BeagleBone Black Has Arrived

Other Boards Technology
BeagleBone Black Has Arrived

BeagleBoneBlack01

Our friends at BeagleBoard.org revealed the newest iteration in their line of embedded Linux development boards, the BeagleBone Black. Besides the new color, the board should look familiar; it has the same footprint and similar layout as the original BeagleBone. However, there are a lot of new features and specs that make this more than just a slight revision:

  • The processor gets a bump up to 1GHz, compared to the original’s 720MHz.
  • RAM is doubled to 512MB.
  • The BeagleBone Black can be connected directly to a monitor through the on-board MicroHDMI port.
  • They’ve added 2GB of on-board flash memory, which will be preloaded with the Ångström distribution of Linux. This is in addition to the MicroSD slot, which you can still boot from, if you wish.
  • The software gets a big upgrade, too. The provided Ångström disk image is now on Linux Kernel 3.8. They’ve also made many improvements to BoneScript, their node.js library for physical computing on embedded Linux. This new disk image is will be available for the original BeagleBone as well.

Perhaps best of all, BeagleBoard.org has slashed the price down to a mere $45, pitting it much more competitively against the very popular Raspberry Pi, which currently sold for $35.

9781449370046 ER_REVTo celebrate the release of the new board, we’re also just about to launch the Early Release of my own Getting Started With BeagleBone ebook. With Early Release version of the book, you get access to the content as I’m writing it. You’ll receive updates along the way in addition to the final ebook when it’s published. Getting Started with BeagleBone covers how to make projects with both the original BeagleBone and the BeagleBone Black.

The BeagleBone Black is available for purchase from the Maker Shed!

8 thoughts on “BeagleBone Black Has Arrived

  1. raster says:

    Interesting specs! I’d love to know how it performs running Processing.

    1. Hondaman900 says:

      Anyone have success running Processings apps on the BBBK?

  2. Davide Faconti says:

    I am a fan of BeagleBone and I am delighted by the specifications of the new BBB.
    I have already ordered a couple of samples to try it out.
    I use it to test my software to control CanOpen devices ( http://www.can-moveit.com ).
    Is there anyone that like me prefer the BeagleBone over other Embedded PC (like Raspeberry Pi) because on the CAN bus?

  3. Scott says:

    Before seeing this, I was just about to buy the lower spec white beaglebone for $89. Thanks for the update!

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Matt Richardson is a San Francisco-based creative technologist and Contributing Editor at MAKE. He’s the co-author of Getting Started with Raspberry Pi and the author of Getting Started with BeagleBone.

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