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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Qualcomm is buying Arduino however permitting it to function independently.
- The brand new Qualcomm-powered UNO Q is offered for $44.
- Qualcomm is a big participant within the SBC house, dwarfing Raspberry Pi.
Chip and modem maker Qualcomm has introduced that it plans to amass Arduino, the Italian open-source {hardware} and software program firm that is the middle of many homebrew and industrial interactive electronics tasks.
Concurrently with the acquisition announcement, Arduino launched the UNO Q, a single-board laptop (SBC) powered by a Qualcomm chip.
Additionally: Raspberry Pi alternate options: The perfect single board computer systems in your subsequent house venture
Based on Qualcomm, the Arduino deal will “supercharge developer productiveness throughout industries [and] will protect its open method and group spirit whereas unlocking a full‑stack platform for contemporary growth.”
Qualcomm stated the 33 million lively Arduino group customers will get entry to Qualcomm Applied sciences’ expertise stack and world attain and that there shall be “a transparent path to commercialization.” The corporate has additionally been very eager to level out that Arduino will retain its model and mission and is totally behind Qualcomm’s open supply ethos.
The UNO Q is sort of a powerhouse. At its core is the Qualcomm Dragonwing QRB2210 chip, which mixes a quad-core Kryo CPU clocked as much as 2.0 GHz and an Adreno 702 GPU working at 845 MHz. It additionally has 2GB of LPDDR4 RAM, 16GB eMMC storage, and might leverage Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.1.
On the board is an 8×13 blue LED matrix that may be managed utilizing code. There are additionally 47 digital I/O pins together with six analog inputs, making this a really succesful single-board laptop.
The board is offered for pre-order from DigiKey for $44.
Additionally: Essentially the most highly effective Raspberry Pi simply launched with some critical RAM and an RGB keyboard
Arduino is already a big participant within the SBC market, with boards just like the UNO R4, alongside opponents comparable to Odroid, BeagleBoard, Orange Piand … Raspberry Pi.
Thus far, Raspberry Pi hasn’t confronted a lot critical competitors; nevertheless, with Qualcomm throwing its $42.8 billion income heft towards Raspberry Pi (with its $346.5 million income), issues may change. Beforehand, Arduino turned over some $140 million, so it was a a lot smaller fish.
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I do not suppose Raspberry Pi has a lot to fret about within the brief to medium time period. It is a well-established title and is innovating lots in the intervening time. However Qualcomm is a giant firm, and such a giant participant getting into into an area in such a dramatic method will little question increase eyebrows on the Raspberry Pi Basis.