Best-of boards 2023 – Processor: Arduino’s Portenta X8 industrial-grade SoM + Hat Carrier! 

Now, ‘Processor’ is an interesting one for ipXchange as we put Single-Board Computers (SBCs) and System-on-Modules (SoMs) amongst the standalone devices in this category.

That said, when it came to choosing a winner for 2023, applications from engineers reflect too closely on a winner from 2022, Syntiant with their NDP devices, so we’re going with another key game changer from the company that brought you the Nicla Voice module that has garnered so much interest.

ipXchange’s winner of best processor discovery in 2023 is Arduino’s 9-core Portenta X8 SoM in conjunction with their Portenta Hat Carrier board, which finally makes the frequently Googled question “Should I use Arduino or Raspberry Pi” a legitimate one.

Yes, ipXchange could not ignore the fact that Arduino has finally created a powerful SBC to rival another household name, and with so many industrial-grade products in their new PRO range, Arduino will be one to watch for 2024. Nicely played!

So, what do you get with the Portenta X8 SoM? In short, a compact embedded Linux system running on 4x Cortex-A53 cores at up to 1.8 GHz, in addition to 3D and 2D GPUs and all the benefits of Arduino-based control running from multiple Cortex-M4 and -M7 cores at up to 480 MHz. You also get onboard Bluetooth 5.1 and Wi-Fi connectivity, industrial-grade certification, and security to match. But that’s not all!

The Portenta X8 can then be attached to the Carrier Hat board – via the high-density connectors on the rear of the SoM – to create an SBC for easy access to the ample I/Os and connecting your peripherals. For the first time, you now have a Linux-capable Arduino in a familiar Raspberry-Pi form factor so that you can use your collection of Hats during development, with Ethernet and USB ports, a microSD card slot, a camera connector for machine vision applications, and more for building great products where you might have previously used an increasingly hard-to-acquire Raspberry Pi.

Unifying development ecosystem titans seems to have been a big part of Arduino’s business in 2023, so learn more about this one by following the link to the board page, and test it for yourself for 2024.

Keep designing!