The element14 BeagleBone Black is a full featured, internet enabled development platform that utilizes the low cost Sitara™ AM3358 ARM® Cortex™-A8 processor fromTexas Instruments and runs a variety of OS including Debian, Angstrom, Ubuntu and Android. The element14 BeagleBone Black is designed to address the needs of designers, early adopters, and anyone in the Open Source Community interested in a low cost ARM® Cortex™-A8 based processor.

The BeagleBone Black (BBONE-BLACK-4G) is a low cost, high-expansion focused BeagleBoard using a low cost Sitara™ AM3358 ARM® Cortex™-A8 processor from Texas Instruments. BBONE-BLACK-4G ships with the Ångström Linux distribution preinstalled on the onboard FLASH, ready to start evaluation and development. Many other Linux distributions and operating systems are also supported by BeagleBone Black including Ubuntu, Android, and Fedora. Like its predecessors, the BeagleBone Black is designed to address the Open Source Community, early adopters, and anyone interested in a low cost ARM® Cortex™-A8 based processor. It has been equipped with a minimum set of features to allow the user to experience the power of the processor and also offers access to many of the interfaces and allows for the use of add-on boards called capes, to add many different combinations of features. A user may also develop their own board or add their own circuitry.

The BBONE-BLACK-4G features TI's Sitara™ AM3358AZCZ100 microprocessor, which is based on ARM®Cortex™-A8 core with enhanced image, graphics processing, peripherals and industrial interface options such as EtherCAT and PROFIBUS. The board is equipped with 256Mb x16 DDR3L 4Gb (512MB) SDRAM, 32KB EEPROM, and 4GB embedded MMC (eMMC) Flash as the default boot source. The board is also populated with a single microSD connector to act as a secondary boot source for the board and, if selected as such, can be the primary boot source. The BeagleBone Black supports four boot modes, including eMMC boot, microSD boot, serial boot, and USB boot. A switch is provided to allow switching between the modes.

In contrast to the original BeagleBone, the BBONE-BLACK-4G has an onboard HDMI interface to connect directly to TVs and monitors. Other features include a 10/100 Ethernet interface, a serial debug port, a PC USB interface, an USB 2.0 host port, a reset button, a power button, and five indicating blue LEDs. The BeagleBone Black has the ability to accept up to four expansion boards or capes that can be stacked onto the expansion headers. The majority of capes designed for the original BeagleBone will work on the BeagleBone Black.

Key Applications: Robotics, motor drivers, Twitter printer, data backup, SDR base station, USB data acquisition and more.

• Processor: TI Sitara AM3358AZCZ100, 1GHz, 2000 MIPS
  • 1 GHz ARM®Cortex™-A8
  • SGX530 Graphics Engine
  • Programmable Real-Time Unit Subsystem
• Memory
  • SDRAM: 512MB DDR3L 800MHZ
  • Onboard Flash: 4GB, 8bit Embedded MMC (eMMC)
• SD/MMC Connector for microSD
• Power management:TPS65217C PMIC is used along with a separate LDO to provide power to the system
• Debug Support: Optional Onboard 20-pin CTI JTAG, Serial Header
• Power Source
  • miniUSB USB or DC Jack
  • 5VDC External Via Expansion Header
• Connectivity
  • High speed USB 2.0 Client port: Access to USB0, Client mode via miniUSB
  • High Speed USB 2.0 Host port: Access to USB1, Type A Socket, 500mA LS/FS/HS
  • Serial Port: UART0 access via 6 pin 3.3V TTL Header. Header is populated
  • 10/100M Ethernet (RJ45)
• User Input / Output
  • Reset Button
  • Boot Button
  • Power Button
  • LED power indicator
  • 4 user configurable LEDs
• Video/Audio Interfaces
  • HDMI D type interface
  • LCD interface
  • Stereo audio over HDMI interface
• Expansion Interfaces
  • LCD, UART, eMMC
  • ADC, I2C, SPI, PWM