PIO state machines programmable in Python sound pretty neat: > You'll note there's no I2S peripheral, or SDIO, or camera, what's up with that? Well instead of

PIO state machines programmable in Python sound pretty neat: > You'll note there's no I2S peripheral, or SDIO, or camera, what's up with that? Well instead of having specific hardware support for serial-data-like peripherals like these, the RP2040 comes with the PIO state machine system which is a unique and powerful way to create custom hardware logic and data processing blocks that run on their own without taking up a CPU. For example, NeoPixels - often we bitbang the timing-specific protocol for these LEDs. For the RP2040, we instead use a PIO object that reads in the data buffer and clocks out the right bitstream with perfect accuracy. Same with I2S audio in or out, LED matrix displays, 8-bit or SPI based TFTs, even VGA! In MicroPython and CircuitPython you can create PIO control commands to script the peripheral and load it in at runtime. There are 2 PIO peripherals with 4 state machines each. [1] Two M0 cores with M4 speeds and priced lower than usual M0-based boards also sounds exciting: > The RP2040 is a powerful chip, which has the clock speed of our M4 (SAMD51), and two cores that are equivalent to our M0 (SAMD21). [1] And official support for MicroPython and USB host and guest for $4 is something rare and could potentially lure some tinkerers into embedded programming. I personally plan to create an USB ambient light sensor for controlling Lunar [2] with it. It is a very affordable and widely available board which could potentially allow people to reproduce the sensor even in places where I can't ship a pre-assembled board. [1] https://www.adafruit.com/product/4864 https://www.adafruit.com/product/4864 [2] https://lunar.fyi https://lunar.fyi