Today's Mini Computer World Cup matchup presents a true technological contrast. In one corner, we have the Arduino Mega 2560, a beloved microcontroller known for its simplicity and control precision. In the other, we face the Jetson Nano, a modern single-board computer from NVIDIA, built for AI, deep learning, and advanced graphics processing. These two serve very different goals — but today, they’re on the same field.
Let’s compare how each board performs across key technical categories.
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🔎 Board Summaries
The Arduino Mega 2560 is built around the ATmega2560 microcontroller. It features 54 digital I/O pins, 16 analog inputs, and 4 UARTs, making it perfect for hardware-level control. It runs no operating system and uses a lightweight IDE and C/C++-based sketches to operate.
The Jetson Nano, by contrast, is a Linux-powered SBC (Single Board Computer) with a quad-core ARM Cortex-A57 CPU, 128-core NVIDIA Maxwell GPU, and 4GB LPDDR4 RAM. It’s designed for computer vision, robotics, and AI development at the edge.
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⚙️ Head-to-Head Categories
1. Processing Power
Jetson Nano is leaps ahead in raw processing. Arduino Mega operates at 16MHz with 8-bit architecture, while Jetson clocks over 1.4GHz and handles multitasking and graphical workloads with ease. In terms of computational muscle, Jetson wins outright.
2. Real-Time Control
Here, Arduino Mega shines. It's incredibly reliable for tasks like controlling motors, reading sensor inputs, and running low-level real-time operations with almost zero latency. Jetson, while powerful, relies on a full OS and lacks true real-time capabilities out-of-the-box.
3. Power Consumption
The Arduino Mega is extremely energy-efficient (~0.5W max), ideal for battery-operated or off-grid devices. Jetson Nano typically draws 5–10W depending on usage, which can be a limitation in remote or portable environments.
4. Connectivity & I/O
Arduino provides a huge number of GPIO pins, PWM outputs, and analog inputs. Jetson also supports GPIO, I2C, and camera interfaces, but with fewer accessible pins and more software setup required. Jetson has USB 3.0 and HDMI, which Arduino lacks entirely.
5. Software & Ecosystem
Jetson supports Ubuntu-based JetPack SDK with tools like TensorFlow, OpenCV, and PyTorch. Arduino’s development environment is far simpler, and while limited, is ideal for beginners and embedded engineers.
6. Price & Accessibility
Arduino Mega typically costs around $25, while Jetson Nano ranges from $80 to $120. Arduino is clearly more budget-friendly and widely available.
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🧠 Final Verdict
This matchup is about specialization. If your project involves real-time control, low energy usage, or robotics with basic logic, Arduino Mega 2560 is a rock-solid choice. However, if you need AI, machine vision, or high-level Linux programming, Jetson Nano is the undisputed winner.
Jetson Nano secures a hard-fought victory thanks to its superior computational power and modern development stack, but Arduino Mega impresses with reliability and simplicity.
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🏁 Final Score: Jetson Nano wins (3–2)
Man of the Match: Jetson’s GPU and JetPack AI ecosystem