BeaglePlay From BeagleBoard.org Brings Fun to Building With Computers

[btarunr]

The BeagleBoard.org Foundation today announces the global availability of BeaglePlay, the most adaptable open-source performance platform available. Built on our proven open source Linux approach, BeaglePlay has a feature set that includes built-in wired and wireless connectivity and ability to connect to a wide selection of sensor and prototyping systems with thousands of options, as well as interfaces and processing performance to support them.

Leveraging the Texas Instruments AM625 processor with quad 64-bit Arm Cortex -A53 cores, low-latency microcontroller subsystems, a dedicated Texas Instruments SimpleLink CC1352P7 sub-1 GHz and 2.4-GHz wireless MCU, and a Texas Instruments WiLink WL1807MOD Wi-Fi module, new and experienced users can use a wide variety of application libraries and examples from Linux, Zephyr, MicroPython and numerous other open source frameworks to add an endless array of sensors, actuators, indicators and new connectivity options.



BeaglePlay software features a customized BeagleBoard.org Debian Linux image with desktop pre-installed along with features such as Wi-Fi access point and BeagleConnect gateway functionality supporting quick and flexible development options.

Build the broadest range of performance applications, including:

• Industrial Human Machine Interface (HMI)
• Retail and POS Automation
• 3D Point Cloud Systems
• Vision Analytics
• Vehicle and Drone Infrastructure
• 3D Reconfigurable Display Systems
• Medical Equipment
• Smart Buildings and Edge AI
• web3 Distributed Infrastructure

BeaglePlay feature set enables connectivity to the widest selection of sensor and prototyping systems as well as interfaces with memory and processing performance in a low-cost solution:

Expandability

• MikroBus header giving access to hundreds of existing Click sensors and actuators
• Grove connector, by SEEED Studio, a rich, standardized prototyping ecosystem
• SparkFun QWIIC Connect interface provides access to sensors, LCDs, relays and more

Memory

• 2 GB (1 Gb x 16) 1600 MHz 3200 Mbps DDR4
• 16 GB eMMC flash with high-speed interface
• MicroSD card slot

Interfaces

• Wi-Fi / 2.4G, MIMO/5G, SISO via TI WiLink 8 WL1807 module
• Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE)/SubG via TI CC1352P7 M4+M0 with BeagleConnect firmware
• HS-USB Type-C interface for power input and data
• HS-USB Type-A interface
• Gigabit Ethernet with RJ45
• 10 Mbit single pair Ethernet (SPE) and 5 V/250mA power over data line (PoDL) with RJ11

Display and Camera Connectors

• HDMI Type-A supporting up to Full-HD/1080p with 24-bit RGB
• FPC 22 pin 4-Lane MIPI CSI camera connector
• FPC 40 pin OLDI (LVDS) display interface

User Interfaces

• 1x User Programmable button, 1x Reset button, 1x Power button
• 1x Power indication LED, 5x User LEDs
• 4x U.FL Antenna connectors
• 2x JTAG 10pin TAG-CONNECT pads for debug connection
• Real Time Clock (RTC) Circuitry with coin cell battery backup

AM6254 Quad 64-bit Arm Cortex -A53, 1.4 GHz processor subsystem featuring:

• Quad-core Cortex-A53 cluster with
• 512 KB L2 shared cache
• Each Core with 32 KB L1 D Cache and 32 KB L1 ICache
• Single-core Arm Cortex -M4F at up to 400 MHz
• Single-core Arm Cortex -R5F
• 3D GPU; up to 2048x1080 @60fps, OpenGL ES 3.1, Vulkan 1.2
• Programmable Real-Time Unit Subsystem
• Dual-core PRUSS running at 333MHz
• Tightly integrated and offering low-latency control of IO pins
• Take advantage of BeagleBoard.org and other community software libraries

"BeaglePlay is an exciting addition to the BeagleBoard.org family and will enable thousands of applications to be prototyped faster than ever before." stated Christine Long, CEO of the BeagleBoard.org Foundation. "At this extremely competitive price point and ease of use, more developers' work becomes like play!"

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[Solaris17]

Man this is super cool. I love stuff like this, and buying all kinds of neat things off sparkfun.

 

[trsttte]

At this extremely competitive price point and ease of use, more developers' work becomes like play!"

And what is that price exactly? I saw 99$ elsewhere, cool but not exactly competitive, a soquartz from pine64 can be had for 60$ with the carrier board and A55 cores instead of older A53 and the classic raspberry pi is also cheaper and better once supplies return (due to happen any time now)

 

[dragontamer5788]

Beaglebone is pretty awesome in general.

This is a fully open source design, and serves as a reference board for TI's chips. In contrast...

And what is that price exactly? I saw 99$ elsewhere, cool but not exactly competitive, a soquartz from pine64 can be had for 60$ with the carrier board and A55 cores instead of older A53 and the classic raspberry pi is also cheaper and better once supplies return (due to happen any time now)

You don't got the firmware to build your own Rasp. Pi. Broadcom locks down all relevant documents. In contrast, Beaglebone will (probably) have an open-source clone coming within a year or so from another manufacturer, proving that you can replicate the design on your own.

EX: Seeedstudio's Beaglebone Green is a reimplementation of the Beaglebone Black (https://wiki.seeedstudio.com/BeagleBone_Green/).

10 Mbit single pair Ethernet (SPE) and 5 V/250mA power over data line (PoDL) with RJ11

This is a cool up and coming technology. CANbus is typically used for automobiles today, but various manufacturers are trying to convert the single-pair setup into proper Ethernet.

• Single-core Arm Cortex -M4F at up to 400 MHz
• Single-core Arm Cortex -R5F

R5 is "Realtime", meaning hard-realtime. Guaranteed, deterministic speeds of programs.

M4 is a microcontroller, its also realtime but going to be a good bit slower than the R5 but consume incredibly low amounts of power. If the rest of the chip sleeps, the M4 probably draws less than 10mA / 35mW or so.

• Programmable Real-Time Unit Subsystem
• Dual-core PRUSS running at 333MHz

More realtime components for guaranteed, deterministic operations.

So that's the big thing over Rasp. Pi. Deterministic / realtime / hard-realtime guaranteed execution times, with multiple tools (R5 core, M4 core, and PRUSS) to handle realtime operations.