IOT Boards and processors

Internet of Things (IoT) have many choices of development

boards. The DIY market exploded with the availability of a
variety of boards. Developers will have to choose from
microcontroller-based boards, System on Chip (SOC) boards,
Single-board Computers (SBC) and purpose-built boards with
support for Smart Bluetooth and WiFi.
C.H.I.P

• CHIP, with the $9 price tag, it’s one of the most affordable full-blown
computers available in the market. It comes with a powerful 1GHz
processor powered by Allwinner R8.
• The best thing about CHIP is that it comes with embedded Bluetooth
4.0 and WiFi radios, providing out-of-the-box connectivity.
• The board has 4GB of high-speed storage to run a special Linux
distribution based on Debian. No need a separate SD Card to install and
run the OS.

• The only drawback of this board is that it doesn’t have HDMI out. To
connect it to a display, A TRRS connector is required for the composite
output.
• An adapter is needed to connect it to regular VGA or HDMI displays.
• With 8 GPIO pins, CHIP can be connected to a variety of sensors. The
board also supports PWM, UART, I2C for connecting motors and other
actuators.
• One of the key advantages of CHIP is the cost and the form-factor.
Mediatek Linkit One

• Based on the smallest SOC, the Linkit One board comes with
compatible Arduino pinout features.
• The chipset is based on MT2502A (Aster, ARM7 EJ-S (TM) ) with
260MHz speed.
• Regarding connectivity, Linkit One has the most comprehensive
collection of radios – GPS, GSM, GPRS, WiFi, and Bluetooth.
• One of the unique features of Linkit One is the rich API that can be
used from Arduino IDE.
• The SDK comes with libraries to connect the board to AWS and
PubNub.
• Because it supports the Arduino pinout, multiple shields from the
Arduino ecosystem can be used with the board.
• With small form-factor (size) and rich connectivity options,
Linkit One can be used for rapid prototyping of connected IoT
devices and wearables.

$59
 Particle Photon

• Photon is one of the smallest prototyping boards available in

the market. Price: $19

• It comes with the Broadcom BCM43362 Wi-Fi chip.

• It is Powered by the STM32F205 120Mhz ARM Cortex M3

processor, Photon has 1MB flash and 128KB RAM.

• Once configured, the board is accessible from the Internet,

which makes it an ideal prototyping platform to build
connected applications.
• The board comes with five analog pins and eight digital pins for connecting various
sensors and actuators.
• The official iOS and Android Apps that Particle has published come handy in
controlling these pins directly.
• The powerful web-based IDE lets you write sketches that are compatible with
Arduino.
• Developers can also buy a variety of shields for interfacing with relays, motors, and
the broader Arduino Uno ecosystem
Tessel

• Tessel 2 is a solid development board for serious

developers.
• It comes with a choice of sensors and actuators that
can be directly connected to the module ports.
• The board is powered by a 580MHz MediaTek
MT7620n processor for faster execution.
• It is complemented by a 48MHz Atmel SAMD21
coprocessor for better managing the power and real-
time I/O.
• It has 64 MB DDR2 RAM & 32 MB Flash, which is
more than sufficient for running complex code. Price: $44

• The Micro-USB port is used for both powering the board as well as connecting to
the PC.
• The embedded Wi-Fi and Ethernet ports bring connectivity to Tessel.
• It has a wide collection of sensors and actuators that come along with the required
libraries.
• Based on JavaScript and Node.js, it is easy to get started with the platform.
• Developers looking for a rapid prototyping platform can go for Tessel 2.
Adafruit Flora

• It’s a wearable electronic platform based on the

most popular Arduino microcontroller.

• Flora’s size makes it an ideal choice for embedded

it in clothes and apparel. It comes with a thin,
sewable, conductor thread which acts as the wire
that connects the power and other accessories.

• The latest version of Flora ships with a micro-USB

Price: $19.95
and Neopixel LEDs for easy programmability and
testing.
• Adafruit Flora is based on Atmega 32u4 microcontroller, which powers Arduino Mega
and Leonardo.
• There is an onboard polarized 2 JST battery connector with protection Schottky diode
for use with external battery packs from 3.5v to 9v DC.
• Given its compatibility with Arduino, most of the sketches would run without
modifications.
• You can use the same Arduino IDE with that you may already be familiar.
LightBlue Bean

• LightBlue Bean is an Arduino-compatible

microcontroller board that ships with embedded
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), RGB LED, temperature
sensor, and an accelerometer.
• Bean+ is the successor to the already popular, which
includes a rechargeable LiPo battery along with a
couple of Grove connectors.
• The board comes with a coin-cell battery, which
further helps it to maintain the small form factor. It can
be paired with Android or iOS devices for remote
connectivity and control Price: $30.00

• It also comes with a software called BeanLoader for programming from Windows or
Mac equipped with BLE.
• BeanLoader installs an Arduino IDE add-on for programming the Bean platform.
• LightBlue Bean / Bean+ is powered by an ATmega328p microcontroller with 32KB
Flash memory and 2KB SRAM.
• With 8 GPIO pins, two analog pins, four PWM pins, and an I2C port, Bean is perfect
for quickly prototyping BLE-based IoT projects.
Udoo Neo
• Udoo Neo is a full-blown computer that also has an Arduino-compatible
microcontroller.

Price: $64.90
• It’s positioned as the combination of Raspberry Pi and Arduino.

• The board has the same pinout as Arduino Uno.

• Neo embeds two cores on the same processor – a powerful 1GHz ARM
Cortex-A9, and an ARM Cortex-M4 I/O real-time co-processor.

• It packs a punch with an embedded 9-axis motion sensors and a Wi-Fi +

Bluetooth 4.0 module.
• One can install Android Lollipop or a customized flavour of Debian Linux called UDOObuntu,
which is compatible with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

• When it comes to the power-packed features and specifications, Udoo NEO is nothing short of a
desktop computer.

• With a Freescale i.MX 6SoloX applications processor with an embedded ARM Cortex-A9 core and
a Cortex-M4 Core, Neo comes with 1GB RAM.

• The Micro HDMI port can be connected to an external display and audio sources.
• The standard Arduino pin layout is compatible with Arduino shields. You can install Node.js,
Python, and even Java on Udoo Neo.
Intel Edison

• Intel Edison is the most powerful single-board computer for

advanced IoT projects.

• It is a high-performance, dual-core CPU with a single core

micro-controller that can support complex data collection.

• It has an integrated Wi-Fi certified in 68 countries, Bluetooth®

4.0 support, 1GB DDR and 4GB flash memory.

• Edison comes with two breakout boards – one that’s

compatible with Arduino and the other board designed to be a
smaller in size for easy prototyping.

• The Arduino breakout board has 20 digital input/output pins,

including four pins as PWM outputs, Six analog inputs, one
Price: $70.00
UART (Rx/Tx), and one I2C pin.
• Edison runs on a distribution of embedded Linux called Yocto. It’s one of the few
boards to get certified by Microsoft, AWS, and IBM for cloud connectivity.
Raspberry Pi (RPi)
• RPi is the most popular and affordable platform used by
many researchers.
• Even non-technical users depend on it for configuring their
digital media systems and surveillance cameras.
• The recently launched RPi 3 included built-in WiFi and
Bluetooth making it the most compact and standalone
computer.
• Based on a Broadcom BCM2837 SoC with a 1.2 GHz 64-bit
quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor and 1GB RAM, the Price: $35.00
Pi is a powerful platform.
• The RPi 3 is equipped with 2.4 GHz WiFi 802.11n and Bluetooth 4.1 in addition to
the 10/100 Ethernet port.
• The HDMI port makes it further easy to hook up A/V sources.
• RPi runs on a customized Debian Linux called Raspbian, which provides an
excellent user experience.
• It offers a powerful environment to install a variety of packages including Node.js,
the LAMP stack, Java, Python and much more.
• With four USB ports and 40 GPIO pins, you can connect many peripherals and
accessories to the Pi.
• There are third party breakout boards to connect various Arduino shields to the Pi.
Arduino Uno
• Arduino Uno remains to be the top favourite of absolute
beginners and experts.
• Considered to be one of the first microcontroller-based
development boards, the Arduino Uno R3 is simplest yet
the most powerful prototyping environment.
• It is based on the ATmega328P which has 14 digital
input/output pins and six analog inputs.
• Though it comes with just 32 KB of Flash memory, it can
accommodate code that deals with complex logic and
operations.
• Arduino enjoys the best community participation and Price: $22.57
support.
• From sensors to actuators to libraries, it has a thriving ecosystem.
• The board layout has become almost the gold standard for microcontrollers.
• Almost every prototyping environment tries to be compatible with the Arduino pin
breakout.
• The open source IDE to develop sketches is another reason for its popularity.
• With a simple syntax based on ‘C’ language, the code is easy to learn.