The open-source community is going to be blown away by a powerful cost effective single board computer that takes the full advantage of Linux features. This is the new pcDuino3, a development system with new features that will give users the ability to connect wirelessly to their devices or share its ecosystem with Arduino shields.
The board has a WiFi built-in module that lets you connect to a wireless network and share, download or upload files on your private file store or with the entire community of users. The dual core Allwinner A20 processor can run comfortably Ubuntu or Android operating system together with an IDE and project types for C, C++, Java or Python.
Its compatibility with Arduino Shields simplifies the making process and let users use the board for a hardware hacking purpose or diversify the projects. The pcDuino3 extension interface looks like the Arduino UNO interface and includes 14 GPIO pins, 2 PWM, I2C, SPI, UART, and 2 USB ports.
But the Arduino is not the only one prototyping platform that inspires the engineers to develop the pcDuino3. The SATA connector or the HDMI interface is something similar to Raspberry Pi. The SATA connector is good enough to attach mass storage devices with faster data transfer, while the HDMI interface output 1080p video.
There are also similarities between pcDuino3 and Raspberry Pi including the external hardware resources such as a Logitech wireless keyboard used for the Pi that works fine with the pcDuino. In addition, the list goes on with the power supply that should provide an output of 5V and 2000mA.
The pcDuino3 is featured enough to solve several problems for Arduino and Raspberry Pi users. The development board is fast enough to replace the Raspberry Pi and sufficient equipped to substitute the Arduino and WiFi shield. If you consider to use a cheap and low-power hackable platform that can work with I2C and C++ to read the temperature from a sensor, the pcDuino3 is most probably the best option.
