Vocabularies and Softwares

I asked Deepseek to generate a list of important git terminologies, ssh key commands and other important terms with breif explainations and this is what it generated:

Git Commands:

git config --global user.name "Your Name" - Set your Git username
git config --global user.email "your@email.com" - Set your Git email
git init - Initialize a new Git repository
git clone [url] - Clone a repository to your local machine
git status - Check status of changes
git add [file] - Stage changes for commit
git add . - Stage all changes
git commit -m "message" - Commit changes with a message
git push - Upload changes to remote repository
git pull - Download changes from remote repository
git branch - List all branches
git checkout [branch] - Switch to a branch
git merge [branch] - Merge branches
git log - View commit history
git remote -v - List remote repositories

SSH Key Commands:

ssh-keygen -t rsa - Generate SSH key pair
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub - View public SSH key
ssh -T git@gitlab.fabcloud.org - Test SSH connection

Basic Terminal Commands:

pwd - Print working directory (show where you are)
ls - List files and directories
cd [directory] - Change directory
cd .. - Go up one directory
mkdir [name] - Create new directory
touch [filename] - Create new file
cp [source] [destination] - Copy file
mv [source] [destination] - Move/rename file
rm [file] - Remove file
rm -r [directory] - Remove directory and contents

Important Concepts:

Version Control - Tracking changes to files over time
Repository (Repo) - Project folder with Git tracking
Local Repository - Repository on your computer
Remote Repository - Repository on server (GitLab/GitHub)
Commit - Save point in Git history
Branch - Parallel version of repository
Merge - Combine changes from different branches
Clone - Copy repository from remote to local
Push - Upload local changes to remote
Pull - Download remote changes to local
SSH Key - Secure way to authenticate without password
Public Key - Shared key for authentication
Private Key - Secret key kept on your computer
Markdown (.md) - Simple text formatting language
HTML - HyperText Markup Language for web pages
CSS - Cascading Style Sheets for website styling

Software Used:

Useful Keyboard Shortcuts (VS Code):

Ctrl + S - Save file
Ctrl + C - Copy
Ctrl + V - Paste
Ctrl + Z - Undo
Ctrl + Y - Redo
Ctrl + F - Find in file
Ctrl + Shift + F - Find in all files
Ctrl + ` - Open/close terminal
Ctrl + Shift + V - Open Markdown preview
Ctrl + / - Comment/uncomment line

Week 02: Computer-Aided Design (CAD)

To ensure my descriptions were technically precise for this documentation, I used an AI tool to help with the accurate explanations of each software's capabilities and vocabularies.

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program)

It is a completely free and open-source application primarily used for editing and manipulating photographs and raster-based images.
The software supports various image formats and offers tools for photo retouching, image composition, and image authoring.
Personally, I found myself having a lot of fun exploring its various filters and tools to see how they could alter my pictures.

Inkscape

This is a professional, free vector graphics editor that allows you to create and modify scalable illustrations and designs using paths rather than pixels.
The interface presented a bit of a learning curve at first, but I quickly discovered that it becomes quite user-friendly once you understand the basics of vector paths and node editing.
I found an online tutorial that was particularly helpful for grasping the bezier curve tools and path operations like union, difference, and intersection.

Fusion 360

A cloud-based integrated software platform used for industrial and mechanical design, 3D modeling, simulation, and CAD/CAM (Computer-Aided Manufacturing). The software enables the creation of assemblies, and technical drawings for fabrication.

Blender

A powerful, free, and open-source 3D creation suite that supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline, including modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing, and motion tracking.
It operates primarily with mesh based geometry rather than parametric solids, offering different modeling strategies like subdivision surfaces and sculpting.
It is widely used for artistic projects, game assets, and creating realistic visual effects.

Onshape

Unlike installed software, Onshape is a web based design platform that enables users to create precise 2D sketches and complex 3D models directly within a browser using cloud native architecture. It is a common choice for collaborative engineering projects due to its real time multi-user editing capabilities and automatic version control.

Tinkercad

A browser based, entry-level 3D design tool that uses a block building approach similar to digital LEGO construction.
It is particularly accessible for beginners and educational settings, offering a gentle introduction to 3D modeling concepts before advancing to more complex software.
The platform also includes basic electronic circuit simulation and code-block programming capabilities.

FFmpeg

For compressing my video documentation to meet upload requirements and manage file sizes efficiently, I utilized FFmpeg.
It is a leading, open-source multimedia framework designed to handle video, audio, and other media files, typically operated through a command-line interface.
The software supports a vast array of codecs and formats, allowing for precise control over compression parameters, bitrates, and resolution.

Week 03: Computer-Controlled Cutting

This week focused on the practical parameters of digital fabrication, specifically laser cutting and vinyl cutting.

Laser Cutting Terminology

Focus: The process of adjusting the distance between the laser head and material to achieve the optimal beam concentration for precise cutting or engraving.
Kerf: This refers to the small amount of material that is actually removed or vaporized by the laser beam as it cuts along a path. Precisely measuring and compensating for the kerf is critical for achieving accurate dimensions and creating strong press-fit joints.
Raster / Engrave: A process where the laser head scans back and forth across the material, similar to an inkjet printer, to etch, mark, or shade the surface without cutting through it.
Vector Cut: The method in which the laser follows a continuous, defined line or outline to slice completely through the material in a single pass or multiple passes.
Power: This setting controls the intensity or strength of the laser beam. A higher power level will generally produce a deeper cut or a darker, more pronounced engraving.
Speed: This determines the velocity at which the laser head moves across the material. A slower speed allows the laser to dwell longer, resulting in deeper cuts or darker engraved lines.
Frequency / Pulse Rate: How quickly the laser pulses on and off while cutting, measured in hertz (Hz). This affects the smoothness of the cut edge and can help reduce charring on certain materials.
Resolution: In the context of engraving, resolution dictates the level of detail and sharpness measured in dots per inch (DPI). A higher resolution setting allows the laser to produce much finer details and smoother gradients.
Calibrate: The essential process of adjusting the machine's settings and focus to ensure the laser cuts and engraves with the highest possible accuracy and fidelity to the design file.
Exhaust: The ventilation system integrated into the cutter that actively removes smoke, fumes, and particulates generated during the cutting process, which is a key safety requirement for operation.
Compressor / Air Assist: A system that blows a focused stream of air onto the cutting point. This helps to cool the material, clear debris, and reduce flame charring, resulting in a cleaner cut edge.
Joint Clearance: The intentional gap or allowance designed into mating parts to account for material thickness and kerf, ensuring proper fit without being too loose or too tight.
Press-fit joint: A construction technique where parts are designed to be pushed together tightly. The joint is held together solely by the friction between the two components, requiring no glue or mechanical fasteners.
Parametric Design: A modeling approach where dimensions are controlled by variables and equations, allowing the entire design to update automatically when parameters like material thickness or kerf are modified.

Vinyl Cutting Terminology

Vinyl Cutter / Plotter: A computer-controlled device that uses a sharp blade to cut vector designs from sheets or rolls of adhesive vinyl material.
Cutting Blade: The interchangeable tool that actually performs the cut, available in different angles (30°, 45°, 60°) suited for different material thicknesses and types.
Blade Angle: The tip angle of the cutting blade; 30-degree blades are used for very thin materials, 45-degree for general purpose vinyl, and 60-degree for thicker materials like magnetic sheet or copper.
Cutting Force: The downward pressure applied to the blade, measured in grams or newtons, which must be adjusted based on material thickness and type.
Origin: The reference point where the cutter begins cutting, typically set at the bottom right or top left corner depending on the machine configuration.
Weeding: The process of removing excess vinyl material from around the cut design, leaving only the desired graphics on the backing paper.
Transfer Tape: A transparent adhesive film used to lift the cut vinyl design from its backing and apply it to the final surface.
Registration Mark: Alignment marks printed on pre-printed graphics that the vinyl cutter senses to precisely cut around existing printed designs (contour cutting).

Week 04: Embedded programming

This week, there were a lot of words thrown at me and a lot of many concepts to comprehend so, I tried my best to understand everything and these are all the terminologies I came across this week. I used Claude AI, to give a clear and simple expkaination for each word.

Embedded system

A computer (computer as in, has a processor, memory, and runs code) built into a device to perform one specific task, running a single program permanently stored in memory. When we say a computer, unlike a laptop, it has no keyboard or screen, it just runs. An embedded system typically runs a single program permanently stored in its memory, designed to perform one specific job reliably and repeatedly. Examples include the microcontroller inside a washing machine that manages cycle timing, or the chip in a traffic light that controls switching. In Fab Academy, the boards we design and program are embedded systems: small microcontroller based circuits made to perform a specific interactive task.

Wokwi

It supports a wide range of microcontrollers including Arduino, ESP32, and Raspberry Pi Pico, along with common components like LEDs, sensors, displays, and motors.
You can write and upload code directly in the simulator, see your circuit run in real-time, and debug everything before building it in real life — making it especially useful for learning, prototyping, and testing ideas when you don't have components on hand.

Arduino IDE

Arduino IDE is a free, open source integrated development environment that makes it easy to write, compile, and upload code to Arduino compatible microcontrollers.
It uses a simplified version of C++ with built-in functions that handle low level hardware details, making embedded programming accessible for beginners while still powerful enough for advanced users.

Architecture

In computing, the internal design blueprint of a processor — how it processes instructions, stores data, and moves information. Architecture defines the rules and layout that all software running on that processor must follow. Two major historical architecture designs are von Neumann (fetching instructions and then fetching data shares one memory path) and Harvard (separate paths for instructions and data which is faster and is used by most microcontrollers). Instruction philosophy: RISC (few simple instructions, each runs in one clock cycle) vs. CISC (fewer but more complex instructions, each takes multiple cycles). Most chips in Fab Academy are RISC + Harvard.

Von Neumann: one path, instructions and data take turns
Harvard: two separate paths, instructions and data travel simultaneously

Microprocessor

A microprocessor is a single integrated circuit that contains only the central processing unit (CPU) — the logic that reads instructions and performs computations. It requires external chips for memory, storage, and input/output functions. Your laptop's CPU is a microprocessor. In embedded contexts, a microprocessor alone is rarely sufficient; it must be paired with additional components to function.

Microcontroller

A microcontroller is a single chip that integrates a processor core, RAM, flash memory (for program storage), and a collection of input/output peripherals, all in one package. This makes it self-contained and immediately usable in a circuit without needing additional chips. Almost everything you will program in Fab Academy is a microcontroller: chips like the ATtiny412, RP2040, and ESP32 all include memory and peripherals on the same die as the processor. Microcontrollers are designed for embedded work — they run one program continuously, operate at lower clock speeds than desktop CPUs, and are optimized for low power consumption and direct hardware control.

Multi-core

A chip with two or more independent processor cores on the same die, able to run code simultaneously. The RP2040 is dual core — both cores can execute different tasks at the same time.

GPU / Embedded GPU

A GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is a specialized processor designed to run thousands of small calculations simultaneously, in parallel. It was originally built to render graphics — a screen has millions of pixels, each needing its own calculation to display color and light. A regular CPU would do this one pixel at a time, which is too slow. A GPU handles all of them at the same time. In embedded contexts, chips like NVIDIA Jetson bring GPU-level parallel processing to edge devices, mainly for machine learning inference.

FPGA

FPGA stands for Field Programmable Gate Array. It is a type of integrated circuit that can be programmed by the user after manufacturing to perform specific tasks. Unlike traditional logic devices such as application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), FPGAs are designed to be reprogrammable, making them highly versatile and adaptable for various applications. Instead of running software, you define hardware behavior directly. Tools like TinyFPGA (a small FPGA board), IceStorm, and Symbiflow support open source FPGA workflows. SiliconCompiler automates the process of turning a hardware description into a chip layout. Spatial architectures arrange computation physically in space for large parallel workloads.

Memory

Memory in a microcontroller refers to the various types of storage available on the chip, each serving a different purpose and operating at a different speed.

Registers

A register is not a physical component you can hold like a resistor or a capacitor. It is a tiny storage location built directly inside the processor core itself. This makes registers the smallest and fastest storage locations, typically 8 or 32 bits wide. They hold the values the CPU is actively working with right now — for example, the current instruction being executed, or two numbers being added.

SRAM

SRAM stands for Static Random Access Memory. Fast, volatile working memory. Stores variables and the program stack while running. Contents are erased when power is removed.

DRAM

DRAM (Dynamic RAM) is slower than SRAM but physically smaller and cheaper per bit, making it suitable for larger memory needs, for example: Raspberry Pi. Requires periodic electrical refresh to retain data.

EEPROM

EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) is a type of memory that remembers its contents even when the power is off (non-volatile). You use it to save small pieces of data that need to survive a reboot — for example, a brightness setting the user adjusted, or a calibration value your sensor calculated. When the device powers back on, that data is still there exactly as it was left. Unlike SRAM which loses everything when power is removed, EEPROM holds onto its data permanently until you deliberately change it.

Flash

Flash is non-volatile memory where your program code lives. When you upload code to a microcontroller, it writes to flash. The program persists through power cycles.

Fuse Bits

Fuse bits (or simply fuses) are special configuration bits in a microcontroller that control fundamental hardware behaviors — such as which clock source to use, whether the reset pin is active, or whether certain memory regions are protected — and are set once during programming. They are a small set of special bits separate from your program memory. Each bit controls one specific hardware setting — a 0 or 1 in that bit turns a behavior on or off.

Peripherals

Peripherals are the extra built-in hardware modules inside a microcontroller that extend its capability beyond pure computation so you don't need external chips for common functions. A processor on its own can only do one thing — calculate. It can add numbers, compare values, and execute logic. That's pure computation. But computation alone is useless if the chip can't interact with the real world — it needs to read a button, measure a voltage, send data to another device, control an LED, keep track of time, and so on. So peripherals are the built-in hardware that lets the chip do all of that. Instead of needing a separate chip for each function (one chip for timing, another for serial communication, another for reading analog sensors) the microcontroller has all of those circuits already built inside it. They are called peripherals because they sit around the processor core, each handling a specific job, all on the same chip.

A simple example may be: Say you want your microcontroller to read the voltage from a temperature sensor. Voltage is analog — it's a continuous value, not a 0 or 1. The processor can only work with numbers. So something needs to convert that voltage into a number first. That something is the ADC (Analog to Digital Converter), a peripheral built right into the chip. Without it you would need a completely separate external chip just to do that conversion.

Ports

A port is just a group of pins bundled together. Instead of the processor dealing with each pin individually, pins are organized into groups called ports, typically 8 pins per port on AVR chips. The processor controls an entire port through one register (a register is a storage location inside the chip). Writing a value to that register sets the state of all 8 pins at once.

Binary

Binary is the numbering system that makes digital signals useful. Because a digital signal only has two states — on or off, 1 or 0 — computers represent all information using only those two digits. This is called binary (bi meaning two). Every number, letter, color, sound, or instruction inside a computer is ultimately stored and processed as a sequence of 1s and 0s. A single 1 or 0 is called a bit. Eight bits grouped together is called a byte.

Digital Signal

A signal that can only be one of two values: high (1) or low (0), voltage present or no voltage. No "in between", no gradual change. It is either on or off. This is the language computers and microcontrollers naturally speak — everything inside a chip is binary. A button press, an LED state, a logic output — these are all digital signals.

Analog Signal

A continuous signal that can be any value within a range. It flows and varies smoothly with no steps or jumps. The physical world is entirely analog: temperature doesn't jump instantly from 20°C to 21°C, it rises gradually through every value in between. A microphone output, a temperature sensor voltage, a light sensor — all produce analog signals. On a microcontroller, analog signals are read through the ADC pins.

A/D Converter

Analog-to-Digital. Reads a continuous voltage (like from a sensor) and converts it to a number the CPU can process.

Comparator

Compare two voltages and outputs which are higher. Sometimes you don't need to know the exact value of a voltage, you just need to know whether it has crossed a certain point. For example: you have a battery and you want to know when it is running low. You don't care exactly what the voltage is at every moment, you just need to know: is it above or below 3.5V? That's a yes or no question. Above = 1, below = 0. Digital output.

D/A Converter

Digital to Analog. Converts a numeric value into an analog voltage output — the reverse of A/D.

Timer / Counter / PWM

A hardware module that counts clock cycles independently of the CPU, meaning the timer/counter peripheral is a circuit that simply counts those pulses on its own, without the CPU doing anything. Used for precise timing, event counting, and PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) which is a technique for simulating an analog output using a digital pin. Since a digital pin can only be fully on (1) or fully off (0), PWM works by switching the pin on and off repeatedly at a fixed rate, so fast it happens hundreds or thousands of times per second. By controlling how long the pin stays on versus off in each cycle, you control the effective power delivered to whatever is connected (for example: LED dimming, motor speed).

USART

USART stands for Universal Synchronous/Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter. It's a hardware for serial communication (sending/receiving data one bit at a time). Used for UART, SPI-adjacent, and similar protocols.

USB

Universal Serial Bus. On-chip hardware that lets the microcontroller communicate directly with a computer or USB device and is used for programming, serial debugging, and data transfer.

Word Size

How many bits a processor handles in one operation. An 8-bit processor works with values 0 to 255 at a time — low power, simple, sufficient for basic control (AVR ATtiny series). A 16-bit processor handles values up to 65,535. A 32-bit processor (ARM, RP2040, ESP32) handles values up to ~4 billion, accesses more memory, and runs more complex tasks. A 64-bit processor (laptop/desktop CPUs) handles enormous values and address spaces. Bigger word size = more capability but also more complexity and power draw.

Processor Families

Groups of related chips sharing the same architecture, instruction set, and tools but varying in memory size, pin count, and features. Knowing the family tells you which compiler, programmer, and libraries to use.

Megaprocessor / MOnSter 6502

These are educational representations of processor architecture at human-visible scale, not chips you will use in practice. The Megaprocessor is a physically large (room sized) computer built from individual transistors and logic gates, constructed to make the internal workings of a CPU directly visible. The MOnSter 6502 is a similarly oversized recreation of the classic MOS 6502 processor. These exist to demonstrate that all silicon chips are ultimately composed of the same basic building blocks (logic gates made from transistors) just miniaturized to microscopic scale. To know more about the MOnSter 6502, click here.

MSP / MSPM0C1104

Mixed Signal Processor — 16-bit RISC microcontrollers by Texas Instruments, engineered for ultra-low power consumption. Ideal for battery-powered or energy-harvesting devices. The MSPM0C1104 is a compact current-generation member of this family.

AVR

An 8-bit RISC microcontroller family by Microchip (originally Atmel). Designed from the start to run compiled C efficiently. Operates at 1.8–5.5V, up to 20 MHz. The primary family used in introductory Fab Academy work. Key chips: ATtiny10 (6-pin, SOT23-6 package, minimal); ATtiny45V / ATtiny44A (older, well-established prior generation); ATtiny412 / 1614 / 3216 (modern 1-series — single-cycle instructions, UPDI one-pin programming, low pin-count packages); ATtiny1624 (2-series — adds programmable gain amplifier); AVR128DB32 (advanced — 24 MHz, analog signal conditioning, level shifting, hardware multiplier).

ARM

A 32-bit processor architecture designed by Arm Holdings and licensed to many manufacturers. More powerful than AVR — higher clock speeds, richer peripherals, more complex toolchains. Key chips in Fab Academy: ATSAMD11C / D11D (48 MHz, used in programmer boards like Free-DAP); ATSAMD21E (48 MHz, Arduino Zero-compatible); ATSAMD51 (high-performance SAMD); STM32 by STMicroelectronics (8–265 pins, strong software support); RP2040 / RP2350 by Raspberry Pi Foundation (RP2040: dual-core, 133 MHz, 264 KB SRAM, programmable peripherals — very common in Fab Academy via XIAO RP2040).

Xtensa / ESP8266 / ESP32

Espressif's ESP chip line uses the Xtensa processor architecture. Their defining feature is integrated RF hardware: ESP8266 has built-in WiFi; ESP32 adds Bluetooth. The go-to choice for any project requiring wireless connectivity. Runs at 80 to 240 MHz, programmable via Arduino or ESP-IDF.

RISC-V

An open-source processor architecture — the instruction set is free for anyone to implement without licensing fees. Growing rapidly in open hardware. Espressif uses RISC-V cores in the ESP32-C3 and ESP32-C6, which retain the WiFi/Bluetooth of the broader ESP32 platform.

PSoC / xCORE / Propeller / Lattice / NVIDIA

Specialized or parallel processor families. PSoC (Cypress) combines a microcontroller with configurable analog/digital hardware blocks. Parallax Propeller uses multiple simultaneous processor cores. xCORE targets real-time multi-channel processing. Lattice makes FPGAs for parallel logic. NVIDIA Jetson brings GPU-level parallel inference to embedded AI applications.

Vendors

Distributors and shops where electronic components are purchased.

Octopart: a search engine that queries multiple distributors at once. The fastest way to check stock and pricing.
Digi-Key and Mouser: the two largest global electronics distributors, primary sources for chips and passive components in Fab Academy.
Newark / Farnell: major distributors strong in the UK and Europe (same parent company).
SparkFun and Adafruit: maker oriented shops selling breakout boards, modules, and components with extensive beginner tutorials.

Packages

A package (also called a component package or IC package) describes the physical housing of an integrated circuit — the shape, size, material, and arrangement of its electrical connection points (pins or pads). The package determines how the chip physically mounts to a circuit board and how its connections are made. The same chip often comes in multiple packages.

Embedded Languages

Embedded languages are the programming languages used to write software that runs directly on a microcontroller, without an operating system mediating between the code and the hardware. The code is compiled or interpreted into binary instructions that the chip executes directly.

Assembly

The lowest-level human-readable language — each statement maps to one machine instruction (opcode). Mnemonics are short readable names for opcodes (e.g., LDI, RJMP). Directives control the assembler. The output is a .hex file — a text-encoded representation of the binary program loaded into flash. avr-as is the GNU assembler for AVR. Inline assembly embeds assembly code within C/C++ for hardware-critical sections.

First, understand what compiling means.
When you write code in C or C++, before it can run on a microcontroller it goes through a process called compiling. The compiler takes your entire code, translates it all at once into binary machine code the chip can execute, and produces a single file that gets uploaded to the chip. The chip then runs that binary directly. This happens once before the program runs.

C / C++

C and C++ are the dominant languages for embedded systems programming. C is a compiled, low-level language that provides direct access to memory and hardware registers while remaining far more readable than assembly. C++ extends C with object-oriented features and is the basis of Arduino-style programming. Both compile to highly efficient machine code.

Rust

Rust is a modern systems programming language designed to deliver the performance of C/C++ while preventing entire categories of common bugs at compile time — specifically memory leaks, memory overruns and race conditions (unsafe concurrent access to shared data).

MicroPython / CircuitPython

Python is normally too large and too slow to run on a tiny microcontroller with limited memory. MicroPython is a stripped down version of Python 3 rebuilt specifically to fit and run on microcontrollers. It is an interpreter (instead of translating everything in advance, an interpreter reads your code one line at a time and executes each line immediately as it reads it — no compilation step beforehand). It lives on the chip and reads your Python code line by line and executes it. CircuitPython is Adafruit's version of MicroPython, modified to be even easier to use.

AI in Embedded Programming

Tools like ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and DeepSeek can read your description in plain English and generate code for you. For example you could type "write me an Arduino program that blinks an LED every 500 milliseconds" and the tool produces working code instantly. However there are real risks when using these tools for hardware programming specifically: they can produce plausible but incorrect code (hallucination), may reproduce copyrighted code, and require human verification, especially for hardware-level code where errors can damage components.

AI in embedded systems

AI in embedded systems is a completely separate idea — not using AI to write your code, but actually running an AI model as the program on your microcontroller.

A machine learning model is a program trained to recognize patterns — for example recognizing a spoken word, detecting a gesture, or identifying an object in a camera image. Normally these models are large and run on powerful computers or servers. But there is a growing field focused on shrinking these models down small enough to run directly on a microcontroller with very limited memory and processing power. This is called TinyML (Tiny Machine Learning).

The frameworks that make this possible are:

LiteRT (by Google): runs a compressed ML model directly on the device
ESP-DL: Espressif's library specifically for running ML models on ESP32 chips
Edge Impulse: a platform where you train a model on your computer and then deploy it onto your microcontroller

An example: a microcontroller with a microphone running a TinyML model that recognizes the word "go" and triggers an action. All processed locally on the chip itself, no internet connection needed.

In-System Development

The ability to talk to a microcontroller through its pins while it is already living inside its circuit — uploading code, reading its state, and fixing problems without ever removing it like the olden days.

Development Environments

A development environment (also called an IDE which stands for Integrated Development Environment) is the software used to write, compile, and upload code to a microcontroller.

Microchip Studio: Microchip's official Windows IDE for AVR and SAM chips. Write, compile, upload, and debug code all in one place.
Eclipse: An open-source editor used as the foundation for many embedded tools.
VS Code: A free lightweight code editor by Microsoft. Becomes a full embedded development environment when extended with plugins like PlatformIO.
Thonny: A beginner-friendly editor built specifically for MicroPython and CircuitPython. Includes a built-in REPL — executes Python commands on your microcontroller instantly without uploading a full program.
Codebra: A browser-based embedded development environment. No installation required.
Arduino: The most beginner-friendly embedded development ecosystem. It bundles together everything you need in one place — a simplified version of C++ that is easier to write, a large library of pre-written code for common tasks, an IDE to write and upload code, and board definitions that tell the tools how to work with specific chips. Instead of dealing with low-level hardware setup yourself, Arduino handles it for you so you can focus on writing your program logic.

Development Boards

A development board is a pre-assembled printed circuit board containing a microcontroller plus supporting components (voltage regulator, USB interface, programming circuitry, indicator LEDs, pin headers) to make the chip immediately usable for prototyping without designing a custom PCB.

XIAO (Seeed Studio): compact thumb-sized modules for RP2040, ESP32-C3, SAMD21, and others — a Fab Academy standard.
Adafruit, Pololu, Olimex, Micro:bit, BeagleBone, Raspberry Pi: other board families at various capability levels.
Fab-community boards — Quentorres, Fab-Xiao, SAMDino, Adrianino: custom boards designed within Fab Academy, built around XIAO or SAMD chips.
D11C devkit / D21E devkit: minimal custom boards around the ATSAMD11C and ATSAMD21E chips.

Clocks

A clock generates the regular electrical pulse that synchronizes all operations inside a microcontroller — in simple terms, its heartbeat.