Full official support for the new ATmega328PB

[RileyStarlight]

The ATmega328P microcontroller, the chip that raised the origin of Arduino (Diecemila, Duemilanove, UNO, Nano, Mini, BT, Fio, LilyPad, Pro...), also in different kits and numerous community boards, is marked as NRND by the manufacturer. This means that it will be retired in favor of its replacement, the ATmega328PB, with new features.

This brings several consequences:

• When this happens, all boards using this chip will have to be retired, ending an entire era.
• Without official support for the new chip, all new developments made now cannot be done with the new chip, compromising its maintenance and product life, or having to look for alternatives in other microcontrollers.
• No other Arduino product has the robustness, reliability and library support of this chip, being the heart of probably millions of products worldwide. Without support for the new chip all of this would be lost.
• The community has adopted Arduino as the de facto standard for pin numbering, peripheral naming, etc. Without official support different projects can be created with conflicting definitions between them.
• The community follows in the wake created by this chip and in many cases not taking advantage of that leadership is abandoning them.
• In a way, it is a moral debt to the community.
• Supporting the new chip is a lovely way to close a legacy :heart: .

So, please, consider full support (covering new features and new bootloader) to the new chip. May we continue to enjoy Arduino for many more years to come.

[mikrocoder]

If I may express my opinion on this. The support already exists, just not from Arduino.cc.

MCUdude has created a package for it. https://github.com/MCUdude/MiniCore Basically MCUdude and Spencekonde keep everything alive. Both cover with their packages almost the whole ATtiny and ATmega Microchip spectrum.

And if I may say one more thing. Why 328PB? A Nano Every has the more modern controller is also much cheaper. I don't know why I should buy an expensive Uno or normal Nano.

But I don't mind if the 328PB is directly supported by Arduino.cc. Only then ARduino.cc should follow MCUdude and not vice versa so that everything remains compatible. There are a lot of nice details in it.