Low Cost SBC Dev Kits for Embedded App Training?

SmilingMonk writes "The company I work for is looking to train engineers fresh out of school on embedded software development. It seems to be specialized enough field of interest that it might be helpful for some people to 'get their feet wet' developing embedded solutions on in-expensive SBC ^? s before they are handed off to the product lines. A low cost ($400) full featured solution we recently stumbled across is the eCOG1 Development Environment. Yes, we've been to LinuxDevices, but feel compelled to ask which similarly featured low priced SBCs others have used that we could have our trainees develop embedded Linux applications on?"

Comments

Desktop PC?

[d2ksla]

Have you thought about using a regular desktop PC?

You could teach people how to set up a minimal Linux system using their own kernel, busybox etc. As far as embedded hardware goes, I'm sure the parallel port can be one good way of introducing device drivers on several levels. It is fairly simple to understand and program.

Re:Hello?

[bgat]

Engineers fresh out of school can't handle this simple task on their own?

Nope. And I for one don't have a problem with that.

It's just a hobby for me now, but I can still slay 99% of the 'engineers' out there.

That's exactly the trouble I'm frequently called in to clean up after.

An engineering degree is mostly about training you how to think. You aren't going to learn how to write fault-tolerant code, how to harden a system to survive in an industrial environment, or anything else that's so application and domain specific. Five years just isn't long enough. And with no real practical experience to go along with them, even if you *could* train an undergraduate in those skills, you'd still be wasting your time.

The field of embedded systems is *huge*. It requires continuous effort to stay trained in the latest state of the art as it applies to solving real problems. I'll take a trainable, fresh graduate who realizes he's an idiot, over a garage hacker who thinks that since he can make a few LEDs light up on his Basic STAMP, he's ready to design a diesel engine controller.

I realize that these are sweeping generalizations on my part, ymmv.