Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Introducing the BBB
From the BeagleBoard website ( BeagleBoard.org ), which is the nonprofit foundation be-
hind BeagleBoard-xM, BeagleBone, and BBB, the BBB is a low-cost, community-suppor-
ted development platform for developers and hobbyists . The Rev C, which is the latest revi-
sion, has impressive specifications including the TI Sitara AM3358 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8
processor, 512 MB of DDR3 RAM, and 4 GB Embedded Multi-Media Card ( eMMC )
for on-board flash. When you take a look at the board, you'll see two 46-pin expansions
headers. If you compare it to other hobbyist boards around the same price point, you'll
come to the conclusion that the other boards do not contain nearly as much expansion cap-
ability. The BBB supports many more Input/Output ( IO ) options, including three I2C
buses, multiple serial ports, 65 General Purpose IO ( GPIO ), multiple Pulse Width Mod-
ulators ( PWM ), and seven analog inputs with built-in Analog-to-Digital Converters
( ADCs ). If you don't know what all of these are, that's not a problem, as we'll explain the
systems that we use throughout the projects.
The quality of the documentation from BeagleBoard.org is outstanding. You should read
the BBB System Reference Manual ( SRM ), the official manual for BBB, which is located
at https://github.com/CircuitCo/BeagleBone-Black/blob/master/BBB_SRM.pdf?raw=true .
This is a complete manual that covers connecting the BBB, power options, and boot se-
quences. Many of the questions asked on the BeagleBoard mailing list and IRC channel
can be quickly answered in this manual. The author of this topic assumes that you've at
least skimmed sections 3, 4, and 5 of the SRM, which means you are aware of the basic
capabilities of BBB and are familiar with the physical connectors. There is simply no better
reference for the BBB than this document.
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