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The Beaglebone Black is the most open board, so far as I can tell. Here are the PCB sources for the latest revision: http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBl
by pingswept 12y ago
The Beaglebone Black is the most open board, so far as I can tell.
Here are the PCB sources for the latest revision: http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack#Hardware_Files http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack#Hardware_Files
The datasheet for the AM3558 processor is here, no NDA required: http://www.ti.com/product/AM3358/technicaldocuments http://www.ti.com/product/AM3358/technicaldocuments
The bootloader is U-boot, which is open source, based here: http://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot http://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot
The GPU in the AM3558 is a PowerVR SGX530, which is not open source in any sense-- I believe that the Linux driver uses a binary blob (but I'm not 100% sure of that).
For comparison, the Raspberry Pi has open schematics (http://www.raspberrypi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Raspberry-Pi-Schematics-R1.0.pdf http://www.raspberrypi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Raspbe...) but not open PCB layout source files. There's a partial datasheet for the processor here: http://www.raspberrypi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/BCM2835-ARM-Peripherals.pdf http://www.raspberrypi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/BCM283..., but you can't buy the processor from Broadcom unless you're willing to buy 100,000 or so.
- makomk 12y agoLast time I looked, the proprietary bootloader for the Pi also had a license forbidding you from running it on boards not supplied by the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
- AlyssaRowan 12y agoThat is true, for Broadcom's proprietary BOOTCODE.BIN, the (ThreadX-based) START.ELF VPU-side microkernel and their user-space graphics driver components which talk to it via the Linux kernel shims. (Although, note: you won't get a BCM2836 anywhere else anyway.) Broadcom do, however, have someone writing an open firmware I understand - definitely an unfamiliar world for them, so let's give them time and see what happens. I am also aware of a complete reverse-engineering effort (for the purposes of interoperability), and that is all I'm going to say about that right now. :)
- khuey 12y agoOlimex has products that stack up similarly.
- duskwuff 12y ago> For comparison, the Raspberry Pi has open schematics... For the Model B rev 1.0 only. The B+ only has very partial schematics available (link below), and there's nothing at all out there for the 2.0 yet. http://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/schematics/Raspberry-Pi-B-Plus-V1.2-Schematics.pdf http://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberryp...
- gonzo 12y agoMinnowboard Max is also open.