Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The BeagleBone

The BeagleBone is the low-cost, high-expansion hardware-hacker focused BeagleBoard. It is a bare-bones BeagleBoard that acts as a USB or Ethernet connected expansion companion for your current BeagleBoard and BeagleBoard-xM or works stand-alone. The BeagleBone is small even by BeagleBoard standards and with the high-performance ARM capabilities you expect from a BeagleBoard, the BeagleBone brings full-featured Linux to places it has never gone before.

Key Features:
  • Shipped with 2GB microSD card with the Angstrom Distribution (validation and demonstration image) with node.js and Cloud9 IDE
  • Single cable development environment with built-in FTDI-based serial/JTAG and on-board hub to give the same cable simultaneous access to a USB device port on the target processor
  • Industry standard 3.3V I/Os on the expansion headers with easy-to-use 0.1" spacing
  • On-chip Ethernet, not off of USB
  • Easier to clone thanks to larger pitch on BGA devices (0.8mm vs. 0.4mm), no package-on-package memories, standard DDR2 vs. LPDDR, integrated USB PHYs and more.
Specifications:
  • 700-MHz superscalar ARM Cortex™-A8
  • 256-MB DDR2 RAM
  • 1-port USB 2.0 host
  • Integrated 10/100 Ethernet
  • microSD slot and 2-GB microSD card
  • USB 2.0 flexible device port with ability to supply power
  • On-board USB-to-serial/JTAG over shared USB device port
  • 3.3-V 2× 46-pin peripheral with multiplexed LCD signals and battery-control expansion headers
  • Board size: 3.4” × 2.1”


Applications:
  • 3D printers and industrial robotics
  • Autonomous robots and flying drones
  • Web servers and Internet-enabled kiosks
  • Home media centers and automation
  • In-vehicle entertainment and monitoring
  • Thin clients and digital signage
  • Development with Ubuntu, Android™, Open Embedded, Windows® Embedded, QNX, Symbian, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo and more ...