There are certain applications I'm developing for, which could benefit greatly from the more powerful specs of a 32-bit ARM running at 96Mhz.
(I know there are alternate boards already fitting that bill, but...) Does ANYone have any authoritative information on what is going on with the Arduino Due??
It's nearly a year delayed past what was the expected date ("by the end of 2011").
I realize of course that the engineers working on the design don't owe us anything, and frankly they might even be hard at work on this as I speak, but I'm just fascinated that there have been absolutely minimal UPDATES on the progress of this! I'm sure I am not the only one who would be interested to hear the Arduino team or anyone's update on what is going on with the release date of this.
Yes, it seems we get an official update maybe every 4-5 months saying it's just a couple of months away. Bottom line is that the Arduino Due is still OverDue. My bet is that the software to support the new board has been kicking their butts, as they have had hardware beta boards available to 'official' beta testers for eons now.
absolutely minimal UPDATES on the progress of this!
I think that's what was getting up people's nose, the total lack of feedback. Still, as you say they don't owe us anything.
I also reckon it must be a software issue, the hardware is simple, especially if you don't try to get clever with features which I would assume they aren't.
This subject has gone very quite of late, people have either given up and bought a Pi/Beagle/whatever or they just lost interest. I suspect though that when it is finally released the interest will be rekindled.
Graynomad:
This subject has gone very quite of late, people have either given up and bought a Pi/Beagle/whatever or they just lost interest. I suspect though that when it is finally released the interest will be rekindled.
With the number of low cost ARMs coming out, I suspect they've lost the momentum, and by the time Due finally comes out, it may be a case of too little too late. Lets see, of just the ARM projects I know of:
Raspbery PI, two models, $25/$35, and now you can order as many as you want, runs Linux;
Teensy 3.0, kickstarter project that ends in 7 days (already at 800% funding), models start at $22, uses modified Arduino s/w;
Galgo, kickstarter project that ends in 17 days (not yet 100% funded), models start at $19, has builtin debugger, and its own development environment;
Mbed, two models at $45/59, uses a development environment based in the cloud
Probably, that said I think there's plenty of scope for a "no bells and whistles" ARM board, I for one don't need or want all the crap that comes with Pi et al.
And of course anything with the "Arduino" name will have a head start.
BTW, I can't find Galgo on Kickstarter, can you provide a link?
The simplicity is what's got me sticking with (hopes on) the Due too (as with the past Arduino boards), versus RPi and Beagleboard, etc.
And the already established Arduino user community, and the body of work that has already been done -- there are a lot more users, and lots of code, project ideas, and libraries that are already existent that one can work with and tweak to create further new things.
I agree RPi is getting there but for simpler, one-thing-at-a-time applications -- that need the horsepower but not the extra HDMI output for instance -- I'm still waiting for the Due.
Plus after using the Due board as a prototype, I can then easily use the design to make my own tailored version of it when I need to adapt things to my final application.
ARM chips are fast, but lack the grunt of the AVR, there are plenty of arm chips out there, they are not hard to work with, but when you need to nail 25ma at 5 volts you really feel their lack of micro-controller-ness
its a cpu with some embedded features, avr feels more like glue to get stuff to work
MichaelMeissner:
With the number of low cost ARMs coming out, I suspect they've lost the momentum, and by the time Due finally comes out, it may be a case of too little too late. Lets see, of just the ARM projects I know of:
Raspbery PI, two models, $25/$35, and now you can order as many as you want, runs Linux;
Teensy 3.0, kickstarter project that ends in 7 days (already at 800% funding), models start at $22, uses modified Arduino s/w;
Galgo, kickstarter project that ends in 17 days (not yet 100% funded), models start at $19, has builtin debugger, and its own development environment;
Mbed, two models at $45/59, uses a development environment based in the cloud
ARM chips are fast, but lack the grunt of the AVR, there are plenty of arm chips out there, they are not hard to work with, but when you need to nail 25ma at 5 volts you really feel their lack of micro-controller-ness
its a cpu with some embedded features, avr feels more like glue to get stuff to work
True, I was just looking at the Maple Mini and its limited in terms of current - which I assume makes it generally easier to kill/disturb than the AVRs.
I think output drive has a lot to do with the transistor size. 8-bit CPUs tend to be made on older fabs with big transistors. ARMs tend to be made on modern fabs (the fab is probably less of a process than the fact that the chip layout is designed for a certain transistor size, but the same principle holds.)
The people that have any real knowledge aren't saying anything, but I'll point out that the World Maker Fair in NY is a little over a week away. Last year's NY WMF was when Due was announced. The spring Bay Area MF was when they solicited beta test sites...
@westfw:
Good point on the Maker Faire. I'm not gonna get my expectations up, but the timing does seem to be about right! And they do have this on the 2012 Program schedule for Sept. 29:
"1:00PM » The Arduino Hour with Massimo Banzi (co-founder of the Arduino Project) & Alf-Egil Bogen (Atmel Corporation)"
