The latest addition to the Arduino family of microcontrollers makes it easier for makers to embed a programmable controller into their projects.

The new Arduino Micro board measures just 48mm by 18mm (1.9 inches by 0.7 inches) and is similar to the Arduino Leonardo in being based on the 16Mhz Atmega32U4 which has built-in USB communications. This, among other things, allows the Micro to emulate a mouse and keyboard.

It has been developed in conjunction with Adafruit who are now shipping a version, with headers pre-soldered on, which runs at 5V logic with a 16MHz crystal. The headers allow it to be plugged into t a standard breadboard for prototyping.

Its spec is as follows:

• Dimensions: 1.9″ x 0.7″ / 48mm x 18mm
• Weight: 6.5g
• Microcontroller: ATmega32u4
• Operating Voltage: 5V
• Input Voltage (recommended): 7-12V
• Input Voltage (limits): 6-20V
• Digital I/O Pins: 20
• PWM Channels: 7
• Analog Input Channels: 12
• DC Current per I/O Pin: 40 mA
• DC Current for 3.3V Pin: 50 mA
• Flash Memory: 32 KB (ATmega32u4) of which 4 KB used by bootloader
• SRAM: 2.5 KB (ATmega32u4)
• EEPROM: 1 KB (ATmega32u4)
• Clock Speed: 16 MHz

Although it isn't compatible with any shields - its size makes this impossible - it does have all the same pins as the Leonardo and so you should be able to wire it up to work with almost anything.

At $25 it makes it possible to almost treat the Arduino as if it was just another component in a build.