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New to development boards? You are in the right place.

What is a development board?

A development board (dev board) is a small circuit board with a microcontroller or processor, designed for prototyping and learning. It includes built-in peripherals like USB, GPIO pins, and sometimes wireless connectivity — everything you need to start building without designing your own hardware.

Board Types

MCU: Microcontroller boards (Arduino, ESP32, STM32). Best for learning, simple projects, battery-powered devices.
SBC: Single-board computers (Raspberry Pi). Best for Linux, desktop replacement, media servers.
SoM: System-on-Module. Best for production products, custom carrier boards.
FPGA: Field-programmable gate arrays. Best for hardware design, high-speed signal processing.
AI: AI/ML accelerator boards. Best for edge inference, computer vision.
SDR: Software-defined radio. Best for RF prototyping, radio experiments.
Carrier: Carrier boards for SoMs. Best for custom baseboard design.
Expansion: Add-on boards (shields, HATs, capes). Best for extending existing boards.

Key Specs That Matter

When comparing boards, focus on: RAM (working memory), Flash (program storage), Clock Speed (processing power), Connectivity (WiFi, Bluetooth, LoRa), GPIO Count (pins for sensors/actuators), and Power Consumption (battery life).