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BeagleBone Black Ships With New Linux 3.8 Kernel

Posted by timothy on from the add-cheap-monitor-wham-computer dept.

DeviceGuru writes "BeagleBoard.org has begun shipping its faster, cheaper BeagleBone Black SBC with a new Linux 3.8 kernel, supporting Device Tree technology for more streamlined ARM development. The $45 BeagleBone Black runs Linux or Android on a 1GHz TI Sitara AM3359 SOC, doubles the RAM to 512MB of its predecessor, and adds a micro-HDMI port. The updated kernel gives the BeagleBone Black access to a new Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) display driver architecture, as well as full support for the Device Tree data structure introduced to streamline ARM development in Linux 3.7. The project was hesitant to move up to such a recent kernel, but decided it was time to bite the bullet and support the Device Tree. By doing the hard work of switching to Device Tree now, BeagleBoard.org and its developer community can save a lot of configuration and maintenance headaches down the line, says BeagleBoard.org co-founder Jason Kridner. Fortunately, a modified 3.2 kernel 'coming soon' should provide the necessary bridge from the old cape driver architecture to the new one."

2 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. I miss Beagle Bros by jfdavis668 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Every time I see news about this, I keep thinking it says Beagle Bros. I miss their great software and funny documentation.

  2. Re:PowerVR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Shame about that PowerVR GPU, I don't see it ever actually being able to take advantage of the newer display architecture. I do like the move towards Device Tree.

    For $50 Cubieboard has similar specs but comes with a mail400 gpu instead.

    Features
            Allwinner A10 SOC
            96 pin extended interface
            Built-in IR receiver
            SATA supported
            Supports 2.4GHz wireless keyboard and mouse

    Specifications
            CPU: 1G ARM cortex-A8 processor, NEON, VFPv3, 256KB L2 cache
            GPU: Mali400, OpenGL ES GPU
            Memory: 1GB DDR3 @480MHz
            Video output: HDMI 1080p Output
            Network: 10/100M Ethernet
            Internal storage4GB NAND Flash
            IO ports: 2 USB Host, 1 micro SD slot, 1 SATA, 1 ir
            Extended interfaces: 96 extend pin including I2C, SPI, RGB/LVDS, CSI/TS, FM-IN, ADC, CVBS, VGA, SPDIF-OUT, R-TP
            Supports systems: Running Android, Ubuntu and other Linux distributions