We saw the popular Raspberry Pi Pico featuring RP2040 SoC and its functionalities. Talking off the record, there has always been a competition between Raspberry Pi and Arduino boards. Still, the demand for the powerful low-power RP2040 chip has led to a collaboration between the two companies. Arduino has announced its Raspberry Pi RP2040 core port, Arduino Nano Connect Board.
Arduino is known for its wide library support and Raspberry Pi for its optimized architecture. The combination of the former two would be interesting to explore as Arduino IDE can open up interesting possibilities for Raspberry Pi’s SoC. Additionally, the nano has a compact footprint which already comes at the cost of some significant features like u-blox NINA Wi-Fi and Bluetooth module.
Ardunio says “The goal is to enable people to develop connected products leveraging Arduino’s hardware powered by Raspberry silicon, a solid radio module with exceptional performance, and the Arduino Create IoT Cloud.”
Tom’s Hardware post has brought to our attention that since the nano Connect board is an Arduino device. It would be compatible with Arduino IDE, Arduino Create web editor, and Arduino’s IoT Cloud. As RP2040 core highlights the MicroPython support, hence the board would also have its support for this language.
Structure of Arduino Nano Connect Board
The Arduino Nano Connect Board is expected to have some MEMS sensors from STM. These could be a 9-axis IMU and a microphone similar to Raspberry Pi Pico. It will also feature a power-efficient section, further optimizing the performance of the low-power RP2040 chip. The MCUs generally come with an inbuilt flash but since the RP2040 SoC supports an external flash up to 16MB. Hence, it allows the programmers and developers to come with applications that require more storage for code. Additionally, external flash memory also provides an option for Over-The-Air (OTA) updates.
There is no information on the pricing of the board. However, Arduino’s Blog post says that it will be soon available for pre-ordering. For more information visit Arduino’s Blog post.
Saumitra Jagdale is a Backend Developer, Freelance Technical Author, Global AI Ambassador (SwissCognitive), Open-source Contributor in Python projects, Leader of Tensorflow Community India and Passionate AI/ML Enthusiast
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