First, buying the board is not required in this class but can make the lab considerably more convenient, plus you can run experiments of code if you have a question about the architecture.
Second, the Dragon 12 Plus has a lot of new features and we (the TA and I) will always ensure that EE3176 is forward compatible to the boards (i.e. the new boards will work with the old labs).
You can buy the board here and find a trove of information about the board and chip.
There are two versions of the board: the DRAGON12P and DRAGON12P-SM. Although both boards are identical in terms of hardware, the FLASH memory in the chip has been programmed differently. The Dragon12P can be used with a simple ASCII based serial interface which we will use in this class. The website mentions that it won’t work with CodeWarrior (which we also use in this class but indirectly). Don’t be confused by this statement. The board will work with CodeWarrior for our purposes.
Buying the Dragon 12 Plus