Whenever a new product is released under the Arduino brand, I become electrified. This time, it is not a 100% pure Arduino product, but I have expectations to keep it going in the Arduino’s style. It has quickly become popular mainly because it is open source and easy to work with.
The new board is the result of collaboration between Arduino and Intel. The new microcontroller board is called Arduino 101 if you’re from the US, and Genuino 101 for the rest of the world.
Why Arduino 101/Genuino 101 and why now?
Is the Arduino UNO obsolete for our needs in a connected world? We have shields for wireless connections for both Bluetooth and Internet. Well, this is true. But all these accessories cannot replace a much powerful microcontroller such as Intel Curie. The Intel’s microcontroller on steroids.
Now, the UNO’s successor comes with the Intel Curie microcontroller attached to it. Otherwise, the board provides the Arduino UNO pinout and peripherals.
Once with Curie, Intel takes the wearables zone seriously. Curie is tiny and features Bluetooth connectivity and a six-axes accelerometer and gyroscope. In a very small place, no more than a shirt button, are placed two tiny cores clocked at 32 MHz, an x86 (Quark) and an ARC.
Compared with Arduino UNO Rev 3 that comes with the ATmega328 microcontroller clocked at 16Mhz, Arduino 101/Genuino 101 has twice the power of UNO.
Programming the Arduino 101/Genuino 101 is exactly the same procedure as programming the UNO board. The single difference is that you have to use the same Arduino IDE with some extra libraries to utilize the Curie features such as the accelerometer with gyroscope and Bluetooth.
An Arduino UNO Rev 3 lies at a price of $15.90, which is almost half of the price of Arduino 101/Genuino 101 that is suggested to be at US$30. The 101 board is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2016. So, you still have some time to play with a UNO.
As a roboticist, I’m more interesting building robots, and less use it in wearable projects. Once the board has the same sizes, layout such as pins, power, connections, etc., integrated specs such as Bluetooth and an accelerometer, a fast microcontroller, it may be a good choice to take the power of 101 instead trying to optimize the UNO board.
