Is there any official release date for the Arduino Zero?

From the commit log, it looks like some devs who also worked on Yun are actively working on Zero support https://github.com/arduino-org/Arduino/commits/ide-org-1.5.x-zero, but this is not in the arduino.org downloads page yet. Perhaps they think it is sufficiently close to release to start selling boards, but what are the first customers going to use? And when will we get the first support question here?

Smart Projects seem to hold a lot of cards here, they already have manufacturing and distribution channels. I don't know how the sales work between Smart Projects and Arduino SA, but it seems Smart Projects could simply sell boards and keep the proceeds, if they believe they have right to use the Arduino trademark. The board design is open, as is the software, of course.

Arduino SA could set up their own manufacturing, but that would take time. I guess proceeds from hardware sales are significant, without that Arduino SA income is consulting and brand payments for "Arduino inside" etc. If Arduino SA seek an injunction against Smart Projects, then all hardware sales stop, which benefits neither party.

I don't know if Smart Projects are just trying to poison the well and seek a large payoff or other concession, but it seems their intent is to trade as Arduino and create a new Arduino organisation.

Yeah, I'm also getting the feeling Linino is heavily involved in all this.

There seem to be mentions in the code, recently being removed, of Linino.

Smart Protect's upcoming "Arduino Yun Mini" bears a striking resemblance to the photos on Linino's website.

The Yun Mini appears to be exclusive to Smart Projects, so they seem to be capable of developing products without Arduino SA.

I guess that forks of Open Source software are quite common and perhaps inevitable, e.g. OpenOffice/LibreOffice. In those cases, there are no direct sales involved, and there is no dispute over the name. Although SCO sued over the ownership of Unix, it always seemed doomed to fail.

The dispute over the Arduino trademark is a simple legal question, but in principle anyone could fork the entire Arduino product line and brand it with their own name. Even if Smart Projects were forced to change their brand name, they can hire programmers, web designers etc to continue independently of Arduino SA.

bobcousins:
The Yun Mini appears to be exclusive to Smart Projects, so they seem to be capable of developing products without Arduino SA.

The Yun Mini appears to be Linino One. It seems very unlikely Smart Projects actually designed it.

ARDUINO_YUN_MINI_slide.jpg

one2.jpg

Not really the point, I didn't say they designed it. They didn't design Arduino Zero either, and nor did Arduino SA for that matter. Hardware and software designers are not that hard to find...

The point is they have contacts and resources to bring new products to market, in the same way Arduino SA do. Smart Projects can survive without Arduino SA, and even seem to be leading.

I notice that the link http://www.robofun.ch/de/arduino-zero-pro.html is selling for only ~$45.
I'm probably going to save some $$$, then take a leap of faith. If this works, I'm happy to get a tangible Zero, instead of the vaporware we see now with the .cc Zero.

Will there be any effort here to expand an IDE, be it 1.0 or 1.6, to the Zero Pro?

EDIT: I notice the Yun mini has 'Made in Taiwan' on it... the zero pro doesn't.

Is it in stock anywhere in the USA?

http://store.atmel.com/PartDetail.aspx?q=p:10500372#tc:description
I am thinking of just getting one of these.

That's not quite the same thing...

The Zero is just basically the D21 explained in arduino form factor. It even has the edbg. So if you could get an arduino zero pro it should work with Atmel studio.

I have one of those SAM D21 Xplained boards. I also have one of the (real, not dot org) Arduino Zero beta test boards.

The Atmel Xplained board does not work with the Arduino (unreleased) beta software. I didn't investigate why. I only gave it a quick try, to see if Zero was somehow different than SAM D21 Xplained. It is.

I haven't tried either with Atmel Studio. I did recently buy an Atmel-ICE, with the intention of giving Atmel Studio a try soon.

I have not tried Arduino.org's software yet, other than a quick look at 1.5.8.1 to confirm it does not have Zero support. One of the branches on their github does seem to have zero support, but I haven't gone to the trouble of building it.

Come to think of it, there is also Teensy++ 2.0, which is a USB-capable AVR (AT90USB1286) with 128k of flash.
http://www.pjrc.com/store/teensypp.html
That's probably the closest thing to a Leonard or Micro with more memory that you're likely to find.

Does someone know whether the coming Arduino Zero is supporting the mbed SDK?

The mbed SDK runs on a large choice of boards based on ARM Cortex-M0, -M0+, -M3 and -M4 MCUs.

Currently, no. So far Atmel have not produced an mbed enabled board, an no-one else has either.

I expect Atmel at some point might get more involved with mbed, it is backed by ARM and gathers momentum. It is a more professional choice than Arduino.

A few people have looked at doing an mbed target HAL for Atmel chips, it is a big chunk of work, would really need a commercial sponsor like Atmel.

bobcousins:
.... have not produced an mbed enabled board, an no-one else has either.

Just a couple weeks ago, someone from mbed contacted me about a port they're doing for Teensy 3.1. They're doing it, not me (full disclosure - I'm the guy who makes Teensy). My understanding is it's currently only available in some beta version, but will probably move to their mainline version in a matter of months. I personally haven't used it yet.

I've seen mention that several of Freescale's and ST's boards are already mbed enabled. I personally haven't used those either, but I've seen the marketing material claiming they're mbed enabled.

I have no idea whether mbed plans to support Arduino Zero. But from what I've seen, it seems the new ARM-owned mbed is interested in supporting pretty much all ARM-based boards. Whether they're willing to touch a product that's the subject of an ongoing legal dispute / battle is a good question. My guess is they and others will likely wait for the legal drama to conclude before doing much with Zero.

Which Zero ?
Now there are two Zero (one US and one Italian) , two arduino compagnies, two arduino web sites and a trial.
see here

It's heartbreaking

I emailed the editor at makezine about the Arduino dispute over 3 weeks ago, seems they have just caught up. I'd like to see Michael Weinberg's view on the legal issues.

Weird thing about the pricing of the Zero Pro, it seems to be more expensive than the Due?

Genuine Arduino Due sells at approx $50, right?

Isn't Zero appearing around $45?

The sites I have looked at have Zero Pro more expensive than Due, here is 2 examples:

http://physicalcomputing.at/epages/f46ab952-295a-4f65-8ffa-38a4b8eec267.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/f46ab952-295a-4f65-8ffa-38a4b8eec267/Categories/EntwicklungsBoards__Tools/Arduino

Perhaps Due is priced low (about same price as Mega) because it does not sell much, and they are hoping Zero Pro will be more popular. As it is, it seems to be underpowered or overpriced. Most Cortex M3 chips are cheaper than atmega256, I can't see why the BOM cost justifies the price.

Oh, yes, you're right. I guess I wasn't translating Euros & US Dollars.

I too had expected they'd price it somewhere between Uno & Due. Maybe the debugger chip is the justification for the higher price?

That seems like a tough sell without any debug support in the Arduino IDE. Strategically, it seems crazy to drive users away from Arduino's software and onto Atmel Studio. But then, splitting off from Arduino.cc in such a legally questionable and publicly dramatic way hardly seems like a good idea either!