# Question for users of Olimex SAM7-EX256 board **URL:** \ **Category:** MicroMod\ **Tags:** arm-lpc\ **Created:** [January 18, 2007, 1:39pm UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/question-for-users-of-olimex-sam7-ex256-board/3529 "2007-01-18T13:39:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dharper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@dharper](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/dharper)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 1:39pm UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/question-for-users-of-olimex-sam7-ex256-board/3529/1 "2007-01-18T13:39:39Z")
I’ve been looking for an ARM development board that supports Ethernet. The Olimex SAM7-EX256 looks great and I was about to purchase one when I noticed that it comes with no documentation. Since this is my first step into the ARM world after several years of AVR work, I’m now wondering if maybe I shouldn’t go with the Atmel AT91SAM7X-EK board. It’s more than twice the cost but at least has a User’s Guide. For those of you with the Olimex board, did you find that the lack of documentation caused any problems getting started with it? Any other suggestions for someone just getting started with ARM? Eventually, I’ll be designing my own boards but until I get familiar with working with ARM, I’d like to work with an off-the-shelf unit. Thanks, Dave ---
**Author:** ![james4546](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@james4546](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/james4546)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 3:08pm UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/question-for-users-of-olimex-sam7-ex256-board/3529/2 "2007-01-18T15:08:08Z")
I had the same thoughts as you when I bought my SAM7S256 header board. I know it is not nearly as sophisticated as the SAM7-EX256 but as far as the board is concerned the schematic says it all, and you should be ok as long as you download the datasheet from Atmel. ---
**Author:** ![SR\_team](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/46a35a/32.png) [@SR\_team](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/SR_team)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 10:16pm UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/question-for-users-of-olimex-sam7-ex256-board/3529/3 "2007-01-18T22:16:47Z")
> dharper: > I’ve been looking for an ARM development board that supports Ethernet. The Olimex SAM7-EX256 looks great and I was about to purchase one when I noticed that it comes with no documentation. Since this is my first step into the ARM world after several years of AVR work, I’m now wondering if maybe I shouldn’t go with the Atmel AT91SAM7X-EK board. It’s more than twice the cost but at least has a User’s Guide. For those of you with the Olimex board, did you find that the lack of documentation caused any problems getting started with it? Any other suggestions for someone just getting started with ARM? Eventually, I’ll be designing my own boards but until I get familiar with working with ARM, I’d like to work with an off-the-shelf unit. > > Thanks, > > Dave dharper, I agree with you. There is a serious lack of documentation for this dev. board. I recently purchased this board and now i’m wondering if i should i have went for the AT91SAM7X-EK simply because more people use it and there is more support for it. Sure yeah, the SAM7-EX256 is packed with lots of features and peripherals but atm i’m stuck trying to find a way to communicate to the serial port. But i have to admit i’m a newbie to ARM development. In fact i’ve had relatively little experience with mirocontrollers in general. The only experience i’ve had is doing some simple assembler programming with the motorola 68HC11 in one of my university subjects. ---
**Author:** ![NleahciM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/dc4da7/32.png) [@NleahciM](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/NleahciM)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 12:42am UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/question-for-users-of-olimex-sam7-ex256-board/3529/4 "2007-01-19T00:42:02Z")
> dharper: > I’ve been looking for an ARM development board that supports Ethernet. The Olimex SAM7-EX256 looks great and I was about to purchase one when I noticed that it comes with no documentation. Since this is my first step into the ARM world after several years of AVR work, I’m now wondering if maybe I shouldn’t go with the Atmel AT91SAM7X-EK board. It’s more than twice the cost but at least has a User’s Guide. For those of you with the Olimex board, did you find that the lack of documentation caused any problems getting started with it? Any other suggestions for someone just getting started with ARM? Eventually, I’ll be designing my own boards but until I get familiar with working with ARM, I’d like to work with an off-the-shelf unit. > > Thanks, > > Dave If you can afford it, I strongly recommend getting the official Atmel dev board - there is a plethora of code available for it which will really help you get started. ---
**Author:** ![dharper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@dharper](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/dharper)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 8:28pm UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/question-for-users-of-olimex-sam7-ex256-board/3529/5 "2007-01-19T20:28:41Z")
Thanks to all that responded - it was some good input. I suspect that I will go with the Atmel board for now. If I end up needing a second board at some time, then I’ll probably get the Olimex. By that time I should be pretty familiar with the ARM architecture so the documentation will be less of an issue. Thanks again! Dave