Raspberry Pi Pico
The Raspberry Pi Pico is a low-cost, high-performance microcontroller board based on the Raspberry Pi RP2040 chip, designed for physical computing and embedded systems. It features a dual-core ARM Cortex-M0+ processor, programmable I/O, and extensive GPIO pins, making it ideal for DIY electronics, robotics, and IoT projects. Unlike traditional Raspberry Pi single-board computers, it runs bare-metal or RTOS-based code without a full operating system.
Developers should learn the Raspberry Pi Pico for building embedded systems, prototyping hardware, and educational electronics due to its affordability, ease of use with MicroPython and C/C++, and robust community support. It's particularly useful for applications like sensor interfacing, motor control, and low-power IoT devices, where real-time performance and direct hardware access are required without the overhead of a full OS.