5 ms·

The BeagleBoard is stuck in a no-man's-land between low-end 8-bit controllers like Arduino and the many other AVR/PIC platforms, and a full-fledged embedded PC.

The BeagleBoard is stuck in a no-man's-land between low-end 8-bit controllers like Arduino and the many other AVR/PIC platforms, and a full-fledged embedded PC. If I want to monkey with Linux and take advantage of a full 1 GHz ARM core, I probably want to just use a commodity PC motherboard. Chances are, it won't cost much more, and it comes with the huge advantage that I already know how to develop for it.

fhars 16y ago
At $149, it is more expensive than many Mini-ITX boards with a 1.66MHz dual core Atom, which come with quite a bit more on board peripherals (SATA, 7.1 audio and the like). Once you add RAM the price difference narrows (or even reverses if you put more than 1GB, which you couldn't do withe the BeagleBoard), but you get quite a bit more power and flexibility at a comparable price.
- nitrogen 16y ago
  The main advantage of a BeagleBoard over a Mini-ITX system is significantly lower power consumption. The entire BB can run on a single USB port (5V 500ma). Otherwise, cell phones would be running Intel and AMD processors.
  - openfly 16y ago
    The only thing I dislike about the beagle board is that the generation 1 had a faulty USB interface. Also the Serial Connection is a 9 pin. I'd rather they just let me use a standard ft cable. =/ Arm units are definitely cool. Look at the maple leaf, and other Arm 3 based units. Very very cheap stuff. Very very powerful. Arm is definitely seizing control of the embedded device market, and linux with it.
    - nitrogen 16y ago
      The USB interface still has issues. They've supposedly fixed them in rev. C4, but I have a C3. My main concern apart from the USB stuff is being able to buy enough units in quantity, with a reasonable turnaround time, if the BB (or any other hobby board) is used in a design.
ladyada 16y ago
It is also a total PITA to get 'booted' since it comes blank you need to mkfs a sd card. if you have linux on a computer already, this is pretty easy. but what if you dont have a linux machine ready to go? if you're me you spend 2 days trying to maneuver something, giving up and borrowing a laptop. I've had an easier time getting freebsd onto a Mac SE/30! In the end what i really wanted to do is use the S-Video port on the BB and after much googling, determined that there was no driver, no easy way to do it and i was basically SOL especially without onboard ethernet/wifi. The BB is a great embedded SBC, it completely slaughters the (hopefully now completely dead) PC104 but right now I'm tinkering with a Chumby: Its not nearly as powerful but for $110 you get a full retail package, LCD, composite video out, speaker, wifi, & power adapter. In 2 seconds i was ssh'ed in and porting SDL-based graphical apps with ease.
- joezydeco 16y ago
  Do you think the lack of drivers and external support for things like the SVideo is a TI deficiency, or a linux community problem in general? I'm trying to decide between i.MX51 and OMAP3/AM37 for an upcoming project and it seems like the level of support from TI or Freescale is going to be the only thing making a difference in the decision...the chips are just too similar in functionality.
  - ladyada 16y ago
    im like the last person you should ask about embedded linux. ive done a smattering of projects but nothing detailed enough to advise :) that said, i think the svideo thing is a 50/50 linuxwiki/TI problem. on one hand, the linux community loves to say "oh you know, just recompile the kernel" and on the other hand, TI should have made a completely ready-to-go bootimage one could download that demos -everything- on the board.
    - joezydeco 16y ago
      True, it would be nice if the SDK was complete on first silicon. But that never seems to be the case. And if there is code to demo a feature, it's probably a hack.

fhars 16y ago

At $149, it is more expensive than many Mini-ITX boards with a 1.66MHz dual core Atom, which come with quite a bit more on board peripherals (SATA, 7.1 audio and the like). Once you add RAM the price difference narrows (or even reverses if you put more than 1GB, which you couldn't do withe the BeagleBoard), but you get quite a bit more power and flexibility at a comparable price.

nitrogen 16y ago
The main advantage of a BeagleBoard over a Mini-ITX system is significantly lower power consumption. The entire BB can run on a single USB port (5V 500ma). Otherwise, cell phones would be running Intel and AMD processors.
- openfly 16y ago
  The only thing I dislike about the beagle board is that the generation 1 had a faulty USB interface. Also the Serial Connection is a 9 pin. I'd rather they just let me use a standard ft cable. =/ Arm units are definitely cool. Look at the maple leaf, and other Arm 3 based units. Very very cheap stuff. Very very powerful. Arm is definitely seizing control of the embedded device market, and linux with it.
  - nitrogen 16y ago
    The USB interface still has issues. They've supposedly fixed them in rev. C4, but I have a C3. My main concern apart from the USB stuff is being able to buy enough units in quantity, with a reasonable turnaround time, if the BB (or any other hobby board) is used in a design.

ladyada 16y ago

It is also a total PITA to get 'booted' since it comes blank you need to mkfs a sd card. if you have linux on a computer already, this is pretty easy. but what if you dont have a linux machine ready to go? if you're me you spend 2 days trying to maneuver something, giving up and borrowing a laptop. I've had an easier time getting freebsd onto a Mac SE/30! In the end what i really wanted to do is use the S-Video port on the BB and after much googling, determined that there was no driver, no easy way to do it and i was basically SOL especially without onboard ethernet/wifi. The BB is a great embedded SBC, it completely slaughters the (hopefully now completely dead) PC104 but right now I'm tinkering with a Chumby: Its not nearly as powerful but for $110 you get a full retail package, LCD, composite video out, speaker, wifi, & power adapter. In 2 seconds i was ssh'ed in and porting SDL-based graphical apps with ease.

joezydeco 16y ago
Do you think the lack of drivers and external support for things like the SVideo is a TI deficiency, or a linux community problem in general? I'm trying to decide between i.MX51 and OMAP3/AM37 for an upcoming project and it seems like the level of support from TI or Freescale is going to be the only thing making a difference in the decision...the chips are just too similar in functionality.
- ladyada 16y ago
  im like the last person you should ask about embedded linux. ive done a smattering of projects but nothing detailed enough to advise :) that said, i think the svideo thing is a 50/50 linuxwiki/TI problem. on one hand, the linux community loves to say "oh you know, just recompile the kernel" and on the other hand, TI should have made a completely ready-to-go bootimage one could download that demos -everything- on the board.
  - joezydeco 16y ago
    True, it would be nice if the SDK was complete on first silicon. But that never seems to be the case. And if there is code to demo a feature, it's probably a hack.