[HN Gopher] Arduino Uno R4
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       Arduino Uno R4
        
       Author : iamflimflam1
       Score  : 80 points
       Date   : 2023-06-27 17:04 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (store.arduino.cc)
 (TXT) w3m dump (store.arduino.cc)
        
       | Koshkin wrote:
       | ARM ate everybody's lunch, it seems.
        
         | nine_k wrote:
         | Whose else?
         | 
         | - x86 and x64 are too power-hungry for small systems.
         | 
         | - Power is still up and running, but also on the high end, too
         | (see Power 8 and 9).
         | 
         | - MIPS32 cores are found in lower-end MCUs. AFIACT MIPS
         | actively offers their cores for embedding in MCUs, like ARM.
         | 
         | - You can still buy MCUs with Atmel AVR and 8051 8-bit
         | architectures on the lowest end.
         | 
         | What's lost? SPARC and Motorola 680x0, I presume. I frankly
         | wonder what prevented 680x0 from getting into widespread MCUs.
         | Apparently Phillips used it their custom controllers for some
         | time.
        
           | duskwuff wrote:
           | > AFIACT MIPS actively offers their cores for embedding in
           | MCUs, like ARM.
           | 
           | Not anymore that I'm aware of. They laid off most (possibly
           | all?) of their architectural engineers around 2020 and sold
           | off the remaining rights to a Chinese firm.
           | 
           | There's still a few MIPS-based MCUs out there, like PIC32,
           | but they're a dying breed. ARM Cortex-M is much better suited
           | to these applications.
           | 
           | > I frankly wonder what prevented 680x0 from getting into
           | widespread MCUs.
           | 
           | Poor IPC, high interrupt latency. The weird mixed 16/32-bit
           | nature of the 68000 made it easier to implement a
           | microcomputer with (since you only needed 16-bit RAM/ROM),
           | but would only get in the way in a microcontroller (where
           | memory would mostly, if not entirely, be internal). It's a
           | shame; I liked the ISA, but the performance just isn't there.
        
             | withinboredom wrote:
             | > ARM Cortex-M
             | 
             | I almost did a prank post when Apple came out
             | with/announced the M1. I had recently had tore down my
             | broken PSVR which has the very nicely stamped ARM M1 in it.
             | I wanted to post something like "Apple didn't invent it,
             | Sony did!" Regretfully, I did not.
        
           | qbasic_forever wrote:
           | Z80 and PIC were pretty popular in the hobbyist embedded
           | space before Arduino and Atmel AVR really took over in the
           | 2000s.
        
             | megous wrote:
             | 8-bit PICs are still quite nice. All of them up to 40-pin
             | variants are made in DIP package, so I can put a bare
             | package into a breadboard and have a ton of features out of
             | the box in the right pin number configuration for the job.
             | 
             | People should just select modern ones, and not the same old
             | 16F84/877 or something legacy like that, that's been
             | obsolete for like 25 years already. All of the modern ones
             | have very uniform programming interface, nicely
             | configurable I/O and a lot of analog features.
        
               | Koshkin wrote:
               | ATTiny85, too, is amazing, having only 8 pins.
        
         | aobdev wrote:
         | As an instruction set, yes, but I think this was inevitable
         | with the demand for things like native USB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth,
         | and hobbyists wanting to use languages like Python. These
         | boards do a lot more than the ATMegas I grew up with, and while
         | almost every new design in this space might go with ARM thanks
         | to generous specs and low cost and power requirements, I think
         | there's still a good amount of competition in the 32bit
         | microcontroller market (ST, TI, Microchip, NXP, etc. come to
         | mind).
        
         | gsliepen wrote:
         | It comes with two XTensa LX7 cores, if you get the version with
         | WiFi.
        
       | tda wrote:
       | So they stuck an esp32 on the Arduino just for the
       | Bluetooth/Wifi? I wonder how it compares to the Arduino processor
       | 
       | Edit: I see this topic was discussed yesterday
        
       | schappim wrote:
       | I find it funny that the word "open"[1] is not found on the page!
       | The board has "Open Source is [heart]" but no OSHW logo, nor
       | links to a repo.
       | 
       | [1] https://files.littlebird.com.au/Shared-
       | Image-2023-06-28-08-0...
        
       | timmaxw wrote:
       | It's neat that they've added a Qwiic-compatible connector. I've
       | been impressed with how many Qwiic peripherals Sparkfun has
       | released, so I'm glad to see it getting more traction.
        
       | numlock86 wrote:
       | Yesterday's discussion:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36481263
        
       | miohtama wrote:
       | Uno R4, now with four popups to close before you can read the
       | website.
        
       | ex3ndr wrote:
       | Finally 32 bits! Let's hope everyone would start forgetting 5v
       | and 8bit.
        
         | IshKebab wrote:
         | Everyone* except Arduino already did long ago.
         | 
         | *Explanation for HN pedants: this instance of "everyone" does
         | not literally mean everyone; it means the vast majority of
         | people.
        
           | dragontamer wrote:
           | Meanwhile in 8051 land... SiLabs keeps churning stuff out.
           | 
           | IIRC, 8 bit continues to grow. It's just that 32-bits is
           | growing faster.
        
         | dragontamer wrote:
         | Unless you plan to kill USB, 5V support is kind of baked into
         | modern computing.
         | 
         | EDIT: And 8-bit can't seem to die no matter how much people
         | try. TI's MSPM0 (Cortex M0+) chips at 39-cents this year (1k
         | quantities) might give 8-bitters a run for their money finally
         | though. But time-and-time again, 8-bit survives each challenge.
         | I dunno why, it just keeps happening.
        
       | m463 wrote:
       | Working with the raspberry pi, I really see that they did a lot
       | of things right with the arduino in comparison.
       | 
       | Powering the pi could be so much easier - this arduino takes up
       | to 24v.
       | 
       | And the arduino female bus pins are so much more practical than
       | all the pins sticking out of the pi.
        
       | _def wrote:
       | Would love to buy one (way cheaper than expected!) but apparently
       | you can't via ipv6 lol https://forum.arduino.cc/t/cannot-sign-in-
       | to-store-arduino-c...
        
       | skybrian wrote:
       | I'm wondering what's appealing about this size board? I'm
       | interested in portable devices so I prefer smaller. Arduino's
       | boards seem awkwardly big and expensive compared to a Raspberry
       | Pi Pico, Adafruit's Feather boards, or a Teensy for more
       | processing power.
       | 
       | They keep making them, so there must some reason?
        
         | gmiller123456 wrote:
         | The UNO predates the Pi Pico by about 20 years. It was pretty
         | small for everything it did back then. The headers are laid out
         | in a standard format so that it can accept "shields", so now
         | anything that wants to use those shields has to be this size.
        
           | schappim wrote:
           | The Uno was released in 2010.
        
           | steve918 wrote:
           | and the weird staggered header design was a mistake from the
           | very first boards that has just continued to carry on through
           | the years.
        
             | jffry wrote:
             | According to [1], the decision to keep the spacing for
             | compatibility reasons was a conscious one. I can see how
             | they might want to keep the whole ecosystem of Arduino-
             | compatible accessories/kits/etc functioning.
             | 
             | [1] https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/941
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | brainzap wrote:
       | too late pico took over
        
         | joemi wrote:
         | This is a very different product when comparing it to the Pico,
         | for different audiences.
        
           | IshKebab wrote:
           | It's a bit different, and sure the Pico audience is slightly
           | more advanced, but there are way more similarities than
           | differences. They are absolutely in competition.
        
             | withinboredom wrote:
             | I could be wrong with this new Uno, but the biggest
             | difference between a pico and uno (traditionally) was that
             | the USB firmware in the uno could allow you to emulate
             | mice/joysticks. That's huge if you're building simpits, or
             | human interface prototypes.
        
       | slekker wrote:
       | A video auto-started on the page, and I couldn't even find it to
       | stop it.
        
         | knodi123 wrote:
         | lol, and fake animated popup alerts telling you what other
         | customers are buying right now? Is this really a site for savvy
         | electronics hobbyists? It feels like the crappiest web2.0
         | "seize them by the eyeballs and don't let go" garbage site
         | possible.
        
           | RockRobotRock wrote:
           | What Chinese knockoffs and open source hardware does to an
           | mfer
        
           | nkozyra wrote:
           | Maybe it's just a kneejerk reaction to the Digikey and
           | Mousers of the world that make most people run for the hills
           | (at least at first).
           | 
           | A middle ground sure would be nice.
        
         | redsaber wrote:
         | hate that my download manager keep popping off since it is
         | detecting a playing video
        
         | suprfsat wrote:
         | Bet the "select your country" popup is actually capturing the
         | click in order to start playing audio.
        
           | Goz3rr wrote:
           | There's a youtube video on the page that autoplays, and
           | youtube is on the magic list that can autoplay without
           | interaction
        
         | they4kman wrote:
         | I was in the middle of a courtroom >:(
        
         | elaus wrote:
         | Absolute horror! Auto-playing video with sound on by default,
         | hundreds of requests to remote servers (Google Play, Youtube,
         | AdSense, some unknown domain, ...).
         | 
         | I respect Arduino for what they have done for the maker and
         | tinkerer scene, but landing pages like that will not keep me as
         | a visitor.
        
         | gettodachoppa wrote:
         | That's what you get for not using uBlock Origin in Advanced
         | User mode, with all 3rd party connections blocked by default.
         | :)
         | 
         | Here's a screenshot, everything in red was blocked:
         | https://i.imgur.com/pAEMBxD.png
         | 
         | That's 84 requests blocked (54% of the page, 14 domains blocked
         | out of 16)
         | 
         | To do this, in Advanced User mode, under 3rd Party Scripts and
         | 3rd Party Frames, click the left-most cell pair to make them
         | red. (right-most pair is settings for the current site only,
         | left-most pair is for every single site, ie default settings)
        
       | [deleted]
        
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       (page generated 2023-06-27 23:00 UTC)