Do you ever have that feeling that there just aren't enough clock cycles?
The Propeller architecture set out to solve that problem!
Instead of trying to funnel all of your operations through one CPU, the Propeller runs eight separate 32-bit cores (called "cogs") so you can perform several functions in parallel!
Each cog has direct access to the system clock and all GPIO pins simultaneously as well as round-robin access to 64K shared memory (32K RAM/32K ROM)
Each of the Propeller's eight cogs also has two dedicated hardware counters and two special "video registers" for generating timing signals (VGA, NTSC, Servo, etc.)

Programming with dedicated cores instead of interrupts can be an adjustment which is why Parallax developed the SPIN language and Propeller Tool IDE to make it easier to manage.
No special hardware programmer is needed, program over serial using an FTDI or similar!
Code can be sent directly into the volatile on-chip RAM for development or piped to external flash memory for deployment.

This breakout board gives you everything you need to start playing with the Propeller P8X32A including external flash memory so your program persists through power-down, a crystal oscillator footprint so you can add a clock source if you want to speed things up and all of the GPIO broken out to standard 0.1" spaced headers and labeled.

 

Features:

• Processors (cogs): Eight
• Architecture: 32-bits
• System Clock Speed: DC to 80 MHz
• Global RAM/ROM: 64 K bytes; 32 K RAM / 32 K ROM
• Cog RAM: 512 x 32 bits each
• I/O Pins: 32 (simultaneously addressable by all eight cogs)
• Current Source/Sink per I/O: 40 mA
• Clock Modes: (a) External crystal 4-8 MHz (16 x PLL) (b) Internal oscillator ~12 MHz or ~20 kHz (c) Direct drive
• External Flash On-Board: 512K
• Crystal Oscillator Footprint

Documents:

• Schematic
• Eagle Files
• Datasheet (P8X32A)
• Propeller Q&A
• Propeller Tool IDE