What's Arduino

According to the Arduino website "Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments." I have used Microchip PIC microcontrollers for fun projects in the past.  They are cheap and there are lots of options for different roles.  There are drawbacks though.  First is the language.  You have to write code in PIC assembler, and life is too short.  The programming boards expect to connect with a serial port, not USB and the port is one-way to the controller, so feedback is poor. I have a PC, with a lovely screen and keyboard, so why not use that for debugging?  The programming board also needs a separate power supply. Arduino is more modern.  The board is small and neat. It has a USB connection, which is two way and can supply the power for programming the processor.  The language to program the controller is C - not the friendliest language usually, but so much better than assembler. I think there could easily be crossover projects where each controller could do a specific task.  There are communication protocols in both families so they should talk to each other, but that is some way away yet. I bought a Duemilanove 328.  It is all based around an Atmel ATmega328 controller, with the Arduino bootstrap pre loaded.  The chip is available separately of course, so the board is a programming environment and a test environment too. I'm looking forward to working through the examples.