Development boards and kits are tools used by electronics engineers and hobbyists to develop and test their hardware designs. They generally consist of a board containing a microprocessor and other components, along with software and tools used to program the microprocessor. They are often used to evaluate new microprocessor designs before they are sold as commercial products. The Coldfire family of microprocessors are a popular choice for embedded system designers and development boards, such as the Freescale 8-bit Coldfire Development Board and the Freescale 16/32-bit Coldfire Development Kit. These development boards provide the necessary resources for creating, debugging and testing a system design. They can also be used to evaluate and optimize a design before it goes into production. For more advanced projects, the Coldfire range of embedded processors are supported by a range of development boards and kits from Freescale, such as the Coldfire Embedded Development Kit and the Coldfire Evaluation Board.