International Journal of Advanced Computer Science, Vol. 2, No. 7, Pp. 263-268, Jul., 2012. Manuscript Received: 5, Sep., 2011 Revised: 3,Nov., 2011 Accepted: 24,Jun., 2012 Published: 15,Aug.,2012 Keywords PIC microcontrollers, HC11 microcontrollers, MCS51 microcontrollers Development system, Electronics engineering education Abstract This paper presents a framework for developing applications based on a three type of microcontroller (μC), Freescale HC11, MCS51 and Microchip PIC18. This project consists of the hardware and software implementation that supports the development and transfer process of the program code from a personal computer to the microcontroller, which led to the evaluation of educational based training kit systems. The first part of the paper focuses on hardware design, which is based on a modular approach, i.e. recomposed for the design of each application, in order to ensure maximum adaptability. The Multiple Microcontroller Evaluation Tool (MicroEVAT) thus consists of a programmer tool, a main board including adapters for a variety of chip packages, and plug-in modules. These are presented in the second part of the paper describing the software part of the framework, which besides programming tools also discusses the code development tools. The stress is given to the use of assembly code and high-level tools, where the algorithms are described in the form of different graphical notations, i.e. block diagrams. Throughout the paper, a special attention is given to the use of framework in the electronics engineering education process. 1. Introduction Research and education activities at Faculty of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang involve embedded systems design and development [1]. Every year, there are Embedded Control Technology course available for third year diploma and degree and also for students from our faculty who taking final year projects. All these activities require different microcontroller types, each with its own development board, but structure of such boards is very similar, only microcontroller and its associated circuitry being different. However, users' feedbacks indicate that they have S. Raja Saravana Kumar, Kamarul Hawari Ghazali, Nik Mohd Kamil Nik Yusoff, and Hazizulden Abdul Aziz are with Faculty of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, 26600 Pekan, Pahang, Malaysia (email: inderjit-1791@yahoo.com(), kamarulh@ump.edu.my, mik@ump.edu.my, haazizulden@ump.edu.my) difficulties not only in developing an application system due to limited expendability but also in understanding the hardware structure and configuration of the microcontroller-based application to be developed [2]. Most of the development boards come with limited expandability of the system that prevents the user to develop and to integrate their own application development systems. Therefore, a flexible and versatile prototype system of MicroEVAT has been developed. This system can be used extensively in experiment or project for diploma, undergraduate and short courses. This MicroEVAT has been also be boosted with a simple application board that is suitable for the students to test their capabilities and to improve their knowledge in this course. In addition, a monitor program has been developed to integrate the basic software such as communication software, text editor, cross assembler, and compiler. Needless to say, it will tremendously create a user friendly environment. The first major step in developing a multiple microcontroller hardware platform is the design of microcontrollers‟ system for the central controlling unit (CCU) itself. The work presented in this paper is to develop a hardware and software design and implementation of these three types of microcontroller families, which are Freescale HC11, MCS51, and Microchip PIC 18. 2. Implementation of Embedded Systems Due to dramatically increasing complexity of development tool over the past decades, developers are facing ever-increasing challenges for their products to stay market competitive [3]. In this context the utilization of systematic design methods is essential in order to aggregate rather than trade-off the technical, cost, and time-to-market feasibility factors [4-10]. As depicted in Figure 1, the general progression of the design steps in time is indicated from left to right. Hence the horizontal axis of the diagram can be thought of as time, but since the design is often an iterative process, the actual development rather cycles between left and right leg of the diagram than proceeds linearly through the steps. The vertical axis represents the level of system components‟ abstraction, with the top steps representing high-level system view and the bottom steps representing very low-level processes. Framework of Multi-Microcontroller Evaluation Tool for a use of Academic Environment S. Raja Saravana Kumar, Kamarul Hawari Ghazali, Nik Mohd Kamil Nik Yusoff, & Hazizulden Abdul Aziz