The impending arrival of another Raspberry Pi RP2040 powered partner is almost upon us. In a conversation on Twitter between Raspberry Pi co-founder Eben Upton and Arduino co-founder Massimo Banzi we see reels of RP2040 chips destined for Arduino's first 'Pi Silicon' board.
Hey @mbanzi, here's a reel of 3,400 @Raspberry_Pi RP2040 chips for you. There are another 3,000 on 500-unit reels in the box as well. pic.twitter.com/Xkeuw7MC2SApril 8, 2021
In a tweet exchange we see Upton confirm that Raspberry Pi are sending 6400 RP2040 SoCs to Arduino destined for the release of the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect, the first RP2040 partner board to feature onboard WiFi, Bluetooth and a 9-axis IMU sensor and microphone.
The RP2040 SoC are provided on reels, which are used to feed pick and place machines, CNC machines which automatically place surface mount components onto the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect circuit board.
Arduino are the last of the official partners to release their board, the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect. Other partners, Pimoroni, Adafruit and SparkFun have released their own RP2040 based boards, all of which have features or form factors not found with the official Raspberry Pi Pico board. Arduino's board is set to bring WiFi and Bluetooth as an all-in-one package for the RP2040 and also introduce an official Arduino core for the respected Arduino IDE.
We still don't know when the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect will arrive, but if there are chips on their way to Arduino, it can't be too long now.
