We use MSP430s at work albeit much larger versions with more RAM and peripherals. MSPs are pretty nice processors if you need something really low power and the

We use MSP430s at work albeit much larger versions with more RAM and peripherals. MSPs are pretty nice processors if you need something really low power and they have some models with built-in USB endpoints, which means you don't have to add an FTDI chip or similar. From the looks of it TI used another micro to generate the JTAG interface via USB. In the past they used a USB chip with built in 8051 to turn USB into JTAG. It's kind of a hassle but just having the USB part on the experimenter board is worth the money since you can use it as a USB-serial converter (I think.) As to the development tools: CodeComposer is great if you already know Eclipse and the code size limit is high enough that you can still do some real work. IAR is good too but the full version is much more expensive than CCS so we're going with CCS. Haven't tried the GCC msp backend.