Hi all.
We, the company I work for and myself personally, like the bbb for its performance, price, headers and support.
Has there been any thought to update the cpu on the bbb to be more competitive with the quad core in the Pi2? Does TI produce a processor that would be suitable?
I’d be interested in helping out with an effort like this if anyone at circuitco or elsewhere has been kicking some ideas around.
Chris
Hi Graham.
I've been watching the x15 project. It doesn't look like the same kind
of board for the same kind of end user imo. eSATA isn't something we'd
use (we are ok with sd or emmc for these limited uses), audio codec is
interesting but wonder if that also increases cost for people that
don't need it, same with the expansion connector, 2GB of ram vs. 1GB
etc.
I think a BBB v2 would be a lower performance/capability point than
say the x15, something more price/performance in line with the Pi2
than a minnowboard.
Chris
There are boards out there with SATA on them that cost less than the BBB does right now. That are around the same size.
https://www.olimex.com/Products/OLinuXino/A20/A20-OLinuXIno-LIME2/open-source-hardware
That is one. Robert even has build instructions for it . . . but drivers still seemed to be in infancy last i looked.
Anyway Chris you should be more precise on what you want. If you want any serious feedback. Which crowd do you think benefits from using a BBB but not the X15 ? Are we talking pure cost, or something else ? Granted, I’m also expecting the cost of the X15 to be out of the casual hobbyist range. Which may have been by design ?
Hi William.
I’m a big fan of the bbb. I like its wide range of io, the headers that make it stable when mounted on a cape and its price point. It also uses a CPU that I could put into my own design, unlike the Broadcom soc on the pi2 that I guess you need some magic handshake and millions of units to get access to.
I see the x15 aimed at a different market due to cost and features. That’s a good question though. Who is the x15 intended for? Why choose the x15 over say a minnowboard max?
I’d like to help keep the bbb more on par with the cpu power of the pi2. Basically a bbb v2 with a multi core cpu, and maybe 1gb of ram as its leading features at a similar price point. I’m not sure if TI has any sitara quad cores in the works that might be candidates.
I’ve done some digital circuit design, board bring up, uboot, etc. I’d be willing to help in any effort if circuitco, Gerald etc were interested. Plus the company I work for is using the bbb in a design and we could benefit from another CPU or three.
Chris
I can sit and think about tons of reasons why the beaglebone line is heads( and tails ) above the rest. But the two most prominent in my own mind . . .
It is a real embedded system unlike most ( all? ) “comparable” boards out there. Plenty ways to interface the board to the outside world, and TI is the only ARM licensee who has PRUs one die( or otherwise ) that I’m aware of.
A real Linux distribution that is well documented. Not some fork of a real distro, or some made up crappy distro because no one felt like supporting a dated instruction set. This means “we” have the whole Linux open source community to work with. Instead of having to perform secrete handshakes, or special incantations / magic hand waving every time the kernel changes.
the rPI 2 should be inline with #2 above, but we’ll see how well their BSP shapes up. After that though. They’re using the same old GPU . . .
The only quad core I’ve noticed on TI’s site lately is an A15 quad ( keystone ) and is $125 @ 1ku . . . No stock, but active.
Anyway, the dual A15 on the X15 is supposed to be more than a match for the quad on the rPI 2.
No dispute here on how cool the bbb is. I’ve been looking for a reason to use the pru, wish they provided full access to the cortex m3 though, if it is a full featured core.
The pi2 does have video decode acceleration which is pretty cool but agree that the pi is more proprietary than the bbb in terms of software and hardware, and that’s too bad.
Maybe the dual core on the x15 is cost comparable with the am335x or TI has a part they’d like to showcase like they did with the am335x on the bbb.
In any case, if someone is thinking in the same direction just drop me an email.
Chris
At a guess, after the X15 comes out there will probably be a small form factor based on the same CPU.
At a guess
P.
That would be cool.
Is there any pricing or schedule for availability on the AM5728? I
scoured the TI site for info but that chip doesn't seem to be listed.
Chris
No quad core on BBB.
Gerald