSP430 Lite Targets
The Lite target is not fully compatible with the PowerForth target supplied with the other compiler editions. The Lite target has changes to reduce code size and for compilation to Flash. It may also change as we have to cope with an increasing range of chips.
Despite their small size, the Lite targets are capable of real applications. Duncan Louttit reports:
Attached is a photo of the robot that I used at the inaugural IET robot triathlon competition. I used the beta version of the MSP430 Lite compiler for the software. It had to compete in three events; line follower, drag race and time trial. It came 2nd in each competition and second overall. The Forth system is sufficient for this competition. I ended up with one download for the line follower and drag race and another one for the time trial. If I had had more time, we only had 8 weeks to do the whole thing including design and build the hardware, I could have done much better. The winner used a lot of commercial hardware and library routines for things like the PID controller.
Duncan’s racing robot
Cortex-Mx
“VFXL is a pleasure to work with.”
Target device drivers are supplied for the STM32F072B Discovery board (includes MEMS gyros), the STM32F4 Discovery board and the Freescale FRDM-KL25Z board. these are available from most catalogues, e.g. Digikey, Element14, Farnell, and Mouser. The prices below are approximate.
 STM32F072B Discovery |
 STM32F4 Discovery |
 Freescale FRDM-KL25Z |
| UK Pounds | Euros | US Dollars | |
| Approximate exchange rates (GBP = 1.00) | 1.00 GBP | 1.17 EUR | 1.26 USD |
| STM32F072B Discovery | 7.00 GBP | 8.17 EUR | 8.85 USD |
| STM32F4 Discovery (F407) | 10.85 GBP | 12.66 EUR | 13.72 USD |
| Freescale FRDM-KL25Z | 10.32 GBP | 12.04 EUR | 13.05 USD |
| NXP LPC81x | |||
| NXP LPC1114FN28 in DIP | |||
| STM32F031 Nucleo board | |||
| STM32F042K6 Nucleo board | |||
| STM32F051 Discovery board | |||
| Infineon XMC2Go |
MSP430
Target device drivers are supplied for the TI Launchpad G2 with the MSP430G2553 CPU. This board is available from several sources including the TI web shop. The prices below are approximate.
MSP430 Launchpad
| UK Pounds | Euros | US Dollars | |
| Approximate exchange rates (GBP = 1.00) | 1.00 GBP | 1.17 EUR | 1.26 USD |
| MSP430 LaunchPad Value Line Development kit, MSP-EXP430G2 | 6.17 GBP | 7.20 EUR | 7.80 USD |