BeagleBone

BeagleBone Black Rev. C

BeagleBone Black Rev. C is the most recent revision of “Black” derivative. It incorporates powerful AM335x processor with ARM Cortex-A8 core running at 1 GHz clock frequency, 512 MB of DDR3L RAM (400 MHz) and also on-board Flash memory 4 GB). Therefore the BeagleBone Black is a great choice for designers who doesn’t want to work with microSD card as memory space for operating system, applications and user data. Use of built-in solid state memory is an interesting option due to it’s stability and reliability compared to popular microSD-based SBCs. The Sitara AM335x processor has an internal 3D graphics accelerator and two PRU blocks (programmable real-time unit). This solution makes the BeagleBone Black perfectly fitted for advanced applications requiring very low latency and real time execution of system-critical procedures, for example in field of industrial motor control, drone flight controllers or data acquisition systems.

BeagleBone Black Industrial

Another very interesting version of this popular minicomputer is BeagleBone Black Industrial (BBBI). It’s based on TI Sitara AM3358 processor with ARM Cortex-A8 core running at up to 1 GHz with built-in 3D graphics accelerator, NEON floating-point unit and two PRUs. On the board there is also 512 MB of fast DDR3L RAM (clocked with 400 MHz), built-in 4 GB Flash memory and two 2x23-pin headers allowing you to easily connect the BeagleBone module to external hardware. The PCB has dimensions of 86,4 x 53,4 mm and has one Ethernet RJ45 socket, one USB A connector, three switches and one DC jack for connecting external 5 V power supply. BeagleBone Black Industrial can work under Ångström Linux, Debian, Ubuntu or Android operating systems and has one microHDMI output with display resolution up to 1440 x 900 px and audio support. The main difference between this derivative and classic BeagleBone Black is temperature range – for BBBI it’s true industrial range from -40 oC to +85 oC.

BeagleBone Black Wireless and Green Wireless

Yet another version of BeagleBone Black is a Wireless model. It is based on Octavo System OSD335x 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 CPU with 512 MB DDR3L memory (in this case it can work at 800 MHz) and 4 GB memory with pre-installed Debian operating system. Instead of the Ethernet interface it is equipped with on-board wireless module. The transceiver supports 2.4 GHz WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1 and BLE. Like many other derivatives of BeagleBone project, the Wireless version includes one USB A socket, a 5V DC jack input and two useful 46-pin GPIO headers. Quite another is a BeagleBone Green Wireless minicomputer. This SBC is also equipped with WiFi + Bluetooth module, but has four USB A sockets (just like popular Raspberry Pi), two Grove connectors for connection of external modules. The GPIO connectors can be used for serial interfaces like UART, I2C, SPI, six ADC channels, PWM outputs and even LCD controller outputs. You also have an access to many power supply pins (digital GND, 3.3V, 5V, and analog VDD lines).