By Sam, updated on 15 July 2017

So, after almost a week of researching, cross-referencing, double checking, and image hunting, I’m excited to show you guys my take on the history of Arduino, and the evolution of the Arduino hardware into what it is today. With so many Arduino boards available at the moment, especially in the aftermath of the Arduino vs. Genuino debacle, it’s nice to be able to clearly see the area that each board is targeted at, and which ones are no longer in production.

This conversation is part of the History of Arduino poster which we've created. Download the full A3 version.

Download the full A3 version.

After compiling listings of all of the genuine Arduino boards (not Arduino compatible, or spin-off boards), it became a bit easier to chart the development of Arduino and it’s shifting trend towards emerging technologies. I've broken the discussion up into smaller segments which track the development and evolution of different hardware boards, so, let's stake a look.

Maker Boards

The very first Arduino board released (in 2006) was the Arduino Serial which didn't even have a USB port, but (as the name implies) had an older, Serial port for communicating with the chip. For this board and the subsequent USB kit, an Atmel Atmega8 microcontroller was used. This chip is the younger sibling of the well-known Atmega328 which is still used on the Uno to this day. After this first year of release, there was a frenzy of activity and development of maker boards which aligns with the timing of the maker/DIY boom. New revisions of the Arduino board that Massimo Banzi envisaged were brought out, with a shift to the Atmega168 which had twice the available memory of the Atmega8. After several further board iterations, the Atmega328 arrived in the Duemilanove, Nano, Pro, and Pro Mini.

The Arduino Duemilanove was pretty close to the Uno, however between them was the release of the Mega. This used an Atmega1280 chip which, whilst clocking in at the same speed as the mega328, it brings over 54 pins, multiple serial ports, and a host of extended hardware to the table, in a much larger form factor. The Mega was aimed at those who loved the Uno, but wanted more hardware, without a significant change in architecture. 2010 saw the release of the Arduino Uno, a culmination of 4 years of development, iterations, and hardware changes. The current version is the Uno rev3 which has only tweaked or altered minor aspects of the board, however, the design has basically remained unchanged for the last 7 years. As far as microcontroller development platforms go, it's pretty much the best at what it does, and it's so user-friendly that whilst other Arduino boards have been released, the Uno is still the most commonly used board for makers, DIY'ers, and hobbyists.

Still riding the wave of the maker boom, the Mega went through some iterations, bumping the chip up to the current mega2560 with twice the memory (see the trend here). The Leonardo, Due, Micro, and Mega ADK (Android Development Kit) all came out before 2012 which is where other aspects of the Arduino platform began to take over. The two main boards which represent a big change is the Due and the Leonardo. The Leonardo maintains the familiar form factor, however, it uses an Atmega32u4 chip instead of the mega328. The 'u' means that it has built in USB hardware so it requires no extra chip to connect to a USB host like previous boards did. This allowed the Leonardo to act as a native HID, MIDI, and other USB devices.

As I mentioned previously, the Due came out in 2012 and it was big. It was the first Arduino board to feature a 32-bit processor (ARM Cortex architecture). This means that whilst it's significantly more powerful, it's also more complex, so some work was required to create software layers that allowed it to be as user-friendly as other Arduino boards.

Wearables

The first official Arduino wearable board came out in 2007 which was the original LilyPad, designed as a collaboration between Sparkfun and Arduino. It used the Atmega168 chip which was the microcontroller used on the Arduino boards of that time, however, it was then updated in 2009 with the Atmega328. Whilst wearables were around then, it wasn't until post-2011 that the idea of wearables really took off. Three new LilyPad boards were released in 2012: LilyPad USB, LilyPad Simple, and LilyPad Simple Snap. These represent making Arduino easier and easier for people to dive into. The goal of the Arduino Wearables line is to empower people in other fields; textiles teachers, designers, startups to embed wearable technology into their existing skill set with as little disruption as possible. The LilyPad Snap Simple is so easy to use that it doesn't require any soldering. It's got snap-button connectors for all of the pins which make it a truly modular approach to wearable tech.

Those products provided a great wearable experience and have remained largely unchanged, with the introduction of other wearable platforms such as Flora (Adafruit). The big shakeup though was released this year with the Primo (pronounced preem-oh) Core. It's the younger brother of the full sized Primo and is geared towards smart technology such as Bluetooth LE, and powerful, ARM Cortex architecture. It's still a new addition to the Arduino ecosystem so time will tell how successful it is in integrating with the current wearables environment, but it's definitely a cool fusion of IoT and wearable tech.

IoT

Amid the early interest in wearables is Arduino's first dabbling in IoT (Internet of Things) technology. The recent IoT boom is all about creating small devices which are all interconnected so that one device can leverage information and data from other IoT devices without having to handle all of that functionality locally. The Fio and Ethernet boards were released in 2010 and 2011 respectively, and whilst the Ethernet is still around as a Uno compatible board with Ethernet functionality, the Fio is no longer available, but attempted to merge a portable, battery powered board, with basic wireless connectivity.

It didn't really take off though, and there was a lull in the IoT development until 2016 where a spree of IoT boards was released: MKRZero, MKR1000, Uno Wi-Fi, and then the Primo and MRKFox this year. From my perspective, these new releases represent two different streams of though with the usage of Arduino. Boards that share common form factor with female headers and sizes with the Arduino Uno are ideal for those looking to add IoT functionality to an existing project and move to something that is still familiar to them. The other is the MRK range of boards which have a larger degree of difference to existing Arduino boards and are more suited for those creating new IoT projects from the ground up. Many of these boards are still relatively new, and hence don't have the same amount of projects, documentation, and support as boards such as the Uno and Mega.

Education

Classifying Arduino boards into the educational realm is tricky as the whole premise of Arduino is a platform which is easy to get started with, so most of the maker and wearable boards are widely used in education across the globe already. However, there are two boards which are geared more than others towards education and younger minds. The Esplora and Robot are both unique in the form factors. They're designed to be as usable as possible straight of the box, and it's easy to see how they can integrate into a classroom environment. The Esplora and Robot were only released in 2012 and 2013 respectively, which, I believe, shows a development in the interest of Arduino, rather than a lack of interest in Arduino in education.

The Esplora, as you can see, is designed to be used in User Interface projects; gaming controllers, robotics control, and other hands-on, tactile projects. The robot is designed to provide a ready-to-go platform for young inventors looking to create their own robot. Something which stands these two boards apart is that they both come with a collection of onboard inputs and controls; buttons, sliders, screens, joysticks, can all be found soldered directly to the board, which reduces the electronics gap required to get started with Arduino, something which is vital in education.

Industrial

The last main interest category for Arduino is the Industrial sphere. It's one that presents an interesting opportunity as most industrial workplaces already have engineers in their employ, and are used to working with much lower-level technology. This is all well and good, but it presents a significant stumbling block in the development of new industrial technology from outside sources. Let' say you've got a great idea for automating a step in the product line using a smart, wireless connected board. Traditionally this would be the realm of experienced engineering firms, however, Industrial Arduino boards have helped bridge that gap by providing the tools that designers require to create new tech for the industry sector.

As you can see on the poster, the first board to come out for industry-specific usage was the Yun in 2013 (still fairly recent). Two years later brings the release of 4 new boards over the course of 2 years with the Tian, Zero, 101, and Industrial 101 all gracing the market. Like IoT boards, this development all happened around the time of the Arduino/Genuino split, which whilst being bridged now, created a wide range of different boards due to the two companies work to compete in different markets.

Most of these boards also feature wireless connectivity and other unique specifications which set them apart from standard Arduino boards, however, their form factor, and chipset is what really makes them different. The Tian, for example, has a module on board which packs a Linux microprocessor, with a parallel 32-bit microcontroller which is designed to operate at a different level to a simple Arduino Uno. They're geared towards designers, industrial programmers who want to be able to rapidly prototype a project in an easy, accessible method, but still, want the power, and low-level control, found on other platforms.

Final Thoughts

These are just a few of my thoughts, and an overview on the way that Arduino has been shaped and evolved into what it is today. The design and development of each Arduino board could be written about on its own, however, the goal of this conversation is just to provide some knowledge on key aspects of the Arduino development.