PLUG & PLAY Arduino Mega 2560 R3 ATMEGA16U2 + USB Cable (Compatible)

This is a compatible board for Arduino Mega 2560-- just plug & play, no additional driver download required!

Arduino is an open-source physical computing platform based on a simple i/o board and a development environment that implements the Processing/Wiring language. Arduino can be used to develop stand-alone interactive objects or can be connected to software on your computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP). The open-source IDE can be downloaded for free (currently support Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux).

The Arduino Mega is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega2560. It has 54 digital input/output pins (of which 14 can be used as PWM outputs), 16 analog inputs, 4 UARTs (hardware serial ports), a 16 MHz crystal oscillator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button. It contains everything needed to support the microcontroller; simply connect it to a computer with a USB cable or power it with a AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get started. The Mega is compatible with most shields designed for the Arduino Duemilanove or Diecimila.

This is the new Arduino Mega 2560 which replaces previous Arduino Mega. In addition to all the features of the previous board, the Mega 2560 now uses an ATmega8U2 instead of the FTDI chip. This allows for faster transfer rates, no drivers needed for Linux or Mac (inf file for Windows is needed), and the ability to have the board show up as a keyboard, mouse, joystick, etc. It also has twice as much flash memory.

Additional features coming with the R3 version are:

ATmega16U2 instead 8U2 as USB-to-Serial converter.
1.0 pinout: added SDA and SCL pins for TWI communication placed near to the AREF pin and two other new pins placed near to the RESET pin, the IOREF that allow the shields to adapt to the voltage provided from the board and the second one is a not connected pin, that is reserved for future purposes.
Stronger RESET circuit.
 

Specification:
Microcontroller
ATmega2560
Operating Voltage
5V
Input Voltage (recommended)
7-12V
Input Voltage (limits)
6-20V
Digital I/O Pins
54 (of which 14 provide PWM output)
Analog Input Pins
16
DC Current per I/O Pin
40 mA
DC Current for 3.3V Pin
50 mA
Flash Memory
256 KB of which 8 KB used by bootloader
SRAM
8 KB
EEPROM
4 KB
Clock Speed
16 MHz

Related links:
Arduino Mega 2560 Home Page
Getting Started
Programming Reference
Arduino Forum