To kick off 2017, we've released our top development platforms designed to fuel the innovation of the new year.
See our latest list of The Top Development Boards of 2018!
10. Raspberry Pi 3
If you want proof that we’re marching steadily forward in the dev board arena, look no further than the Raspberry Pi 3. This little wonder has a 1.2Ghz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU inside that offers roughly ten times the performance of the Raspberry Pi 1. And unlike its predecessors, this single board computer brings an integrated 802.11n wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.1 capability to your build. Already deep into a project with the RP1 or RP2? No worries. The Raspberry Pi 3 is backwards compatible. And the best part? It’s still only $35.
9. Arduino Uno R3
Arduino offers perhaps the most user-friendly dev boards out there. They’re tough as nails and easy to set up, but that doesn’t mean they don’t pack a punch. The R3 comes equipped with an ATmega16U2 (16K flash) in place of the 8U2 (8K flash) on the Uno—which means faster performance and more memory for you. The R3 added three new pins and rearranged the I2C pins on the side of the board near AREF for ease of use and increased capability. They also moved the reset button next to the USB connector, making it more accessible when a shield is used—which is often, because Arduino has a huge shield library to work with and a massive support community to go to for advice.
8. BeagleBone Black
The BeagleBone Black is another stellar entry in the low-cost development platform arena with a lot of community support. This version comes with an AM3358 1GHZ ARM Cortex™ A8 that provides plenty of processing power for most computing needs, as well as 512MB of DDR3L DRAM and 4GB onboard flash, which really sets it apart. The BeagleBone Black shines when it comes to expansion interfacing. With Ethernet, USB host and OTG, microSD card slot, serial, JTAG (optional), onboard micro HDMI, eMMC, ADC, I2C, SPI, PWM and LCD, you can pick your expansion and run with it.
7. Intel Joule 570X
Intel has offered innovative dev boards in the past, but in 2016 they kicked the door down with the Joule, their most powerful dev board to date. The quad-core Atom T5700 CPU has a base clock of 1.7GHz but can turbo to 2.4GHz. It’s paired with 4GB of LPDDR4 memory and 16GB eMMC NAND, and it supports 4K video capture and display. While the Joule can bring performance to any design, it’s meant to fill a specific spot in the dev board market: a board for advanced developers of higher performance video and machine vision applications.
6. DECA Board
The DECA board is a perfect way to step into or step up your FPGA design skills. With the DECA you can design with non-volatile, instant-on MAX 10 FPGAs and interact with a wide range of sensors, including gesture, proximity, ambient light, temperature, power and acceleration. Two ADC blocks and integrated hardware allow users to implement a single chip integrated solution using Altera’s Nios II Gen2 32-bit RISC soft core processor. If you’ve ever wanted to leverage the benefit of dual-configuration options in a high-performance FPGA system, DECA is the board for you.
5. Thunderboard React
This small and mighty board offers a cloud-connected, Bluetooth Smart enabled solution for collecting sensor data to easily test and prototype IoT applications. It’s Bluetooth 4.2 compliant and comes with an ARM Cortex™ M4 core with 32 kB RAM and 256 Kb Flash, as well as a range of environment and motion sensors for robust data collection. The kicker with the Thunderboard is the free mobile app that comes with it. Once you’ve collected all the data, the iOS and Android mobile app can visualize it as well as control the LED states on the Thunderboard React hardware. If you’re ready to add BLE-to-cloud connectivity to your application, Thunderboard React has you covered.
4. NRF52-DK
Nordic Semi finally made a dev board for their popular nRF52 series SoC, which is their next-generation, ultralow power Bluetooth low energy single chip. The dev board is for Bluetooth low enery, ANT and 2.4GHz wireless applications—it has a connector for RF measurements, and a pluggable NFC antenna to enable NFC tag functionality. The design gives convenient access to all I/O and interfaces via connectors and has 4 LEDs and 4 buttons that are user programmable. The NRF52-DK is also hardware compatible with the Arduino Uno R3, which means that you can use all compatible 3rd party Arduino shields in your design.
3. S7 Synergy Starter Kit
The Renesas Synergy™ platform is an embedded development platform where detailed MCU functions, a complete RTOS-based integrated software framework, validated middleware, and integrated development tools can all be accessed under a single development umbrella, and entirely through the API. It’s a bit of a game changer for embedded development, especially in color graphics, audio, and capacitive touch interfacing, and the best way to take advantage of it—and the capabilities of their popular S7 MCU—is through the SK-S7G2 Synergy Starter Kit.
2. Adafruit FONA 808 Cellular + GPS Shield for Arduino
The FONA 808 Cellular + GPS Shield is an all-in-one cellular phone Arduino shield that lets you add location tracking, voice, text, SMS and data to your project. It’s essentially a cellphone in an Arduino shield. At its heart is the latest SIM808 GSM cellular module—you can connect onto any global GSM network with any 2G SIM, make and receive voice calls, send and receive GPRS data, and more. It even comes with a vibrational motor if you want to go noiseless.
1. Freedom Board
The Freedom Board is a low cost development board for the Kinetis MCU family. Versatility is the name of the game with the Freedom Board. Simply choose your preferred Kinetis MCU, select compatible software, and go. You can choose from a range of sensor add-ons and power management expansion kits and additional open-source boards that are Arduino R3 compatible. Have a design question? No worries. The Kinetis MCU online Freescale Community has answers.
Bonus: LinkCharge-CT
With all the design emphasis these days on wireless application development, you might be wondering how to charge sealed devices where you can’t access the battery. Wonder no more. The LinkCharge-CT is an out of the box 15V wireless charging kit from Semtech that can be mounted underneath the surface of your design and penetrate up to 10mm of material to transmit power between charger and receiver. Plus, it’s Wireless Power Consortium and AirFuel Alliance complaint.
And there you have it! Our top 10 dev boards of 2017. There are a lot of stellar dev boards out there to help you design and prototype the next great tech solution. If you have questions, we’ve got answers. Feel free to chat with our expert engineers about your design. With all the capabilities that these boards offer engineers, we can’t wait to see what you come up with.