Elba Corporation announced the first shipments of a multi-tasking microcontroller intended for use by scientists, engineers, experimenters and hobbyists. The ZX-1281 is a 64-pin TQFP format device targeted to high volume products or resource-intensive applications where additional memory and/or I/O capabilities are required. All ZX-series microcontrollers are programmed in ZBasic, a subset of Microsoft's Visual Basic (VB6) with microcontroller-specific extensions and other productivity enhancements.The newest member of the ZX microcontroller family is based on the Atmel ATmega1281 MCU. The primary benefits are increased execution speed, expanded User RAM (7.5K standard, 63K maximum), extended User program space (60K total), additional PWM channels (up to 6), and a second hardware serial port . The ZX-1281 is largely source code compatible with the previously released ZX family members - the ZX-24, ZX-24a, ZX-40, ZX-40a, ZX-44 and ZX-44a.

The single unit pricing of the new ZX-1281 is $49.95. Volume pricing is available. A ZX-1281 Development Board is available to facilitate quick prototyping of a ZX-1281 application. The Development Board, which includes a ZX-1281 device, is priced at $79.

Programs for the ZX-1281 may be edited, compiled and downloaded using a state-of-the-art Integrated Development Environment. The ZBasic IDE provides productivity-enhancing features such as word completion, call tips, auto-indenting, syntax highlighting and undo/redo. The IDE can also be used to perform field updates of the ZX-1281's internal firmware, making it simple to upgrade to new firmware releases as they become available.