The Raspberry Pi Foundation has so far focused its energy on microcomputers, but is now turning its attention to Arduino-style microcontrollers for its home gadgets. The organization launched the Raspberry Pi Pico, a $ 4 card designed to provide a smooth entry point for microcontrollers. Think of it more as a complement to a Pi aimed at tasks like analog input.
It is built on the Raspberry Pi’s own silicon, the RP2040. The ARM Cortex-M0 + dual-core chip, 264 KB of RAM and support for 16 MB of off-flash memory (2 MB integrated) may not seem like much, but they are supposed to be powerful for the class, with excellent performance for tasks like machine learning. Most importantly, it’s built to be flexible – the 30-pin GPIO, USB 1.1 controller (plus USB mass storage mode) and other additions should help you interact with any project you’re working on.