Makers can quickly turn their ideas into real products.

large and complex projects

two new hardware products

Arduino Pro has launched two new products in the Portenta series: the revolutionary X8 module, which is the first board to

integrate Arduino with Linux

; the other hardware product is the Max Carrier, which provides us with

powerful prototyping capabilities

, making it easier than ever to implement our ideas.

Revolutionary X8 Module

Arduino Portenta X8 is a

plug-and-play

industrial-grade SOM, pre-installed with

Linux operating system

, achieving a hybrid combination of microprocessors and microcontrollers with edge AI and ML capabilities. Essentially, it’s a two-in-one solution with at least

9 cores

. It features an NXP ® i.MX 8M Mini Cortex ® -A53 quad-core, each core up to 1.8GHz + 1x Cortex ® -M4 up to 400MHz, plus STM32H747XI dual-core Cortex ® -M7 up to 480MHz + M4 32 bit Arm ® MCU up to 240MHz, and due to its

modular container architecture, it can run software independently from the device

.

remotely execute operating system/application updates

The high performance of the X8 allows us to

execute programs in real-time while running Linux applications for exceptional performance

when working on applications such as Industry 4.0, smart agriculture, smart home gateway systems, and smart buildings, fully utilizing the 9-core performance of the X8!

Is that enough? Clearly not!

Portenta Max Carrier Board

With the powerful X8 core board above, we still need a robust, feature-rich peripheral expansion board, and Arduino has not fallen short. They also launched the Portenta Max Carrier, which enhances the X8 or H7 by adding connection options (field bus, LoRa®, Cat-M1, and NB-IoT) and industrial connectors (such as RS232/422/485, USB).

Portenta Max Carrier includes a variety of connectors, including two USB A female ports, a gigabit Ethernet port, an exposed FD-CAN bus RJ11 port, a mini-PCI Express (mPCIe) slot, an RJ12 485 bus with RS232/433, stereo audio input and output, and dedicated microphone input, external speaker connectors, and a microSD slot for additional storage. For debugging, there is an onboard JLink OB/Blackmagic probe, and for power, the Max Carrier can be powered via an external power source (6-36V) or using an onboard 18650 lithium battery.

The board also comes pre-installed with

two wireless communication modules

: Murata CMWX1ZZABZ-078 for LoRa connectivity, and u-blox SARA-R412M-02B for Cat M.1 and NB-IoT cellular connectivity.

“You can combine this Arduino Pro carrier with existing Portenta modules to turn them into single-board computers or reference designs for Industry 4.0—

reducing your deployment time to almost zero

,” the Arduino team proudly states about this design.

“This allows you to quickly prototype and develop high-performance projects, such as remote control of industrial machinery and equipment, smart digital kiosks enhancing user experience, and custom HMI dashboards for controlling smart appliances, lighting, and systems in your home or office remotely.”

Portenta X8

is now available

for order at the Arduino store for $239 each; Portenta Max Carrier will be launched later this month for $335, excluding the Portenta board, so those interested can get ready to grab it.

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Let’s have a “share, like, and see” 👇