Table 1.

Arduino vs. Microchip microcontrollers, Raspberry-Pi and Beaglebone.

	Arduino	Microchip μC	Raspberry-Pi	Beaglebone
Base price in US $	35	2÷10	25	50
External electronic to make an acquisition card for our aim	$0	$25	$25	$0
Time required to develop the support external circuitry	0	1 month	0	1 month
Power draw	∼50 mA @ 5 V	∼20 mA @ 5 V	∼150 mA @ 5 V	∼250 mA @ 5 V
Operating system	Custom	Custom	Linux	Linux
Suited for	Hardware	Hardware	Software	Software
Number of I/O pins	14 Digital (6 PWM), 6 analog	5÷28 (Depends by the version); 5÷14 analog	8 Digital, 0 Analog	65 Digital, 7 analog
Peripherals	None	None	2 USB hosts, 1 micro-USB power, 1 10/100 Mbps ethernet	1 USB host, 1 mini-USB client, 1 10/100 Mbps ethernet
Internet	Via shield	Via shield	Yes	Yes