There seems to be a ground swell of dev borards from very cheep, to very expensive.

ARM is very flexible and powerful...., and more complex than 80c51... Management of the perphierals and system functions is definately MORE complex at the core level.

A good dev kit from Keil, IAR, Rowley CrossWorks will help kick start your 1st ARM7 design.

There are open sourece "free tools" like there are with 80c51 and the open source ARM tools are "becoming" mature....

ARM is a lot more complex.... so a good dev tool for your 1st design is recommended.... after that..unlimited open source tools may be the way to go.

The complier, simulators and other bits... will "hide" the complexities of the ARM operation.... just like a computer operating system and BIOS abstract you from lower level complexities (which you can learn later).

Profesional ARM tools used to be expensive... but code limited or time limited vesions with dev board are with hobbist's budget.

For the NXP ARM tools I have an "older" web list here
http://www.adilam.com.au/ARM/arm.html

I strongly recommend a good development tool , complier (limited or otherwise) for first time users.... Once you have your confidence up..... then look at other s/w.. like open souce etc.


joe