Just in Time for the Holidays the BeagleBoard X15
-
The powerful BeagleBoard X15, delayed for many months, is coming in time for the holidays. It won't be cheap, though, coming in at an MSRP of $249. Lots of cool features, though, for someone looking for a really awesome ARM project SBC.
-
-
-
-
Processor:
TI Sitara AM5728 (2x Cortex-A15 cores @ 1.5GHz)
Imagination Power VR SGX544 3D GPU (2x cores @ 533MHz)
1x Vivante GC3230 2D BTBLT accelerator
2x Cortex-M4 microcontroller cores @ 212MHz
4x PRU cores for 185x PRU pins
2x 700-MHz C66x DSP cores
Memory/storage:
2GB DDR3L (via dual, 32-bit buses) @ 533MHz
4GB eMMC flash (8-bit)
MicroSD slot
eSATA port (powered 500mA)
Display/multimedia:
HDMI port at up to 1920 x 1080 @ 60fps with audio
LCD and camera interfaces (via expansion connectors)
AIC3104 stereo audio in/out
Networking — 2x gigabit Ethernet ports
USB:
3x USB 3.0 Type A host ports (2x 900mA; 1x 1800mA)
Micro-USB 2.0 client port
4x internal USB 2.0 interfaces
Expansion — 4x 60-pin dual-row headers:
157x GPIO
7x UART
185x PRU
PCIe, SPI, I2C, CAN, LCD, camera I/O
Other features — reset and power buttons; RTC with optional battery backup; serial debug header; 20-pin CTI JTAG
Power — 12V @ TBD
Dimensions — 4.2 x 4.0 in. (107 x 102mm), 12-layer PCB
Operating systems — Debian and Ubuntu Linux (kernel 3.19-rc1); Android -
So a high powered Raspberry Pi for all intensive purposes.
Would definitely be useful for micro pc's for home entertainment centers etc. I might have to buy one.
-
Or even a pFSense box for the cost conscious.
-
@DustinB3403 said:
Or even a pFSense box for the cost conscious.
That would actually be expensive for a pfSense box. Are you sure that FreeBSD will run on there?
-
@DustinB3403 said:
So a high powered Raspberry Pi for all intensive purposes.
If you consider all ARM SBCs to be Raspberry Pis, I suppose. It is not architecturally identical. Not like PCs.
-
@DustinB3403 said:
Would definitely be useful for micro pc's for home entertainment centers etc. I might have to buy one.
You could use it to build a small desktop for sure, it has a powerful GPU even. Keep in mind it isn't a PC though. That's specifically what makes this different.
-
@scottalanmiller What hardware would you use that includes dual nics and the CPU / Memory of a board like this with regards to a pFSense box?
Most other units I've seen are in the same price range, and have less baked in.
-
@scottalanmiller I'm not certain it could run pFSense.
it's just an assumption at this point. I have to read up on it more.
-
The BeagleBoard-X15 is the first BeagleBoard.org SBC to fully support Android, which will be offered along with Debian and Ubuntu images. The SBC is said to support applications including, robotics, media centers, interactive art, machine vision, home security and industrial automation. BeagleBoard.org also notes that the PRU subsystem “provides the ability to create software-defined peripherals and extreme low-latency response to events such as sensing and responding to wind gusts around a quad-copter.”
No mention of firewall capabilities. But it includes Debian and Ubuntu, also while being able to run Android.
A few mentioned potential uses are for media centers. XBMC comes to mind.
-
@DustinB3403 said:
No mention of firewall capabilities. But it includes Debian and Ubuntu, also while being able to run Android.
Yes, all Linux that is supported, no FreeBSD at all. Not that FreeBSD won't work there, but someone will need to port it.
-
@DustinB3403 said:
A few mentioned potential uses are for media centers. XBMC comes to mind.
No issue with making a firewall, it is specifically pfSense that you would not expect to work as it is not Debian based, or Android, let alone Linux.
-
This would be extremely expensive for a firewall, though. At $250 you can get SBCs that are far more than powerful enough for less than half of that price. Even $100 is dramatic overkill. Any SBC in this range has a GPU, which won't be used in the firewall application, so all of that cost is wasted. A Raspberry Pi should be just fine for a firewall.
Considering you can buy a fully built and equipped Ubiquiti firewall for under $95 with VyOS already installed and supported, you'd have to significantly beat that price to consider an SBC project, I think, other than just the fun of it.
-
I think IPFire has an ARM version, but IDS doesn't seem to work.
I've looked into Pi + pfSense before and the general consensus is it won't work and there are no plans to make it work. Here's one of the pfSense forum admins quoting Ian Malcom in the thread about running pfSense on a Pi...
This $299 router from the pfSense store seems to have slightly stronger hardware and comes with pfSense preinstalled.
-
@WingCreative said:
I think IPFire has an ARM version, but IDS doesn't seem to work.
I've looked into Pi + pfSense before and the general consensus is it won't work and there are no plans to make it work. Here's one of the pfSense forum admins quoting Ian Malcom in the thread about running pfSense on a Pi...
This $299 router from the pfSense store seems to have slightly stronger hardware and comes with pfSense preinstalled.
Only a two core Atom. I bet the ARM will often beat it.
-
@DustinB3403 said:
The BeagleBoard-X15 is the first BeagleBoard.org SBC to fully support Android, which will be offered along with Debian and Ubuntu images. The SBC is said to support applications including, robotics, media centers, interactive art, machine vision, home security and industrial automation. BeagleBoard.org also notes that the PRU subsystem “provides the ability to create software-defined peripherals and extreme low-latency response to events such as sensing and responding to wind gusts around a quad-copter.”
No mention of firewall capabilities. But it includes Debian and Ubuntu, also while being able to run Android.
A few mentioned potential uses are for media centers. XBMC comes to mind.
Yeah, but you can run XBMC / Kodi on a friggin Roku stick... why pay $249 for that?
