Qualcomm acquires Arduino

[John B]

far too late to change, changing it would make every shield ever made incompatible

Isn't that the perfect opportunity now?

Upgrade to our new range of Qualcomm-X AI powered shields, compatible with our now AI powered Qual-Uno X board

[langwadt]

far too late to change, changing it would make every shield ever made incompatible

Isn't that the perfect opportunity now?

Upgrade to our new range of Qualcomm-X AI powered shields, compatible with our now AI powered Qual-Uno X board

but then it would have even less to do with Arduino

[thm_w]

They are probably selling the board at a loss. Someone should make a BOM analysis.
Which is not great news. Typically you could buy the Arduino boards always because they were sold at 500-1000% markup, it was good for the hardware selling business.

Schematic: https://docs.arduino.cc/resources/schematics/ABX00162-schematics.pdf
MCU STM32U585AII6TR - $4.70
CPU QRB2210 - $3-5?
16GB eMMC  EMMC16G-MW28-GA01 - $9
2GB LPDDR4 MT53E512M32D1ZW-046 - $9
Wifi 5 BT 5.1 module WCBN3536A - $3?
HS connectors - $2-4?
PMIC/audio PM-4125-3-NSP194-TR-01-0 - $2?
MIPI to USBC bridge ANX7625BN - $0.70
Synchronous buck LMR51440SDRRR - $0.70

So maybe sold slightly below cost. Definitely not enough to make a useful profit after R&D expenses, support, etc.

[brucehoult]

Quad core 2GHz cpu, 16GB storage, wow, as you say this is just a SBC with no ethernet or HDMI port.

They are probably selling the board at a loss. Someone should make a BOM analysis.

I don't know why you'd think that.

Quad core A53, 2 GB RAM, no ethernet or HDMI? $44?

$15 Raspberry Pi Zero 2W is quad core A53, WIFI, HDMI. Less RAM.

$20 VisionFive 2 Lite has quad core A55-equiv, 2 GB RAM, ethernet, 4x USB (1 USB3), HDMI, M.2 NVMe 2242 slot. WIFI model $5 more.

$30 Orange Pi RV has similar specs to VF2 Lite w/WIFI but 2280 M.2 and the USBs are all 3.0

$30 Orange Pi RV2 also similar, but 8 core CPU with RVV 1.0 vector, 2x gig ethernet, 2x M.2 NVMe (2230 and 2280), 2 TOPS@int8

VF2 Lite and OP RV have 40 pin GPIO, RV2 has 26 pin.

ALL are comparable in Linux performance to the Uno Q, have many more computer interface and storage options.

Are they all selling at a loss?

[floobydust]

The STM32U585 alone (which is massive overkill and seems wasted) I estimate is 15% of the BoM cost for the Uno Q.
It money costs to overdesign.

[hans]

Frankly the STM32U585 would have been a fun chip to put on a maker board. Especially if they can design it into a form factor/schematic that utilizes its low power features.

Looking at other announced Qualcomm SBC boards, they all look like advertisements for Qualcomm instead. Shoving SBC onto the Uno form factor without any I/O and hiding a STM32 on the back side is the stupidest idea I ever saw in the maker space, and I think that triumphs a lot of stupid ideas [/cynicism level lowered]

[ftg]

Frankly the STM32U585 would have been a fun chip to put on a maker board. Especially if they can design it into a form factor/schematic that utilizes its low power features.

Looking at other announced Qualcomm SBC boards, they all look like advertisements for Qualcomm instead. Shoving SBC onto the Uno form factor without any I/O and hiding a STM32 on the back side is the stupidest idea I ever saw in the maker space, and I think that triumphs a lot of stupid ideas [/cynicism level lowered]

Additionally, the STM32U585 can actually be bought.
The ANX7625BN-AC-R_BGA64P MIPI to USB-C bridge chip is unobtainium and has no public datasheet, like most chips from Analogix.
Search engines also seem to find only posts about the Uno Q when searching for the WCBN3536A wifi module.
WCBN3510A is an older wifi+bt module from LiteOn, featuring a Qualcomm Atheros QCA9379-3 as it's core.
So the wifi is naturally also Qualcomm based.

I wonder how quickly somebody makes a "qMINUSduino" with only the STM32U585 along it's peripherals and all the QRB2210 stuff stripped. 

[ksjh]

I wonder how quickly somebody makes a "qMINUSduino" with only the STM32U585 along it's peripherals and all the QRB2210 stuff stripped.

Would something like this
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007917258654.html
and a simple adapter PCB for the weird Arduino Uno form factor be enough for this purpose?

[Psi]

So Qualcomm now owns the name Arduino,  the IDE,  The official board designs  and the company offices/employees/assets.

I really don't see how that will affect anyone using Arduino.

The IDE is perhaps the only thing, but lets be real, the arduino IDE is nothing special and there's other free options that are better.
It wouldn't that hard to duplicate all the Arduino IDE functionality as an open source project, or inside an existing IDE like vscode which i'm guessing has already been done.

[coromonadalix]

sound more  the Q is based on left over stock ....   

[langwadt]

I wonder how quickly somebody makes a "qMINUSduino" with only the STM32U585 along it's peripherals and all the QRB2210 stuff stripped.

Would something like this
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007917258654.html
and a simple adapter PCB for the weird Arduino Uno form factor be enough for this purpose?

e.g. this, https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006765478920.html

[DiTBho]

Banzi? Where is that dude ... ?

[tszaboo]

So Qualcomm now owns the name Arduino,  the IDE,  The official board designs  and the company offices/employees/assets.

I really don't see how that will affect anyone using Arduino.

The IDE is perhaps the only thing, but lets be real, the arduino IDE is nothing special and there's other free options that are better.
It wouldn't that hard to duplicate all the Arduino IDE functionality as an open source project, or inside an existing IDE like vscode which i'm guessing has already been done.

Every time you install/update a library, it will turn to their servers to download the libraries.
And I think the IDE 2.x is always online. IDK, I didn't update.

[DiTBho]

Qualcom Arduino Q: similar to rpi3 but with a MPU on the same board.

So it's similar to Yun and Dragino2, but with a new purpose: Python AI on GNU/Linux?

Dunno ... just my speculation

[EEVblog]

Banzi? Where is that dude ... ?

[madires]

Qualcom Arduino Q: similar to rpi3 but with a MPU on the same board.

So it's similar to Yun and Dragino2, but with a new purpose: Python AI on GNU/Linux?

Seems so. An AIrduino supporting features like facial recognition.

[Psi]

Every time you install/update a library, it will turn to their servers to download the libraries.
And I think the IDE 2.x is always online. IDK, I didn't update.

As I understand it, all the library files are open source.
So anyone could move the files to github or something and then have a new open source IDEs grab then from there cutting Arduino the company and all their servers out entirely

Surely you could tweak something like platformio in vscode to bypass the arduino servers and have a fully arduino compatible system running without arduino servers.

Not saying it wouldn't require a little work, but seems totally doable with nothing Qualcomm could do to stop anyone.

[EEVblog]

Every time you install/update a library, it will turn to their servers to download the libraries.
And I think the IDE 2.x is always online. IDK, I didn't update.

As I understand it, all the library files are open source.
So anyone could move the files to github or something and then have a new open source IDEs grab then from there cutting Arduino the company and all their servers out entirely

Surely you could tweak something like platformio in vscode to bypass the arduino servers and have a fully arduino compatible system running without arduino servers.

Not saying it wouldn't require a little work, but seems totally doable with nothing Qualcomm could do to stop anyone.

I have a handy dandy domain name someone can use... 

[ataradov]

So anyone could move the files to github or something and then have a new open source IDEs grab then from there cutting Arduino the company and all their servers out entirely

They rely on people not bothering to do that. Initially I expect there will be clones, but it is a lot of work to maintain and they are not going to last.

Plus I don't think Q has any long term plans. Once they decide that they had enough "AI on the edge of computing", they will move on like nothing happened.

[brucehoult]

The IDE is perhaps the only thing, but lets be real, the arduino IDE is nothing special and there's other free options that are better.
It wouldn't that hard to duplicate all the Arduino IDE functionality as an open source project

It always was. It's GPL.

[tszaboo]

They are probably selling the board at a loss. Someone should make a BOM analysis.
Which is not great news. Typically you could buy the Arduino boards always because they were sold at 500-1000% markup, it was good for the hardware selling business.

Schematic: https://docs.arduino.cc/resources/schematics/ABX00162-schematics.pdf
MCU STM32U585AII6TR - $4.70
CPU QRB2210 - $3-5?
16GB eMMC  EMMC16G-MW28-GA01 - $9
2GB LPDDR4 MT53E512M32D1ZW-046 - $9
Wifi 5 BT 5.1 module WCBN3536A - $3?
HS connectors - $2-4?
PMIC/audio PM-4125-3-NSP194-TR-01-0 - $2?
MIPI to USBC bridge ANX7625BN - $0.70
Synchronous buck LMR51440SDRRR - $0.70

So maybe sold slightly below cost. Definitely not enough to make a useful profit after R&D expenses, support, etc.

Actually, the SoC is listed at Arrow for 13 USD. Adding all these together it's 45 USD, so it's either sold at the same profit as the SoC, or it's sold at cost. There are other stuff on the board, lot of small things add up.

ALL are comparable in Linux performance to the Uno Q, have many more computer interface and storage options.

Doesn't mean anything. USB 3 is cheap when all you need for it is a connector, same goes for HDMI. Wifi is practically free if your IC has it built in. If you need to add these with support circuit, the board is expensive. If you look at this Arduino Q it's full of other ICs.

Every time you install/update a library, it will turn to their servers to download the libraries.
And I think the IDE 2.x is always online. IDK, I didn't update.

As I understand it, all the library files are open source.
So anyone could move the files to github or something and then have a new open source IDEs grab then from there cutting Arduino the company and all their servers out entirely

Surely you could tweak something like platformio in vscode to bypass the arduino servers and have a fully arduino compatible system running without arduino servers.

Not saying it wouldn't require a little work, but seems totally doable with nothing Qualcomm could do to stop anyone.

You could but I think you overestimate people's ability to change the default setting on something. Internet explorer and all that. You can program the arduino in better IDEs like Visual Studio, but practically nobody does it.

[thm_w]

Actually, the SoC is listed at Arrow for 13 USD. Adding all these together it's 45 USD, so it's either sold at the same profit as the SoC, or it's sold at cost. There are other stuff on the board, lot of small things add up.

Since they manufacture the SoC I assume their cost is a lot lower than Arrows 1-off pricing.

[tszaboo]

Actually, the SoC is listed at Arrow for 13 USD. Adding all these together it's 45 USD, so it's either sold at the same profit as the SoC, or it's sold at cost. There are other stuff on the board, lot of small things add up.

Since they manufacture the SoC I assume their cost is a lot lower than Arrows 1-off pricing.

Arrow's price is for a a few trays of the part, like 160 part or so.
But yes, that's why I wrote that they "either sold at the same profit as the SoC, or it's sold at cost"

[SiliconWizard]

For sure they're not going to make much money off those boards.
Also the price of RAM has skyrocketed and even this 2GB RAM now has a significant cost for such a board.

[macboy]

So Qualcomm now owns the name Arduino,  the IDE,  The official board designs  and the company offices/employees/assets.

I really don't see how that will affect anyone using Arduino.

The IDE is perhaps the only thing, but lets be real, the arduino IDE is nothing special and there's other free options that are better.
It wouldn't that hard to duplicate all the Arduino IDE functionality as an open source project, or inside an existing IDE like vscode which i'm guessing has already been done.

Duplicate it as open source? The original is already open source and copyleft under AGPL-3 license at https://github.com/arduino/arduino-ide . You are free to create a derivative from it if you want to, under that license.

All the boards past and present, including the new Uno Q, are also open hardware, for the explicit purpose of encouraging clones or derivatives from third parties. Qualcomm cleverly loaded the Uno Q with their own ICs, ensuring that they will profit from each clone sold, and one can expect that they will continue to do the same in the future.