The Arduino Duemilanove is an open source physical computing platform based on a simple microcontroller and a free user friendly software development environment that implements the Processing/Wiring language. The Duemilanove is the latest in a series of USB Arduino boards. "Duemilanove" is Italian for 2009, which is the year of its release.
The Arduino Duemilanove USB Board - Get started on the fun!
The Arduino Duemilanove can be used to develop cool interactive objects that can sense inputs from a variety of switches or sensors, and then control lights, motors, and other physical outputs in the real world. The objects created can be stand-alone interactive objects or can be connected to software on your computer via USB cable or even directly to the Internet using an Ethernet shield (a growing trend dubbed "The Internet of Things").
The programming language used is an implementation of Wiring, a similar physical computing platform, which is based on the Processing multimedia programming environment. The IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is open source and can be downloaded for free from www.arduino.cc.
The Arduino Duemilanove is based on the 16 MHz ATmega328 microcontroller. It has 14 digital input/output pins (of which 6 can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button. It contains everything needed to support the microcontroller; simply connect it to a computer with a USB cable or power it with an AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get started.
