before i invest in their development kit, what can i use?

My wife can hang a picture on the wall using a sewing needle and a shoe.
I use a $10 hammer and a $0.01 nail for the same purpose.
I hang the picture faster and better - is it "needed"? NO.

Anyhow, my experience has told me the facts of life, so now I have 5 ICES (~$1500-$10.000 each) for the processors I work on. Now Cygnal came along and made chips with "built in ICE hardware" a true godsend for low unit count developers. With the SILabs chips a small developer can do for $99-$149 what we "big time guys" have paid thousands of dollars for. I have debugged projects without ICE, it took me a lot of time and cost my employer a lot of money. I am debugging my SILabs projects using the built-in "ICE" and the JTAG interface which allow me to develop in minimum time saving my employer money.

So what does it come down to? it comes down to "what is your time worth to you"
** If your time is worth nothing, find a PCB layout somewhere make a PCB at your kitchen sink, get an ICP chip a crystal and a MAX232, solder it together and start fighting your way through.
** If your time is worth anything, Get a SILabs development board and start writing and debugging code.

Erik