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Qualcomm to acquire Arduino

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Re: Qualcomm to acquire Arduino

#431

Post by mietek »

serbuvlad wrote: post #418
brucehoult wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that both Bluepill and ESP32 can be programmed in the Arduino IDE, using the Arduino library, and the vast library of Arduino sketches and 3rd party libraries (as long as they don't use AVR assembly language. So can the Pi Pico, the Milk-V Duo (one 64 bit Linux core, one 64 bit microcontroller core), and many others.

While that is true, both Espressif and the Pico have their own SDKs, and they're really well written too. The Arduino SDK is the simplest to use, sure, but the Pico framework (I don't have experience with the Espressif one) is extremely good, and the Pico's PIO is a godsend. I used it to implement 3 wire SPI (data bidirectional on the same wire) at almost 'real-time', which is to say, at half the speed of the hardwar…

Just because most of the free software ecosystem relies on unpaid volunteer work does not mean it is a desirable state of affairs, especially with billion dollar companies building on top of said work while hardly contributing anything back.

Re: Qualcomm to acquire Arduino

#432

Post by userbinator »

fragmede wrote: post #429
greatgib wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know your definition of open, when I reach this page, the only thing that I can see is a signup form because a "qualcomid" is needed...

It doesn't seems unreasonable for them to want an email address before giving you PDFs of their stuff. They do want additional verification to get more detailed docs, but on the spectrum between available on the open Internet to all as a 1, vs only available on a hardwired line on a LAN on a military base at a 10, I'd give Qualcomm, I dunno, maybe 4?

In contrast, Microchip (and Atmel before it was acquired) made the datasheets for the MCUs used by Arduinos truly publicly available.

Re: Qualcomm to acquire Arduino

#433

Post by kiba »

serbuvlad wrote: post #418
brucehoult wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that both Bluepill and ESP32 can be programmed in the Arduino IDE, using the Arduino library, and the vast library of Arduino sketches and 3rd party libraries (as long as they don't use AVR assembly language. So can the Pi Pico, the Milk-V Duo (one 64 bit Linux core, one 64 bit microcontroller core), and many others.

While that is true, both Espressif and the Pico have their own SDKs, and they're really well written too. The Arduino SDK is the simplest to use, sure, but the Pico framework (I don't have experience with the Espressif one) is extremely good, and the Pico's PIO is a godsend. I used it to implement 3 wire SPI (data bidirectional on the same wire) at almost 'real-time', which is to say, at half the speed of the hardwar…

Branding power. Precisely why brand drugs continue to make money over fist for pharmaceutical companies even after patents expire.

Re: Qualcomm to acquire Arduino

#434

Post by kovac »

ACCount37 wrote: post #430
kovac wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When professionals use Arduinos for such use cases, do they use the Arduino software platform or do they use the chio verndors' toolchains? Just curious how the professionals work with these things.

It depends, really. Mostly on who does the project. Some people hail from hacker town and will use whatever they have at hand. Some learned on vendor tooling, and would want it to be "proper", and would always try to use a vendor SDK with a vendor IDE. Some learned on vendor tooling and prefer not to use vendor tooling for "familiarity breeds contempt" reasons. As a degenerate case: I've seen software for an ESP32 bo…

Thank you for sharing. As a hobbyist with a devotion to the field, I'm fascinated by how the actual professionals work. It's a very challenging domain.

Re: Qualcomm to acquire Arduino

#435

Post by phlipski »

Seems like a shrewd move. Historically Qualcomm products were only available to the top 5 phone vendors. You couldn't even steal a datasheet... If they're serious about opening up their products to more potential customers this might be a great way. Follow the raspberry pi model. You never know when a garage product will grow into the next multi-billion dollar socket. TI/ST/NXP/etcc could do this too and all it takes is cheap PCB's (mass produce at scale) and lots of documentation.....

Re: Qualcomm to acquire Arduino

#437

Post by cogman10 »

piltdownman wrote: post #48
webdevver wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

genuinely, what is the survival story for qualcomm entering the next decade? - completely missed out on AI - phones become commodity, push for complete vertical integration from apple, google - squeezed by chinese soc vendors from 'below' (mediatek, unisoc) they're cooked, right? there's no way out, surely.

They just won a significant case in its licensing battle with Arm, securing rights to use Oryon cores in Snapdragon chips. Add in a decent x86 to ARM translation layer, and you have the basis of the next generation of handheld gaming. If Valve or someone paired with them for the next Steamdeck style project, they'd dominate. At the high-end they announced two new flagship processor platforms at its 2025 Snapdragon Su…

> If Valve or someone paired with them for the next Steamdeck style project, they'd dominate.

They have to fix their approach to Linux driver development. (and driver development in general).

Qualcomm likes to lob hardware to consumers while spending the minimal amount of time making sure the drivers to support that hardware actually works.

I couldn't imagine someone like Valve leaping at the opportunity to use them.

Re: Qualcomm to acquire Arduino

#438

Post by mrheosuper »

MountDoom wrote: post #200

The problem is that there just isn't a whole lot of money to be made in providing hobby hardware for enthusiasts. Every time a big player gets involved, they think they can change this. A decade ago, Intel tried that back in the day with Galileo / Edison, and tellingly, they came up with the same "ideas": IoT / AI. If you're doing cheap IoT trinkets, you're never going to pay extra for a brand. You're going to buy th…

>If you're doing cheap IoT trinkets, you're never going to pay extra for a brand. You're going to buy the cheapest wifi / BT chipset out there and make do with that.

It's the opposite of that. Hobbyist/low volume maker gonna spend extra money to buy a familar tool, instead of going extra miles finding the cheapest available.

Even ESP32 is bad in term of perfomance/features and how much it cost.

Re: Qualcomm to acquire Arduino

#439

Post by mrheosuper »

kovac wrote: post #413
bluGill wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arduino is used by many professionals. It is cheap enough that you can buy it on your corporate cards and you boss won't ask many questions. As such many products start with an Ardunio based demo, and if/when the demo is a success it moves to a real company project with a real budget. The question though is does this add value for the owners of Arduino? All too often when a project moves from the demo to real enginee…

When professionals use Arduinos for such use cases, do they use the Arduino software platform or do they use the chio verndors' toolchains? Just curious how the professionals work with these things.

We use the whole Arduino software packages(IDE/toolchain/flashing tool). It's fast and proven to work.

For ex, we want to prototype a new mux switch, and need to toggle some gpio from computer. We finished in 1 evening, with arduino and python on host.

Re: Qualcomm to acquire Arduino

#440

Post by cogman10 »

zem wrote: post #231
cosmic_cheese wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The gap between Google’s and Apple’s SoCs is insane. Current Pixels bench at around a third of what current iPhones do. Not that performance matters to all users, but with how much Pixels cost you have to ask yourself what it is you’re paying for. Even if you don’t care for Apple, for a little more you can get a competitor for a Snapdragon.

as a pixel owner, i'm unfortunately paying for the operating system more than anything else. most other android phones are infested with unremovable bloatware and lack of update guarantees, and iOS is crippled by apple. I used maemo when I could, and now that I can't pixels are pretty much my only option for a decent phone.

Exactly the reason I own a pixel.

Pixels get first class support by google in terms of software which means I can rock my phone for several generations before upgrading.

I've owned a 2, 6, and now 9. Even though the 9 is much faster than the 2 or 6, I've reached a point where that performance difference simply doesn't matter. I'm not being held back by the CPU in any real way. That leaves security, software, and battery life as the main reasons why I might decide to update my phone.

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