element14 and Freescale Semiconductor announce the addition of the XL_STAR, an 8-Bit MCU based development environment, debugger and accelerometer demonstration board. The XL_STAR is a multifunction development tool for both hardware and software engineers that simplifies and speeds the development of code and movement detection functionality in portable, low power designs. The XL_STAR offers a complete MCU development environment, combining the low power versatility of Freescale’s 8-Bit MC9S08MM128 MCU and a free version of Freescale’s CodeWarrior for Microcontrollers, now capable of generating up to 64Kbytes of object code from either assembler or C source code. This update to CodeWarrior allows >80% of Freescale’s HCS08 8-bit MCU family to be targeted for code development free of charge. XL_STAR also supports Freescale’s Flexis family allowing for migration to 32-bit MCUs for higher performance without the need for PCB redesign. Through this strategic partnership with Freescale, XL_STAR is now available in the Americas through Newark, Farnell in Europe and element14 in Asia. If you are keen to experiment with the XL_STAR right out of the box, just switch on the board and try the pre-programmed application. The XL_STAR features a number of pre-programmed demonstrations designed to show some of the applications you can perform with the on-board accelerometer.