I chose to buy the cable from SerialIO, because specific Intel OS X drivers are provided. So, to make sure that everything will work as expected, you need to buy a USB-to-Serial cable (or a RS-232 adapter that is essentially the same thing with another name). Macs, as well as new PCs do not come with a serial port that is needed for developing software for any AVR. In this article you will also find information about AVR setup on OS X in general. So, in order to save you some time, here is a quick walkthrough on how to develop software for Atmel’s AVR using the STK and a Mac.
After 2 weeks, I finally managed not only to properly operate the STK on a Mac booted on Windows 7, but to use it with Fusion, Parallels, and OS X as well.
So I bought my own copy STK500, and I installed my version of Fusion, with Windows 7 in order to run AVR Studio for programming my ATMega8515 microcontroller with the STK.
