Arduino Due with Headers [A000062] - 32-bit ARM Cortex-M3, 84MHz, 54 Digital I/O Pins, 12 Analog Inputs, 512KB Flash, USB Host, Pre-Soldered Headers, Compatible with Arduino IDE for Advanced Projects

This is the genuine Arduino Due made in Italy. It is a much more powerful microcontroller than the Mega (check the specs... it has 2 real D/A pins, lots of memory, and a Cortex CPU that is even capable of real-time FFT). On the other side it's also more delicate than the Mega. It's a 3.3V board and there is no overvoltage protection so if you connect 5V to any data pins then it'll likely brick the controller. The pins can only source 10-15mA current (check the pinout diagram, it differs pin by pin), so the usual trick of creating extra Vcc pins by pulling a data pin high is not going to work. You need to check your shields carefully before you connect. Almost all Adafruit shields (and faithful replicas) are Due compatible, but cheapo LCD shields that have buttons are feeding 5V back to the analog pins - don't use these. I'm using this to drive a sound-reactive NeoPixel plasma display and it's very fast and easy to program with Arduino IDE.

This is a great microcontroller. I have an Arduino Uno for components which use 5 volts and I can use this one for 3.3 volt devices (although you can use a logic level shifter). One unexpected feature is that it can produce true random numbers from within the processor (you can use a library to access this feature) which gives 32 random bits every 84 clock cycles. It has a 32 bit architecture and lots of input/output ports. I am very pleased with it but I think having a small amount of RAM holds it back a little considering that it is a 32 bit processor. There are numerous other features like a real time clock, temperature sensor etc which are detailed on the Arduino website. Overall, a marvellous product.

Excellent value

Probably one of the best electronic board for hobyists. Super cheap and a lot of GPIOs and common digital functions. Ideal for rapid prototyping. I would buy tens of them easily

When used with SavvyCAN this is a superb piece of kit.

The due is an awesome board, full of features. It is far more complex and powerfull than the uno, so beware. Also this is a 3.3 volt board.

The specification states: "a power jack, an ICSP header, a JTAG header, and a reset button" however no power jack or headers were soldered to the board. The pictures quite clearly show these items fitted.

Great board. Can tell the difference in the quality of the pcb compared to non-original models. The due board is overall a very powerful board and is exactly what you need if you want to do multitasking with arduino.