NXP and ARM recently launched the mbed™ microcontroller rapid prototyping tools and the associated mbed.org web site. Mbed is the industry's first online platform for fast, low-risk prototyping of microcontroller-based systems. The mbed tools provide integral hardware and software support for the NXP LPC1768 ARM® Cortex™-M3 based MCU and the NXP LPC2368 ARM7TDMI based MCU, making cutting-edge microcontroller technology accessible to a wide audience.
New users can get started with mbed tools in 60 seconds, by plugging in an mbed microcontroller, going to the mbed.org website to sign up, and downloading and running a "Hello World!" binary just like saving to a USB flash drive. Compiling a first program takes only 60 seconds more:
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Launch the browser-based compiler
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Create a new template project
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Click 'compile' to build and download the binary
A cloud-computing approach delivers the tools online in a browser, so there is nothing to configure or install, and everything works on Windows, Mac, or Linux. For developers currently using proprietary 8/16-bit microcontrollers, discrete logic, or even those new to the industry, mbed removes the barriers to the world of modern 32-bit microcontrollers.