Tessel showed up last year but its only recently when we saw the new version. As they state in their website Tessel is a microcontroller that runs JavaScript and it’s Node-compatible. One nice feature is the embedded WiFi which is very convenient nowadays. Also the tech specs seems to set the barrier higher that the rest of the competition. Have a look:
- 180mhz ARM Cortex-M3 LPC1830
- 32mb SDRAM
- 32mb Flash
- TI CC3000 WiFi radio
- 20-pin GPIO bank for general prototyping
- Micro USB or battery power
180Mhz cpu! 32mb Ram? Woah! But we need to mention that Tessel is not the only microcontroller that runs javascript out there. Espruino is another option. You may have heard it from their kickstarter campaign.
In http://tessel.io you can purchase your own plus sensor modules etc. A bit pricey for my taste but performance has a price.