BeagleBone Black Wireless
beagleboard.org
beagleboard.org
There are hardware design source files on https://github.com/beagleboard/beaglebone-black-wireless, including a PDF schematic: https://github.com/beagleboard/beaglebone-black-wireless/raw... which features a Texas Instruments WL1835MODGBMOCT WiFi/Bluetooth module: https://store.ti.com/WL1835MODGBMOCT.aspx
The only thing that would make me consider buying the BeagleBone Black Wireless is the two built-in microcontrollers ("PRU" processors [2]), for real-time I/O usage.
[2] http://beagleboard.org/pru
P.S. I'm not related to CHIP product, just a happy user :-)
Still, for $20 total outlay I have something that is between the Raspberry Pi B+ and 2 in performance, with arguably better expansion (if you value GPIO over USB), and a few nice extras like a power/reset button and built in support for LiPo batteries. The downside is that it's based on an Allwinner chip, and that company is known for being open-source hostile. Supposedly they are trying to improve, but it does limit the range of operating systems available for the device.
EDIT: I have too many of the little SBC, but in my mind the CHIP is outstanding value for these little projects where in yesteryears one would have used a microcontroller.
For things that need more power, I like the ODROID C2.
Soo many to choose from.
The specific CPU in the CHIP appears to have mainline support, so it's less terrible than things like the "Banana Pi M2+" ( http://linux-sunxi.org/Sinovoip_Banana_Pi_M2%2B ), but I like to support CPU manufacturers who aren't Allwinner.
The Allwinner CPUs are always extremely cheap, but I don't support the company because of what jerks they are to the open source community [2]
[0] http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack#Revision_C_.28...
[1] http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/seeed-technology-co...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allwinner#Linux_controversies
First, the Bill of Materials for the BeagleBone is publicly available. I'm quite sure the BeagleBone guys would welcome your help in finding parts that are significantly cheaper than what they have now.
Second, the BeagleBone comes with a bunch of very standard connectors that are optional or hobbyist installs on a lot of the other boards. Ethernet jack, 2 usb ports (one OTG), an actual power adapter jack that isn't USB, both big headers already installed, mini-HDMI already installed, uSD card holder installed and probably a couple others that I forgot. Those connectors are not cheap AND they often have to be installed by hand.
Third, most BeagleBone's come with everything you need. You don't need to buy a USB cable. You don't need to buy a flash card. You plug it in and it powers up and you can do stuff on it. RPi's used to make you buy both a cable and a uSD card--maybe that has changed.
Finally, the BeagleBone is actually quite a bit more powerful and has more peripherals than most of these other boards. The BeagleBone always came with a processor capable of running stock Linux even from it's release in April 2013--the RPi didn't get that until the RPi2 almost 2 years later. Quite a few things on the BBB hang directly off the chip and have their own functional modules that don't conflict with other things. On the BBB, for example, Ethernet is wired to the chip--it does not suck up USB bandwidth like the RPi. While you can plug in a USB audio stick on the BBB, most capes actually access the McASP block so that they get direct DMA and again don't clog the USB bus. I can do a lot more things simultaneously on the BBB than I can on the RPi before bogging it down.
If you can use the RPi for whatever it is you are doing--great! It's a nice product. But there are a lot of us quietly using a lot of BeagleBones because it is way more powerful and had these things from the start. RPi adopted these things later and, funnily enough, needed to increase their price when they did so.
It's no coincidence that the RPi3 and the BeagleBone Green are almost identical in price.
Still true, at least when I got my RPi 3 from Adafruit a month ago.
This is my only nitpick with your post. While the Pi was in development, yes it was advertised as a "$25 computer", and once they finalized the design of the B version it ended up at $35. However, its price has not increased one penny since release, despite several revisions and huge leaps in performance and capability. Today we have the RPi 3, a quad core 64 bit computer that sells for the same price as the original single core, outdated-on-release board from 2012. If anything, that means the price has technically gone down, since you're getting so much more for the same amount.
Then clone was up everywhere, from RPI to Intel to many small shops in China etc, even Arduino started to add 32-bit CPU boards, price has remained to be low so far.
The only concern is that TI is not as active as before on its ARM-chip business, otherwise Beaglebones could have dominated the market instead of RPI series.
And TI was probably smart to exit OMAP for phones/tablets when they did. It's too hard to beat Apple/Samsung/Qualcomm in this space now.
(The Sitara/AM335x on Beagle is just an OMAP without the video DSP)
TI also was the first one to do mcu-wifi but it's so expensive it never got much market attraction, until ESP8266 came out which took the world by storm.
Would have wished they had updated the AM335x to one of the beefier Sitaras, they are falling somewhat behind if only in clock rate.
Switched to a RPi2 after that headache. The BBB has been collecting dust ever since.
Simply swapping the micro-usb connector would have broken that (because it's larger).
Well, the RAM on the Bone is DDR3 while the RAM on the RPi3 is DDR2. I'll generally take the extra performance over an extra 512MB.
With respect to USB3, USB Type-C connectors are WAY more expensive than micro-B. We're talking like more than a dollar vs less than 10 cents. And USB Type-C cables are way more expensive, too. And you'd still only be doing USB 2.0 speeds anyhow.
I doubt Type-C USB is going to be making it into this space anytime soon.
I'm also generally unconvinced the Type-C scaremongering is real. Difficulty now is high, costs are high, but it still doesn't seem as impervious a barrier as many people intone.
That's fine, but most embedded things can't even do USB high speed. So why incur the cost of USB 3.0 when they can't even use USB 2.0 to the fullest?
*LPDDR2
Edit: A warning about the TPS65217C on the BBB. The power supply needs to come up in (I think 50ms) or it'll fail to boot.
USB+ethernet both use the same connection to the CPU, and it's a USB-OTG implementation basically hacked to act like a USB host, but it's possible to host the filesystem there.
Lower price. And that's what drove almost everything.
The RPI very much does NOT have higher performance.
Simple things like "How fast can I toggle that pin?" can make you think so because the RPi's are "closer to the metal".
(The Rpi1 was slower, but the BBBW is up against the Pi3, and previous ones against Pi2.)
Um, sure, but if that's your benchmark, you'd want an ODROID-C2 instead, no?
The problem I have with the RPi3 is that it's rare that I am CPU bound (and there are better choices if I am), while I am far more often I/O bound. And the RPi I/O system (Still hanging Ethernet off the USB? Only one PWM pin? Really?) is sub-par.
However, to each their own. The level of choice is wonderful from the perspective of someone who had to fight making a board at $200 4 years ago that didn't even reach near the level of the initial RPi.
And if I want absolute-lowest-price, CHIP is still where it's at, unless I can stretch as low as the ESP8266, but then we're no longer in the same category.
So, anyway, I'm not particularly excited about yet another beaglebone that's two or three times too expensive for what it is, in singles. Others have differing needs/opinions.
I'm wondering what might be recommended choices at this point for someone looking for an inexpensive, wired MITM / Firewall platform.
P.S. It would be great if it also had decent on-board wireless for e.g. making a portable hardware firewall device.
if you're okay with it, you have a LOT more options than if you aren't. perhaps if we start having dedicated routers and networks for the backdoored insecure stuff they'll start realizing that at the end of the day they're being pretty fucking obvious.
no comment on other governments stuff. if they're there, at least they aren't obvious.
Me I'd be more worried about the WiFi module, thought stopping to think, if the WiFi module driver isn't open source that's a worry too.
The wifi driver is open source, however with a binary blob for WiFi and Bluetooth firmware.
The AllWinner stuff is concerning because they weren't exactly transparent about things.
However, the Octavo stuff looks like your bog-standard chips from BeagleBone/TI just all smashed onto the same substrate. You could decap the module and see if that's true.
>OT, sort of, but a while back I saw one of these... "Pi-like" boards that had two Ethernet ports. It also had significantly more horsepower. I'm wondering what might be recommended choices at this point for someone looking for an inexpensive, wired MITM / Firewall platform.
There are a lot of very interesting, very cheap boards!
Gigabit Ethernet, even. Do wish the USB could be >= 3, but for $40, I'm not going to complain.
Mali™-450 GPU (3 Pixel-processors + 2 Vertex shader processors)
I haven't really examined it, though. Maybe there's also a binary blob loaded into the GPU itself or something (the Raspberry Pi does that, for example).
Hopefully they don't need to use a closed-source blob for the C2.
Traditionally a problem with many boards is that you have to choose between running a distro kernel with incomplete hardware support but timely security updates, and running a board specific kernel that can't be safely exposed to internet-connected environment.
Problem was to support capes (addon boards) especially dynamically and at runtime wasn't really supported in mainline. They had special cape manager patches to do it but it wasn't a good solution for upstream.
3 years later or so we finally have good overlay support for this in a mainline happy and now merged way. They paid to have this work done which is great, though sadly took a long time.
I forget the guys name that did it but he is clearly a champion of patience.
It looks like the Green wireless has more USB ports, but aside from that, I'm not sure why you'd choose the BBB Wireless vs BBG Wireless?
http://www.righto.com/2016/08/pru-tips-understanding-beagleb...
- Yogi Berra
Are dual 5/2 GHz chips that much more expensive?