Digi-Key Ships Latest Version of BeagleBoard Developmental Board

Digi-Key Corporation, a provider of electronic components, has announced that it started shipping the latest version of BeagleBoard.

The BeagleBoard is a low-power, low-cost single-board computer or embedded development board developed by Texas Instruments (News - Alert) (TI) in association with Digi-Key.

Supporting open source development, BeagleBoard is based on TI’s OMAP3530 processor. The board bridges desktop and embedded development by delivering laptop-like performance in a pocketsize, 3x3-inch form factor. The board is ideal for innovative projects such as robots, netbooks, mobile Internet devices, entire Linux distributions and gaming frameworks.

The latest version, Revision C of BeagleBoard includes increased design flexibility, twice the memory (256 MB RAM), additional high-speed USB port, and an LCD expansion connector, said the company.

The OMAP3530 processor which is present in the BeagleBoard incorporates an ARM (News - Alert) Cortex-A8, graphics engine, high-performance TI TMS320C64x+ digital signal processor (DSP) and video accelerators. Also, three pulse width modulation (PWM) signals present on the expansion connector facilitates motor driver functions or PWM signaling, making the board ideal for many innovative projects. 

A high-speed dedicated-host USB port has also been integrated in to the latest version of the BeagleBoard. This USB port can be used with a standard A-type connector to add a high-speed USB hub connected to TV tuners, network adapters, keyboards and mice, Web cameras, hard drives, or other USB peripherals. The same USB port can also act as a USB device via the USB on-the-go port. The USB 2.0 on-the-go MMC/SD/SDIO and DVI-D, which were found on previous BeagleBoard versions and are now also made available with Revision C.

Digi-Key said that the LCD expansion interface provided on the latest version of BeagleBoard can also be used with an adapter board to connect to different displays, such as RGB LCD panels and LVDS panels. And that the increased memory capacity, 256 MB RAM, facilitates developers to implement more instructions and run more than one program with faster loading times.

The latest version of BeagleBoard also houses an integrated TI TPS65950 power management device that is capable of supporting up to 13 channels of power management and also incorporates audio and USB - all on a single chip.