atari2600land's Blog

There is (currently) only one Propeller chip (P8X32A), however there are a bunch of different PCBs and 3 different chip packages (DIP, QFP & QFN). Although it's possible to start with a bare Propeller, you typically want to include some support chips like a serial eeprom (the Propeller has no on-board non-volatile storage), a clock crystal (typically a 5MHz crystal which the Propeller multiplies to 80MHz), a +3.3V voltage regulator, a USB to serial converter & USB jack and some decoupling capacitors. The pre-made PCBs typically have all of these (sometimes more, depending upon their intended use).

 

Also, you're not going to be able to simply drop-in a microcontroller (Propeller or otherwise) onto an existing Microvision cartridge. You will need to create a similarly shaped PCB which will fit into the Microvision cartridge shell.

 

As a starting point I'd recommend the QuickStart PCB. It's relatively inexpensive, includes some basic I/O (LEDs and touch buttons) along with the standard support chips and it's available at Radio Shack.

OK, thanks for some more info. I'll plan to get a Propeller chip and a Quickstart PCB at Radio Shack then.

The Quickstart board comes with the Propeller soldered on, so you don't need to buy anything else.