The ATmega644/1284-based narrow boards are the small development boards and microcontrollers for small footprint Arduino projects. The Narrow boards give you 2 to 8 times more flash and RAM resources as compared to Uno/Nano and offer total compatibility. The code generated on 8-bit MCUs is much smaller than on 32-bit MCUs. Hence, the bigger program can be loaded on a 128k 8-bit MCU than on a 256k 32-bit MCU. ATmega644/1284 also have EEPROM that adds to the total storage capabilities.
These narrow boards are approximately 1/5 of the surface of a Mega2560 board, with half its current power consumption and offer ten more digital I/Os and one more UART port as compared to UNO and Nano boards. The boards offer seamless compatibility and integration with the Arduino IDE is very easy i.e. Arduino code compiles and uploads directly.
The boards come with a specialized port (GND, 5V, SCL, SDA) for OLED modules with an I²C interface. Also, an optional 0.49" OLED is available, which has the advantage of fitting perfectly above the host board without the need to cable anything or consume more surface area.
Both the boards have same operating voltage (5 V, with on-board 5 V and 3.3 V regulators), Max current (USB: 500 mA limited by a PTC. Vin: 800 mA @ 6.2 V, 25°c), Digital I/Os (24), Analog I/Os (8), SPI (1), USART (2), I²C (1), USB (1), current consumption (35 mA), size (810 mm²), and weight (7 gm). These boards have different flash (4 KB/16 KB RAM), EEPROM (2 KB/4KB), and PWM (6/8). The ATmega644/1284-based boards will be available for purchase soon and these come with a price tag of $ 29 and $35 respectively.
