New $45 Beaglebone

[sparky 1]

Getting close to the RasPi. This time it even has a HDMI port.

http://www.newark.com/jsp/bespoke/bespoke7.jsp?bespokepage=newark/en_US/landing/beaglebone/beaglebone.jsp&CMP=EMC-22606662

 

 

More details of the BeagleBone-Black at the circuitco page with pics!

via reddit.

[spirilis 1,265]

Nice!  For the features that sounds perfect IMO.

Just ordered 2, said avail 0 backorder allowed, guess I got a wait ahead of me...

edit: Looks like they estimate mine will ship 5/13.

[PentiumPC 119]

Haha, new version? have not unbox mine yet..

[pine 140]

Nice board! While not planning to get one in the near future, reading the technical data sheet is quite an enjoyable activity after dinner.. And found the following quite interesting.

 

NOTE: THE INITIAL A4 VERSIONS WERE BUILT USING THE AM3352
PROCESSOR. THIS WAS A RESULT OF RECEIVING MISMARKED PARTS
FROM THE SUPPLIER. DUE TO THE TIGHT SCHEDULE, THE DECSION WAS
MADE TO BUILD WITH THE AM3352 VERSION AS REV A4. PRODUCTION
VERSION IS REV A5 AND WILL HAVE THE CORRECT PROCESSOR. REV A4
DOES NOT HAVE SUPPORT FOR THE PRU OR SGX

 

Although there is no info of the revision Newark is currently selling, the other details on the Newark product page indicated this is "Dev Board AM3359"... and further down in the PDF:

 

 

For the initial release, the board uses the XAM3359AZCZ processor in the 15x15
package. This is the same processor as used on the original BeagleBone. It does use the
updated 2.0 revision with several fixes as opposed to the original BeagleBone. None of
these fixes provide substantial additional features. Eventually the board will move to the
AM3358AZCZ device once readily available. The move does provide for a frequency
increase to 800MHz.

 

 

Hmm... does this suggest the current batch runs at < 800MHz?

[spirilis 1,265]

http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=BeagleBoneBlack is saying 1GHz...

[Jonnyw2k 0]

Looking at this photo it looks like it is a 1GHz 3359 but there is no part with that number listed on TI's website.

 

http://www.cnx-software.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Beaglebone_Black.jpg

 

[cde 334]

I also find it funny that the TI produced Beagleboards, have FEMALE headers on them, unlike the justification for male headers on Rev 1.5 Launchpads. Oops.

[rockets4kids 204]

"Mismarked parts from the supplier" ????

 

This sounds *highly* suspect....

[bluehash 1,581]

I also find it funny that the TI produced Beagleboards, have FEMALE headers on them, unlike the justification for male headers on Rev 1.5 Launchpads.

Wish it was. TI does not produce the BeagleBoard.... Beagleboard.org does.

[jpnorair 340]

Is this seriously US$45?  Goodnight, RasPi.

 

I've never liked the fact that RasPi uses yesterday's ARM hardware... Well, even worse than "yesterday" considering that the ARMv7a has been around for years.  NEON floating point is a killer feature for anything A/V or, really, numerical at all.  Without NEON, ARM's FPU is quite poor, so it makes a 6-20x difference in the performance.

[ike 53]

jpnorair you can get now new version of R pi model A, it's is cheaper than model B. R pi don't need floating point, because it have A/V encoder/decoder module. Anyway most of the embedded applications don't need floating point.

[jpnorair 340]

jpnorair you can get now new version of R pi model A, it's is cheaper than model B. R pi don't need floating point, because it have A/V encoder/decoder module. Anyway most of the embedded applications don't need floating point.

The pricing doesn't bother me.  I'm not a hobbyist or a student.

 

First thing: RasPi is not exactly "embedded."  It runs Linux and it is often programmed using a compiler on the RasPi.  

 

Second thing: I have noticed a lot of hobbyists trying to use RasPi to run OpenCV.  The results are terrible.  OpenCV on Beagle is *OK.*  I write my own image and signal routines for NEON after prototyping with OpenCV, and they tend to run exceptionally fast.  That can't be done on the RasPi.

 

Third thing: 99% of the projects I see done with RasPi would be better to use the Electric IMP.  That uses an STM32F2 running eCos, BTW, and there is a 64KB sandbox for user code.  I understand there are some openness issues with Electric IMP, but I don't retract my point.

[yyrkoon 250]

So, what is the difference between running Rasbian, or Angstromm ? In this context ,neither are truely embedded systems.  But "embedded" does not mean what It used to mean in the 80s-90s. Embedded can mean a PoS system . . . Anything that run any version of Windows embedded, Linux embedded, etc.

 

Also for what it's worth, from what I understood, TI was having a batch of 100,000 made first go, thus the low price. . .  beaglebone.org *only* designed the board. TI Also "ported" Android for the Sitara processors . . .yaccto supports the beaglebone . . . goes on and on and on.

 

Not to mention the documentation for the rpi is complete garbage.

 

So yeah even at $20 more than the rpi-A beaglebone is still the better choice.

 

Has anyone here aside from myself actually gone out and tried to find documentation for the rpi ? Read the forums to see what the community is like ? Yeah I wouldnt even buy one to run as a media device. Oh, and right. You'll never find one for listed price. People are grabbing them up, and flipping them for nearly twice the supposed OEM price.

[bluehash 1,581]

I'm looking into building a community. Personally I feel that the beaglebone.org place is bit scattered... on the down side, I'm ok with embedded linux, but this maybe a good opportunity to learn. I'm sure many of you guys are eager to jump on the embedded linux bangwagon too. It is a nice thing to know and add to your resume.

[spirilis 1,265]

Hmm, it does seem the beagleboard.org guys have a forum and it looks like Adafruit does too.  I'd be up for a community seeded by folks here but I'm wondering how far it would go with other forums already out there.  I think this community works well for concentrating MSP430 hobbyists because the other forum, TI E2E, is less tailored for hobbyists and more for professionals asking questions (as evidenced by the snarky replies I often see by "experts" over there to complete noobs' questions)...