BeagleBoard

BeagleBoard rev.B
Common manufacturers	Circuitco LLC on behalf of BeagleBoard.org
Design firm	Texas Instruments
Introduced	BeagleBoard July 28, 2008 (2008-07-28)[1] BeagleBoard rev.C May 13, 2009 (2009-05-13)[2] BeagleBoard-xM September 14, 2010 (2010-09-14)[3] BeagleBone October 31, 2011 (2011-10-31)[4] BeagleBone Black April 23, 2013 (2013-04-23)[5]
Cost	US$45 to $149
Type	Single-board computer
Processor	ARM Cortex A8
Frequency	600 MHz to 1 GHz
Memory	128 MB to 512 MB
Connection	USB On-The-Go
Ports	USB On-The-Go/DVI-D/PC audio/SDHC/JTAG/HDMI
Power consumption	2 W
Weight	~37 g[6]
Dimensions	7.62 cm × 7.62 cm × 1.6 cm

The BeagleBoard is a low-power open-source hardware single-board computer produced by Texas Instruments in association with Digi-Key and Newark element14. The BeagleBoard was also designed with open source software development in mind, and as a way of demonstrating the Texas Instrument's OMAP3530 system-on-a-chip.^[7] The board was developed by a small team of engineers as an educational board that could be used in colleges around the world to teach open source hardware and open source software capabilities. It is also sold to the public under the Creative Commons share-alike license.

Features

The BeagleBoard measures approximately 75 by 75 mm and has all the functionality of a basic computer.^[8] The OMAP3530 includes an ARM Cortex-A8 CPU (which can run Linux, FreeBSD,^[9] OpenBSD, ^[10] RISC OS,^[11] or Symbian; Android is also being ported^[12]), a TMS320C64x+ DSP for accelerated video and audio decoding, and an Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX530 GPU to provide accelerated 2D and 3D rendering that supports OpenGL ES 2.0. Video out is provided through separate S-Video and HDMI connections. A single SD/MMC card slot supporting SDIO, a USB On-The-Go port, an RS-232 serial connection, a JTAG connection, and two stereo 3.5 mm jacks for audio in/out are provided.

Built-in storage and memory are provided through a PoP chip that includes 256 MB of NAND flash memory and 256 MB of RAM (128 MB on earlier models).

The board uses up to 2 W of power and can be powered from the USB connector, or a separate 5 V power supply. Because of the low power consumption, no additional cooling or heat sinks are required.

Rev. C4 specifications

BeagleBoard described

• Package on Package POP CPU/Memory chip.
  • Processor TI OMAP3530 Processor - 720 MHz ARM Cortex-A8 core
  • 'HD capable' TMS320C64x+ core (520 MHz up to 720p @30 fps)^[13]
  • Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX 2D/3D graphics processor supporting dual independent displays^[8]
  • 256 MB LPDDR RAM^[13]
  • 256 MB NAND Flash memory^[13]
• Peripheral connections^[14]
  • DVI-D (HDMI connector chosen for size - maximum resolution is 1280×1024)
  • S-Video
  • USB OTG (mini AB)
  • 1 USB port
  • SD/MMC card slot
  • Stereo in and out jacks
  • RS-232 port
  • JTAG connector
  • Power socket (5 V barrel connector type)

• Development^[15]
  • Boot code stored in ROM
  • Boot from NAND memory, SD/MMC, USB, or serial
  • Alternative boot source button.
  • Has been demonstrated using Android,^[16] Angstrom Linux,^[17] Fedora, Ubuntu, Gentoo,^[18] Arch Linux ARM^[19] and Maemo Linux distributions,^[20] FreeBSD,^[9] the Windows CE operating system,^[21] Symbian,^[22] QNX^[23] and a version of RISC OS 5^[24] made available by RISC OS Open.

BeagleBoard-xM

Features

-xM board

A modified version of the BeagleBoard called the BeagleBoard-xM started shipping on August 27, 2010. The BeagleBoard-xM measures in at 82.55 by 82.55 mm and has a faster CPU core (clocked at 1 GHz compared to the 720 MHz of the BeagleBoard), more RAM (512 MB compared to 256 MB), onboard Ethernet jack, and 4 port USB hub. The BeagleBoard-xM lacks the onboard NAND and therefore requires the OS and other data to be stored on a microSD card. The addition of the Camera port to the -xM provides a simple way of importing video via Leopard Board cameras.^[25][26]

Specifications

• Package on Package POP CPU/memory chip.
  • Processor TI DM3730 Processor - 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 core
  • 'HD capable' TMS320C64x+ core (800 MHz up to 720p @30 fps)^[13]
  • Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX 2D/3D graphics processor supporting dual independent displays^[8]
  • 512 MB LPDDR RAM^[13]
  • 4 GB microSD card supplied with the BeagleBoard-xM and loaded with The Angstrom Distribution
• Peripheral connections^[14]
  • DVI-D (HDMI connector chosen for size - maximum resolution is 1400x1050)
  • S-Video
  • USB OTG (mini AB)
  • 4 USB ports
  • Ethernet port
  • MicroSD/MMC card slot
  • Stereo in and out jacks
  • RS-232 port
  • JTAG connector
  • Power socket (5 V barrel connector type)
  • Camera port
  • Expansion port

• Development^[15]
  • Boot code stored on the uSD card
  • Boot from uSD/MMC only
  • Alternative Boot source button.
  • Has been demonstrated using Android,^[16] Angstrom Linux,^[17] Fedora, Ubuntu, Gentoo,^[18] Arch Linux ARM^[19] and Maemo Linux distributions,^[20] FreeBSD,^[27] the Windows CE operating system,^[21] and RISC OS.

BeagleBone

Announced in the end of October 2011, the BeagleBone is a barebone development board with a Sitara ARM Cortex-A8 processor running at 720 MHz, 256 MB of RAM, two 46-pin expansion connectors, on-chip Ethernet, a microSD slot, and a USB host port and multipurpose device port which includes low-level serial control and JTAG hardware debug connections, so no JTAG emulator is required. The BeagleBone is initially priced $89(US).^[28]

A number of BeagleBone "Capes" have recently been released. These capes are expansion boards which can be stacked onto the BeagleBone Board (up to four at one time). BeagleBone capes include but are not limited to:

• LCD touchscreen capes (7" and 3.5")
• DVI-D cape
• Breakout cape
• Breadboard cape
• CAN bus cape
• RS-232 cape
• Battery cape^[29]

BeagleBone Black

Launched in April 23, 2013 at a price of $45. Among other differences, it increases RAM to 512 MB, the processor clock to 1 GHz, and it adds HDMI and 2 GB of eMMC flash memory. The BeagleBone Black also ships with Linux kernel 3.8, upgraded from the original BeagleBone's Linux kernel 3.2, allowing the BeagleBone Black to take advantage of Direct Rendering Manager (DRM).

Specifications

Optional expansion boards

• BeagleBoard Zippy - Feature expander daughter card for BeagleBoard
• BeagleBoard Zippy2 - Second-generation Zippy. (UART, EEPROM, 100BASE-T, SD-Slot, RTC, I²C (5 V))
• BeagleTouch Display - Touchscreen 4.3" OLED panel with touchscreen, and drivers for Angstrom Linux built by Liquidware.
• BeagleLCD2 Expansion Board - 4.3" wide aspect LCD panel + touchscreen with interface board. Developed by HY Research.
• BeagleJuice - Lithium-ion battery pack for portability developed and built by Liquidware.
• WLAN adapter - This additional expansion card enables wireless connectivity functionality for the BeagleBoard.
• BeadaFrame - 7" TFT LCD display kit includes touch panel and a plastic frame, by NAXING Electronics.
• 4DLCD CAPE - 4.3", 480x272 resolution LCD cape with resistive touch or non-touch and seven push buttons

Optional enclosures

• Beagle Board RevC Clear Acrylic Case - Case for a BeagleBoard alone. (without Zippy2)
• BeagleLCD2 Clear Acrylic Case - Case for BeagleBoard with BeagleLCD2
• LGX BB100 expandable BeagleBone Black Case - open source designed compact metal enclosure (from Logic Supply) for the Beaglebone Black

Clones

• IGEPv2 - a slightly larger board that includes more RAM, built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, a USB host, an Ethernet jack, and use microSD cards instead of regular SD cards.
• ICETEK Mini Board (Chinese)^[35]

See also

• List of single-board computers
• List of open-source hardware projects

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to BeagleBoard.

• Official website
• BeagleBoard System Reference Manual
• OMAP35x Applications Processors
• Texas Instruments OMAP Developer Network