Re:The end of Mbed marks a new beginning for Arduino
by michaelt on Thursday July 25, 2024 @10:26AM
(#41069047)
Mbed is neat in a sense, but also pretty weird.
Basically it gave you embedded development without having to install anything - you get a browser-based IDE, and when you plug the development board into your PC it appears as a USB mass storage device. You hit compile on the web IDE, download the resulting file to the USB drive and it gets programmed onto the microcontroller.
I can see how that would be a boon in education environments: No need to get a system administrator to install the special IDE and toolchain, no need to fumble around with special programmer hardware - if you've got a web browser and a USB port, you're ready to go.
It also supports loads of boards from loads of different vendors - ST, Samsung, NXP and Toshiba microcontrollers were all supported. And over a hundred compatible development boards.
But despite the wealth of board options, it never really seemed to gain much traction outside of education - and it didn't pick up the same momentum the Arduino ecosystem has.
Basically it gave you embedded development without having to install anything - you get a browser-based IDE, and when you plug the development board into your PC it appears as a USB mass storage device. You hit compile on the web IDE, download the resulting file to the USB drive and it gets programmed onto the microcontroller.
I can see how that would be a boon in education environments: No need to get a system administrator to install the special IDE and toolchain, no need to fumble around with special programmer hardware - if you've got a web browser and a USB port, you're ready to go.
It also supports loads of boards from loads of different vendors - ST, Samsung, NXP and Toshiba microcontrollers were all supported. And over a hundred compatible development boards.
But despite the wealth of board options, it never really seemed to gain much traction outside of education - and it didn't pick up the same momentum the Arduino ecosystem has.