Tessel is a relatively new microcontroller that started shipping earlier this year. It’s an open-source prototyping and development board, along the lines of Arduino or Raspberry Pi. Like these other boards, Tessel is designed to let people make electronic things quickly and easily. However, Tessel takes a different approach than other electronics prototyping tools.

Tessel is a development board for prototyping connected devices. Catering to an audience of software developers, Tessel has simple hardware interactions, and is used in a development environment familiar to web programmers and app developers.

Tessel is a bridge between disciplines. For makers, Tessel is a starting point for JavaScript and an introduction to APIs. For software programmers, Tessel is a foray into hardware.

Here are five things that make Tessel different from other development boards:

1. Tessel is programmed with Node.JS.
To program Tessel, you write JavaScript code, in the Node.JS framework. Most other microcontrollers require knowledge of lower-level languages, which are less widespread and can take more time to learn. Tessel uses JavaScript in order to make its programming accessible to a broader audience.

2. Adding hardware capabilities to Tessel is plug-and-play.
Tessel is designed to interact with modular pieces of hardware called “Tessel modules”. Each module encapsulates a specific ability, such as Bluetooth Low Energy, or Camera, or Servo Motor. This is analogous to “shields” on Arduino, but more modular, and with the associated drivers printed directly on the hardware for npm install.

3. Tessel comes with Wifi built in.
Tessel is designed to be connected. Connected devices are growing in popularity, but on many platforms, Wifi can be difficult to set up and work with. Because Wifi is built into the main Tessel board, simple use cases for the board involve accessing web APIs, storing data online, and controlling projects remotely. Wifi connection is exposed in the JavaScript API or accessible through the command line interface.

4. Tessel is cheap in time.
With Arduino and Raspberry Pi boards below $40, makers and hardware developers often wonder at the $75 price of a Tessel board. However, Tessel is designed to take as little time as possible to achieve results; where other boards prioritize educational purposes, Tessel prioritizes quick prototyping. Accounting for development time (not to mention onboard Wifi), the cost balances out fairly quickly. It takes a couple of minutes from unboxing to reading in climate data from a sensor. It’s only a few more minutes of effort to make it tweet the data out.

5. Tessel is designed for web developers.
Tessel was designed specifically for the use of web developers. Web developers are used to internet connection. They’re used to quick deployment, online interfaces, and the use of APIs from all over the web. They might not be familiar with electrical engineering at all. This fundamental design paradigm drives a lot of Tessel– from the programming language, to the hardware choices, to the very detailed documentation. Tessel is hardware the way software people expect it to work. That’s what sets it apart.