There are some interesting and / or cheap boards out there and porting RIOT to new hardware is fun.
E180-ZG120B-TB
AliExpress (€ 7.27)
Features
- SoC: EFR32MG1B (40 MHz Cortex M4, 32k RAM, 256k ROM)
- 802.15.4
- BLE
Effort
- similar SoCs already supported by
cpu/efm32(efr32mg12p,efr32mg1p) might just need to add vendor files - 802.15.4 driver provided by #9212
★★☆☆☆
Usefulness
- cheap 802.15.4 board
- only UART, no programmer
- chip is EOL
★★★☆☆
SparkFun Edge Development Board - Apollo3 Blue
Sparkfun $14.95 Antratek € 19.66
Features
- SoC: Apollo3 Blue (48 MHz Cortex M4F, 384k RAM, 1024k Flash)
- BLE
- ultra low power: 6 µA / MHz
Effort
- new SoC family, all periph drivers need to be written
- Data Sheet, vendor page with example code
★★★★☆
Usefulness
- lowest power ARM MCU on the market (?)
- no UART, no programmer
- Apollo 4 is a bigger chip, still current for small designs
★★★★☆
Sipeed Longan Nano
AliExpress € 3.23 Eckstein € 8.09
Features
- SoC: GD32VF103CBT6 (108 MHz RV32IMAC, 20k RAM, 64k ROM)
- optional OLED display
Effort
- new SoC family, but periph drivers might be similar to stm32f1
- general RISC-V cleanup
★★★★☆
Usefulness
- No Debugger / UART on board
- RISC-V
★★★★☆
RAPITUS SAMxS
Pollin € 9.70
Features
- SoC: ATSAM4S4C (120 MHz Cortex M4, 64k RAM, 256k ROM)
Effort
- same family as
sam3, but probably lots of cleanup work - Data Sheet, Board Manual
★★★☆☆
Usefulness
- programming via UART bootloader (requires RS232 adapter)
- rich set of peripherals
★★★☆☆
XMC 2Go
infineon $5.5
Features
- SoC: XMC1100 (32 MHz Cortex M0, 16k RAM, 64k ROM)
Effort
- new SoC family, all periph drivers need to be written
- Data Sheet
★★★★☆
Usefulness
- Debugger & UART on board
★★★☆☆
CH579 Eval Board
AliExpress € 24.19
Features
- SoC: CH579 (40 MHz Cortex-M0, 32k RAM, 250k ROM)
- 802.15.4
- BLE
- Ethernet
Effort
- new SoC family, all periph drivers need to be written
- Documentation only in Chineese
-
Example Code contains peripheral drivers (
EVT/EXAM/SRC/StdPeriphDriver) that look remarkably sane / simple
★★★★☆
Usefulness
- No Programmer / UART ?
- No driver / documentation for radio
★☆☆☆☆
Arduino Nano Every
Arduino € 9
Features
- ATMEGA4809 (20 MHz AVR, 6k RAM, 48k ROM)
- 8 µA in ACTIVE mode when running at 32 kHz
Effort
- family is already well supported, but some new peripherals (from xMega line?)
★★☆☆☆
Usefulness
- little RAM and Harvard Architecture limits use for RIOT
- architecture traditionally popular with the Arduino crowd, this is the latest iteration
★★☆☆☆
LGT8F328P MiniEVB
AliExpress € 0.90
Features
- LogicGreen LGT8F328p (32 MHz AVR, 2k RAM, 32k Flash)
Effort
- Data Sheet
- mostly compatible with ATmega328, but some peripherals are different (timers)
- Arduino BSP
- WIP branch
★☆☆☆☆
Usefulness
- extremely little RAM limits use for RIOT
☆☆☆☆☆
