Many large companies choose to keep their hardware closed-source, creating technological barriers and patent copyrights that hinder the development of small-scale innovators. Open source hardware allows entrepreneurs to more easily turn their ideas into reality.

From left to right: Arduino Uno, BeagleBone, Raspberry Pi

Arduino Uno is very common in the Maker community. Arduino comes in many different sizes and features, but here we choose Arduino Uno as a representative. It is a very easy-to-develop platform, and many developers also choose it as their development environment, and its design makes it easy to connect with other devices.

Compared to Arduino, Raspberry Pi is a relatively new member. It is essentially an embedded computer. It is also an inexpensive fully functional desktop computer. As a $35 computer, it serves as a great platform for many projects.

BeagleBone may be the least known among the three platforms, but it has good compatibility and can be used in many projects. It is a powerful Linux computer and can be installed in an Altoid’s tin.

Back of Arduino

Back of Raspberry Pi

Back of BeagleBone

The following table shows the specifications and features of the three platforms.

For beginners, we recommend Arduino. It has a large community of users, numerous example projects, and tutorials, and can easily connect with other external devices. There are many ways for beginners to learn how to use Arduino.

The design of this board is intended to facilitate interaction with different sensors without needing to design other circuits, so you don’t need much circuit-related support to get started easily. If you haven’t tried this yet, it’s worth a shot (it’s not expensive), and you’ll likely have an interesting experience.

Arduino Uno is a commendable tool, as it not only has an open-source microcontroller, but also the software development environment is free.

Raspberry Pi is the size of a credit card and can be plugged directly into a TV. Many functions found on traditional computers, such as word processing, spreadsheets, and games, can be run on Raspberry Pi.

Affordable and highly expandable, BeagleBone is tailored for enthusiasts of embedded Linux systems. BeagleBone can also serve as a USB or network expansion module for BeagleBoard or Beagleboard-xM.

Various sizes of Arduino

BeagleBone next to its bigger brother BeagleBoard

BeagleBoard has a larger, more powerful version – BeagleBoard. If you need greater expandability, then BeagleBoard is a good choice.

Arduino Uno, BeagleBone, and Raspberry Pi, the latter two both have network interfaces

If your project requires network connectivity, we recommend BeagleBone or Raspberry Pi. Both are true Linux computers. They both come with Ethernet interfaces and USB, making it easy to connect to the network. Through the USB interface, you can connect a wireless module, allowing you to access the network without a wired connection. Additionally, the Linux system has many built-in components that provide advanced networking features.

Simply connect a USB WiFi device to BeagleBone or Raspberry Pi, and the Linux system will support these external devices

Arduino supports peripherals called “shields”; while it has the ability to connect to the network, its networking capabilities are quite limited. If you spend time purchasing expansions, it can be equivalent to directly buying a high-end circuit board with more complete functions.

The Galileo board supports a 400 MHz Pentium-class system on a chip (SoC) “Quark” developed by Intel in collaboration with Arduino. (Galileo is compatible with existing Arduino shields suitable for Arduino Uno R3.) The RPi typically has a clock speed of 700 MHz, but often experiences overclocking (which can lead to overheating). You might think their difference is just that RPi has a faster speed, but there are other details to consider, such as the number of instructions completed per clock cycle. Both are single-core processors, but RPi is slightly less efficient in terms of the number of instructions completed per clock cycle. The Raspberry Pi Foundation claims, “The overall actual performance of RPi is similar to that of a 300 MHz Pentium 2, but with significantly more powerful graphics processing capabilities.”

Raspberry Pi is very suitable for handling media files such as photos or videos. If your project requires sensors (along with appropriate storage and processing power), monitoring functions, or productivity applications (as Galileo has a real-time clock), Galileo would be the best choice. RPi can be used as a networked security camera or media server, but it lacks an analog-to-digital converter, which means it cannot work with analog sensors. Galileo can be used to develop smart daily “devices” with multiple sensors, such as watches, health monitors, or fitness devices, or simply as a low-cost personal computer running Linux, but without all the capabilities of Arduino. However, do not run Windows on Galileo, as Windows is a proprietary closed-source operating system (and there are issues with tampering with Windows ROM BIOS). The Galileo data sheet lists Windows as a compatible operating system, which actually refers to the host PC used for programming Galileo. This host can be a Mac or a computer running Windows/Linux. Intel provides development tools for this host PC to support running on Windows, Linux, or MAC. Compilers for these host environments (called “cross-compilers”) are provided free of charge. Galileo comes with an Arduino Linux distribution.

Edison is a general-purpose computing platform released by Intel, dual-core, 500 MHz, with the latest 22nm Atom (core computing platform), 100 MHz MCU, and powerful computing capabilities. Now, people can connect with anyone through smartphones and other devices, and in the future, by 2020, all devices will be intelligently connected, with a connection count exceeding 50 billion. Edison, as a computing platform, is small in size but will have a wide range of applications, such as industrial control, healthcare, air quality monitoring, etc.

Born for the “inventors” of the Internet of Things

Edison itself is positioned for inventors, entrepreneurs, and consumer product designers in the Internet of Things (IoT) and wearable devices, helping them quickly generate product prototypes. Compared to the earlier more “education-oriented” Galileo development board, Edison can be directly used for prototype construction and mass production of small to medium-sized IoT solutions. Its product positioning is “modular SoC plus a customized expansion board system for specific application fields,” suitable for various hardware development manufacturers, maker teams, and users looking to engage in hardware entrepreneurship for direct commercial production.

Where can Edison be used?

In terms of applications, Edison is suitable for small-sized devices that require strong computing power, such as robots, multi-rotor drones, 3D printing devices, remote asset management, audio processing, etc. At previous Maker Faires, smart cups, smart clothes, smart locks, and smart agricultural control systems that utilized Edison were showcased. As a general-purpose platform, the applications of Edison are not limited to a specific field; in subsequent product lines, plans are also in place to launch specific product styles based on user feedback and usage conditions.

However, Edison is expensive, making it unlikely to be widely adopted in the Internet of Things field.

A highly cost-effective open-source hardware recommended for you, better performance than Raspberry Pi (dual-core A7), with a four-core A9. Click “Read More” to learn more.