Microchip Technology Inc, a
Digilent, Inc. have announced
the launched the first 32-bit micro controller-
based, open-source
development platform that is
compatible with Arduino™ hardware
and software. Designed and
manufactured by Digilent, a Microchip
Authorized Design Partner, the
chipKIT™ platform is the first and only
32-bit Arduino solution in the industry
to enable hobbyists and academics to
easily, and inexpensively, integrate
electronics into their projects, even if
they do not have an electronic engineering
background.
The platform consists of two PIC32-
based development boards and opensource
software that is compatible with
the Arduino programming language and
development environment, thanks to
the incredible work done by Mark
Sproul and Rick Anderson through Fair
Use Building and Research Labs. The
chipKIT hardware is compatible with
existing 3.3V Arduino shields and
applications, and can be developed
using a modified version of the Arduino
IDE and existing Arduino resources,
such as code examples, libraries,
references and tutorials. The platform
provides an unprecedented level of
features for the Arduino community,
and four times the performance of any
existing Arduino solution at a low price,
an official release noted.
Hobbyists and academics from many
disciplines, such as mechanical
engineering, computer science and even
art, want easy-to-use, low-cost
solutions for creating projects. The
PIC32-based chipKIT boards enable
80 MHz performance, and provide up
to 512 KB.