Microcontrollers L08: Raspberry Pi Pico (RP2040)

A $4 board with TWO brains! 🍓🧠🧠

Meet the Raspberry Pi Pico and its RP2040 chip:
⚡ 2 cores at 133 MHz (an Arduino Uno: 1 core at 16 MHz)
🧠 264 KB of RAM (the Uno: 2 KB)
🔌 26 GPIO pins — 3.3 V only, never 5 V!

Getting started:
1️⃣ Hold BOOTSEL and plug in USB → it opens like a pen drive (RPI-RP2)
2️⃣ Drag the MicroPython file onto it
3️⃣ Six lines and the LED blinks:

from machine import Pin
import time
led = Pin(25, Pin.OUT)
while True:
led.toggle()
time.sleep(0.5)

(Pico W: use Pin("LED"). You can also code it in C/C++ or the Arduino IDE.)