Raspberry Pi chipKIT Expansion Board Is The World's First Prototyping-Friendly 32-Bit MCU

If you're the sort of hardware geek that enjoys playing with the Raspberry Pi or building projects using Arduino, a new product is available for the Raspberry Pi that you might appreciate. The product is called the Raspberry Pi chipKIT expansion board. The expansion board provides 3.3V Arduino compatibility.

The chipKIT is said to be the world's first expansion board with a prototyping-friendly 32-bit MCU package. ChipKIT was codeveloped by element 14 and Microchip Technology. The expansion board allows users to create, compile, and program Arduino sketch-based chipKIT applications within the Raspberry Pi operating system.

The chipKIT MPIDE is open source while being compatible with the Arduino programming language and development environment. The expansion board is claimed to be the world's first to enable the development of 3.3V Arduino compatible applications using a 32-bit high-performance MCU in a prototyping friendly package.

That prototyping friendly package uses low pin count SPDIP packages that were previously available only with eight-bit MCUs for Arduino users. The chipKIT is also the only 32-bit MCU in a prototyping-friendly package available for Raspberry Pi users. The chipKIT expansion board is available for $28 with launch expected in the last week of September. Pre-orders are being accepted now. The Raspberry Pi Model A is available for $25.

SOURCE: Microchipdirect