The power of 4 Raspberry Pi dev boards and an Adruino... Seems like win-win board (via UDOO)
To add to the mix of technological innovation engendering microprocessing boards, SECO US and Aidilab have teamed up alongside professors from the US and UK to develop quite possibly the most impressive software development board to date. The UDOO is a powerful mini PC capable of running Android and/or Linux on a twin processor, feature loaded, Arduino-compatible platform that is sure to strike a creative chord in the hearts of many coding artists waiting to paint their next software-laden technological masterpieces.
The UDOO is an impressive board giving users the option to choose between a dual- or quad- core 1GHz ARM i.MX6 Freescale CPU in addition to the integrated Atmel SAM3X8E ARM Cortex-MR CPU. Integrated graphics are provided by three distinct accelerators for 2D, OpenGL ES2.0 3D, and OpenVG, and the board is equipped with 1GB of DDR3 RAM. With a total of 54 digital I/Os, an Arduino-compatible analog input, HDMI and LVDS video output with touch capability, optional Ethernet and Wi-Fi modules, a mini USB and a mini USB OTG port, 2 Type A USB ports and a USB connector, analog audio and mic (line-in) support, and a camera connection - the UDOO truly offers developers a feature-filled canvas to work with. Power is supplied via a 5-12V adapter @ 2A, and a Micro SD slot is used for booting the device.
Running Linux on a properly flashed micro SD allows the UDOO to act as a stand-alone computer using the Freescale i.MX 6 CPU - designed primarily for Linux Ubuntu. The ability to run Android (4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich tested) allows makers to develop apps that can interact with the physical environment using Arduino-compatible interfaces. UDOO’s compact 11cm x 8.5 cm board size is also expandable, providing full compatibility for all Arduino DUE shields available for any designer’s peripheral stacking needs. This incredible design provides a creative solution to harnessing both Arduino’s project build flexibility and Android/Linux software capabilities all-in-one.
Currently, there are four educational institutions working with the UDOO team: Carnegie Mellon, University of California San Diego, Aarhus University, University of Siena, and OCADU. Since UDOO is a highly capable and flexible platform, the board will be used in many worldwide educational communities. Professors from these project-leading universities all express their fascination for the device’s ability to offer a teaching tool that can expand computer programming literacy on all educational levels - project builds that would teach students how to develop their own interactive software and hardware on-the-fly.
The UDOO team has recently taken to Kickstarter as their next step in bringing their mini PC out to the public. The project is about 80% complete, but pre-orders planned to ship in September of this year are already taking place. A pledge of $109USD will get anyone interested the most basic UDOO package, consisting of a UDOO dual core version with WiFi and Ethernet modules ($129USD for Quad core version).
Check out the video below for a preview of the device from the UDOO team! Also, want to see how the UDOO stacks up to the competition? Take a look at the comparison chart.
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