Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
BeagleBone for your robot-building needs
Citation preview
22-04-13 For your robot-building needs, the $45 BeagleBone Linux PC goes on sale | Ars Technica
arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/04/for-your-robot-building-needs-the-45-beaglebone-linux-pc-goes-on-sale/ 1/4
For your robot-building needs, the $45BeagleBone Linux PC goes on saleNew BeagleBone gets 50% price cut, comes with 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor.
The brand-new BeagleBone Black.
BeagleBoard.org
The market for cheap single-board computers is becoming one of the most surprisingly competitive
spaces in the tech industry. On the heels of the million-selling Raspberry Pi, a variety of companies
and small groups started creating their own tiny computers for programmers and hobbyists.
Today we have a new entrant that may provide the best bang for the buck for many types of users.
It's called the BeagleBone Black and it's the latest in the line of "Beagle" devices that first appeared in
2008, courtesy of Texas Instruments. On sale now for $45, BeagleBone Black sports a 1GHz Sitara
AM335x ARM Cortex-A8 processor from Texas Instruments, up from the 720MHz processor used in
the previous $90 BeagleBone released in 2011.
Beagle's "open" hardware philosophy means all of the chips and designs are available to the public,
so anyone with the right equipment and knowledge could make their own.
Using an ARMv7 processor instead of the Pi's ARMv6 one, BeagleBone can run Ubuntu or other
Linux distributions as well as Android. It also provides more inputs and outputs than the Pi for
connecting to sensors and other devices needed to build robots and electronics projects. The
BeagleBone Black has more I/O capability than an Arduino Uno, though not quite as much as the
newer Arduino Due.
"This has a lot more I/Os than an Arduino Uno would have," BeagleBoard.org co-founder Jason
Kridner told Ars. "It's a full gigaherz Linux desktop computer, but it has all the I/O capabilities you'd
have in a typical microcontroller. It really bridges that gap, combining those two worlds together."
Beagle has a thriving development community. There are more than 30 "capes," or plug-in boards
compatible with the BeagleBone Black. These allow the device to connect to 3D printers, DMX lighting
controllers, a Geiger counter, a telerobotic submarine, LCD touch screens, and more.
Beagle runs semi-independently of Texas Instruments, which sponsors the project with technology
and its employees' time. Kridner is a TI employee, but spends nearly all of his time on Beagle
projects.
100,000 boards will be made in the first production run of BeagleBone Black. The previous
TOP FEATURE STORY
STAY IN THE KNOW WITH
LATEST NEWS
Key vote on “Internet salestax” looms, this time withAmazon’s support
Applications open for MarsOne, the first human spacecolony
WHY DON'T YOU JUST GOOGLE IT?
Google Now may actually be theiGoogle replacement you’ve beenwaiting for
Prenda Law: EFF has “the samegoals” as “terrorist groupWikileaks”
A NEW HOME FOR HOMEWORLD
Going once, going twice! Gearbox picksup Homeworld in THQ auction
FIXING THE POTHOLES
EA rolling out major SimCitysimulation changes today
TECHNOLOGY LAB / INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
by Jon Brodkin - Apr 22 2013, 11:30pm WEDTDEVELOPMENT OPEN SOURCE 1
FEATURE STORY (3 PAGES)
The rise and fall of AMD:How an underdog stuck itto IntelRemember when AMD could compete with Intel
in both speed and price?139
Main Menu ▼ My Stories: 24 ▼ Forums Subscribe Video Log InSearch
22-04-13 For your robot-building needs, the $45 BeagleBone Linux PC goes on sale | Ars Technica
arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/04/for-your-robot-building-needs-the-45-beaglebone-linux-pc-goes-on-sale/ 2/4
generation sold about 50,000 to 60,000 units "at twice the cost and less performance," Kridner said.
He has been amazed by what developers have done with Beagle products so far, and figures it can
only get better with the BeagleBone Black.
"You can build 3D printers, you can build rovers, you can build drones, you can build art projects,
street lighting," Kridner said. Beagle users are "doing software-defined radio, inspecting the spectrum
and wardriving, and searching for faults in the wireless communications systems. I cannot possibly
keep up with what everybody's doing with this board."
The processing power and price aren't the only reasons Kridner thinks BeagleBone Black will inspire
even greater heights of hacking. The board will be more user-friendly than the previous version, with
a MicroHDMI hookup, a pre-installed Linux distribution, and an upgraded Web interface for controlling
Arduino-like functionality.
Here's an at-a-glance look at the BeagleBone Black's specs (click for a larger view):
Enlarge
BeagleBoard.org
Although BeagleBone Black costs $10 more than a Raspberry Pi, it comes with a power supply and
network cable whereas the Pi does not. BeagleBone Black has 2GB of on-board storage that's pre-
installed with Ångström Linux, and the MicroSD slot can be used for additional storage or to boot
another operating system. BeagleBone Black upgrades the RAM over the previous version from
256MB of DDR2 memory to 512MB of DDR3L memory.
A MicroHDMI slot allows direct connections to TVs or monitors, whereas the previous version required
users to develop to the board from another computer, or hook up an add-on board allowing video
capability.
Inputs suited for electronics projects include 65 digital I/O connectors, seven analog ones, four serial
ports, and eight pulse-width modulators.
"If you want to do things like motor control, to drive a motor, tell it to go one direction or another
direction, or how fast to go, that's typically done with a pulse-width modulator," Kridner said.
Users can program all these different inputs from a convenient Web browser interface that's
accessible when you plug the BeagleBone into a Windows, Linux, or Mac computer. The browser
interface features BoneScript, "a node.js-based language specifically optimized for the Beagle family
and featuring familiar Arduino function."
This is designed to make Arduino-like functionality as easy as possible:
22-04-13 For your robot-building needs, the $45 BeagleBone Linux PC goes on sale | Ars Technica
arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/04/for-your-robot-building-needs-the-45-beaglebone-linux-pc-goes-on-sale/ 3/4
← OLDER STORY
Enlarge
BeagleBoard.org
This isn't the first version of BoneScript, but it now has new tutorials to help people learn to drive
motors and wire up sensors.
"We've tried to learn a lot of the lessons [from Arduino]," Kridner said. "They have these really simple
functions. If I want to set a pin high, it's digital right, pin number and high. If you want to set a pulse-
width modulator, it's analog right and the frequency that you want to write at, what the duty cycle is. ...
We mimic these function calls that Arduino has, but we put it in a Javascript webpage environment. I
actually have an interactive editor directly in my browser where I can experiment with utilizing these
Arduino-like functions, and click run, and those run and I can see the output on the pins. I can learn
to read sensors."
Kridner said BeagleBone Black also comes pre-loaded a C compiler, multimedia libraries, a GUI
creation library with the Qt framework, and other development tools.
The possibilities are nearly endless.
"I can use Python, I can use C, I can use Perl, all the things I'm familiar with in a desktop computing
environment," Kridner said. "If I want to have a tweeting robot that chases the cat around all day, I can
make that."
Jon Brodkin / Jon is Ars Technica's senior IT reporter, covering business technology and the impact of consumer tech
on IT. He also w rites about tech policy, open source, supercomputing, and w ireless technology.
Follow Follow @JBrodkin@JBrodkin
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
READER COMMENTS 1
22-04-13 For your robot-building needs, the $45 BeagleBone Linux PC goes on sale | Ars Technica
arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/04/for-your-robot-building-needs-the-45-beaglebone-linux-pc-goes-on-sale/ 4/4
SITE LINKS
About Us
Advertise with us
Contact Us
Reprints
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Subscribe to Ars
MORE READING
RSS Feeds
Newsletters
CONDE NAST SITES
Wired
Vanity Fair
Style
Details
Visit our sister sites
Subscribe to a magazine
VIEW MOBILE SITE
© 2013 Condé Nast. All rights reserv edUse of this Site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (effectiv e 3/21/12) and Priv acy Policy (effectiv e 3/21/12), and Ars Technica Addendum (effectiv e 5/17/2012)Your California Priv acy RightsThe material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast.
Ad Choices
