A recent press release from Atmel has announced the introduction of the Arduino WiFi Shield 101 which can be connected to any modern Arduino R3 board to give connectivity to the Internet via any traditional Wi-Fi access points. This new Shield is said to offer secure, cost-effective, high-performance Wi-Fi connectivity. The new board is targeted at Arduino  IoT applications and incorporates Atmel’s WINC 1500 wireless network controller offering IEEE 802.11 b/g/n (1x1) at up to 72 Mbps and supporting IEEE 802.11 WEP, WPA2 security enterprise.

The Shield also features an Atmel authentication security device that can be used for keys, passwords or secret data. An open-source Wi-Fi library will also be available to enable users to write sketches that connect to the Internet using the shield. The shield connects to an Arduino board using long wire-wrap headers which extend through the shield. This ensures that the pin layout is intact and allows stacking of other shields.

“In this increasingly connected world, the Arduino Wi-Fi Shield 101 will help drive more inventions in the IoT market” said Massimo Banzi, Arduino co-founder and CEO. “Expanding our portfolio of Arduino extensions, this new shield can flawlessly connect to any modern Arduino board giving our community more options for connectivity, along with added security elements to their creative projects.”

View the Atmel press release for more information.