Hi Gerald,
The specs on this BeagleBone Black are impressive, definitely a Raspberry Pi killer with the HDMI output capability.
Question: the BeagleBone Black TRM references an onboard crypto accelerator. Do you have any more information about that (what hashing methods and cryptographic transforms it supports etc)?
It is the same processor as the BeagleBone. You would need to see what information is documented in the AM3359 processor documents. You may have to check with TI to get more information. I am not familiar with what all it can do.
Gerald
Someone submitted support for the crypto accelerator for a variety of
TI chips, including the one which is currently (AM3359) and is planned to be
(AM3358) on the current BeagleBone and the Black to the linux-arm list a bit
before Christmas if my memory serves me correctly. I think it is now in
the mainline, if not it will be there soon.
There was lots of surprise expressed that the 3359 had a crypto unit, but
he had apparently derived this some how, tested it and it worked. The
accelerator is the same in several of these chips and he had found docs
for one of the other ones.
David
________________________________________
From: beagleboard@googlegroups.com [beagleboard@googlegroups.com] on behalf of David Goodenough [david.goodenough@linkchoose.co.uk]
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2013 6:04 PM
To: beagleboard@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [beagleboard] BeagleBone BlackHi Gerald,
The specs on this BeagleBone Black are impressive, definitely a Raspberry
Pi killer with the HDMI output capability.
Question: the BeagleBone Black TRM references an onboard crypto
accelerator. Do you have any more information about that (what hashing
methods and cryptographic transforms it supports etc)?
Someone submitted support for the crypto accelerator for a variety of
TI chips, including the one which is currently (AM3359) and is planned to be
(AM3358) on the current BeagleBone and the Black to the linux-arm list a bit
AES, SHA, PKA, RNG
before Christmas if my memory serves me correctly. I think it is now inthe mainline, if not it will be there soon.
There was lots of surprise expressed that the 3359 had a crypto unit, but
he had apparently derived this some how, tested it and it worked. The
accelerator is the same in several of these chips and he had found docs
for one of the other ones.
David
Did some digging, looks like it supports AES crypto, SHA hashing, PKA (whatever that is, I am assuming they meant PKI), and a hardware random number generator. I am going to see if I can find some performance stats on those, that's a pretty nice capability for many different applications.
what is BeagleBone Black and how can it kill Raspberry Pi in terms of HDMI? 
Raspberry Pi has a special chip designed for STB with native HD 1080p video decoding and output. AM335x processors are designed for automotive applications and even if they have a simple LCD controller it does not make it a “Raspberry Pi killer”. Probably armv7 is faster than arm11, but for video playback none of BeagleBoard/Bone are capable of 1080p decoding. BeagleBone wins only in small, portable applications. IMHO
One thing is true. Everyone have opinions and those opinions are never wrong.
Gerald
I have used both the BeagleBone and the Raspberry Pi extensively in prototyping for an embedded project, and there is no comparison between the two. The Raspberry Pi is a cobbled together mess, and 1080p transcoding on the Pi is hit and miss based on the performance (or lack thereof) of the Pi's Broadcom CPU. There is no quality control process for those boards (there couldn't be if they have shipped over one million pieces); my most recent order resulted in one out of three defective boards. They've announced 1GHz "supported" overclocking; it breaks everything in the Arch and Raspbian image related to video trancoding. They announced an open source release of their GPU, that was a lie - all they did was distribute an API for the GPU firmware blob which is all but useless for development. Even overclocked at 1GHz the BeagleBone solidly outperforms the Pi.
I have two Raspberry Pi's here on my desk. They are going into MAME coffee tables. Building any commercial product around the Raspberry Pi is an exercise in new resume generation.
The only complaint I have about the BeagleBone so far is the ad hoc release style of Angstrom, but then again you shouldn't be using a canned distro for an embedded project anyway.
My .02.
Thanks for the heads up!
No wonder they are practically giving them away!
" I have two Raspberry Pi's here on my desk. They are going into MAME
coffee tables.
Building any commercial product around the Raspberry Pi is an exercise in
new resume generation."
I almost did, fortunately I never made it thru the initial tests (vs
BeagleBone) ...
Bill
Any estimates on when they might be available?
________________________________________
From: beagleboard@googlegroups.com [beagleboard@googlegroups.com] on behalf of William Pretty Security [bill.pretty@xplornet.com]
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2013 12:30 PM
To: beagleboard@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: [beagleboard] BeagleBone BlackThanks for the heads up!
No wonder they are practically giving them away!" I have two Raspberry Pi's here on my desk. They are going into MAME
coffee tables.
Building any commercial product around the Raspberry Pi is an exercise in
new resume generation."I almost did, fortunately I never made it thru the initial tests (vs
BeagleBone) ...Bill
Nothing against the Raspberry Pi fellows, but labeling the Pi an "open source hardware" platform is a misnomer based on the culture of Broadcom. You simply cannot get access to parts or documentation without an NDA in place, and without an inside contact at Broadcom and guaranteed orders for hundreds of thousands of parts they won't even talk to you. As far as the hardware design they only release PNG images of the board with no Gerbers or bill of materials; the Raspberry Pi project is probably best described as a closed hardware platform that runs an open source operating system. Even the add-on devices such as the Pi camera module uses a proprietary interface to the GPU which is not open source at all, so their financial model is obviously vendor lock-in with the Pi and official Pi add-ons (albeit very cheap add-ons).
The biggest problem with the Pi seems to be their power management, only a single USB interface to power the board without any secondary 5V barrel connector. Have a DVI-only monitor that you want to connect with an HDMI-to-DVI cable? That draws power from the Pi which won't allow both a keyboard and mouse to be connected at the same time, and their solution is "use a powered USB hub" which is an additional expense to add to the bottom line. Even with the ~$40 price tag for the Pi I had to spend almost as much money getting the Pi up and running with a functional setup as what I paid for a single BeagleBone from Mouser.
It's a neat toy for students in developing countries and the hobbyist community, but not a platform you could use as a baseline for an embedded system to create a derivative product from. That goes without mentioning the additional intrinsic functionality of the BeagleBone such as the PRU, the crypto accelerator, a well documented cape specification, access to all of the mechanical drawings and Gerbers, native camera interfacing on the XM etc.
this is a very old thread, it has been several revisions of both beagle boards (e.g. beagle bone black) & raspberry pi since then e.g. today we’ve rpi 3 model B which sports a quadcore A53 while beagleboard has x15 which is a ‘monster of a (embedded) board’
i actually wished that x15 would be somewhat more economical to afford but nevertheless x15 has all the horsepower for very fast io computing (e.g. the many RPU units + dual core high performance processes) which puts it in a different class to a similar level as high speed FPGAs
fast forward to today, i’d say beagle bone black vs raspberry pi (3) meets different needs.
for the pi 3, i actually like the rather low cost high megapixel cameras with its high speed (csi) interfaces, quad core a53 and the affordable price point, this time round it could really do hd 1080p, the downside unfortunately is that the cpu / soc technical docs/manuals is not officially released to the public, MIPI CSI / DSI proprietary interfaces remains a NDA affair
the other thing i think the full sized hdmi connector is rather convenient. as for beagle bone black, i tend to find that the micro hdmi connector is spaced too closely to the usb connect
for now x15 is somewhat too pricey for my (hobby) purposes but i still find the plain old beagle bone black a useful board in many circumstances.
the open documentation and the headers design (all the IO lines is exposed) is a big win on the beagle bone black.
it can readily be interfaced with other micro-controller projects such as the stm32 F1, stm32 F4, ESP 8266 (for wifi) boards
the built in lcd controller brought about these commercial LCD / touchscreen solutions
http://sg.element14.com/4d-systems/4dcape-70t/lcd-cape-module-bbone-black-dev/dp/2451218
http://sg.element14.com/element14/bb-view-70/7inch-lcd-display-cape-for-beaglebone/dp/2364757
http://sg.element14.com/4d-systems/4dcape-43t/lcd-cape-module-bbone-black-dev/dp/2451217
i bought one of those lcds which makes beagle bone black very much a complete mobile computer in which the GPIO lines are ready to be used.
this puts the beagle bone black into a different league on its own, it become a very strong platform for portable monitoring / sensor devices
e.g. it can readily be used as a portable oscilloscope or logic analyser
http://beta.beaglelogic.net/
of course today we also have the beagle bone black wireless that makes it even more useful