Editing Breadboard (section)

== Uses ==

A common use in the [[system on a chip]] (SoC) era is to obtain an [[microcontroller]] (MCU) on a pre-assembled [[printed circuit board]] (PCB) which exposes an array of [[input/output]] (IO) pins in a header suitable to plug into a breadboard, and then to prototype a circuit which exploits one or more of the MCU's peripherals, such as [[general-purpose input/output]] (GPIO), [[UART]]/[[USART]] serial transceivers, [[analog-to-digital converter]] (ADC), [[digital-to-analog converter]] (DAC), [[pulse-width modulation]] (PWM; used in [[motor controller|motor control]]), [[Serial Peripheral Interface]] (SPI), or [[I²C]]. 

[[Firmware]] is then developed for the MCU to test, debug, and interact with the circuit prototype. High frequency operation is then largely confined to the SoC's PCB. In the case of high speed interconnects such as SPI and I²C, these can be debugged at a lower speed and later rewired using a different circuit assembly methodology to exploit full-speed operation. A single small SoC often provides most of these electrical interface options in a form factor barely larger than a large postage stamp, available in the American hobby market (and elsewhere) for a few dollars, allowing fairly sophisticated breadboard projects to be created at modest expense.