CircuitCo has just introduced BlueSteel-Basic, a development board based on the Beaglebone Black but with a Blue PCB, no HDMI output, and no eMMC flash that’s destined to be used by OEMs in their products. LinuxGizmos also reports that BlueSteel-Basic is to be followed by BlueSteel-IT, an industrial temperature grade (-40 to 100°C) board based on the Beaglebone Black, and Bluesteel-Core, a computer-on-module (CoM) based on Ti Sitara AM335x that are scheduled for July 2014.
Let’s checkout BlueSteel-Basic specifications:
- SoC – Texas Instruments Sitara AM3358BZCZ100 @ 1GHz (2000 MIPS) with PowerVR SGX530 3D GPU (20M Polygons/S)
- System Memory – 512MB DDR3L @ 800MHz
- Storage – micro SD slot
- Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet (RJ45)
- USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 1x mini USB 2.0 port
- Debugging – Serial header and optional on-board 20-pin CTI JTAG
- Expansion Connectors Signals:
- Power 5V, 3.3V, VDD_ADC (1.8V)
- 3.3V I/O On All Signals
- McASP0, SPI1, I2C, GPIO (69 max), LCD, GPMC, MMC1, MMC2, 7 AIN (1.8V Max), 4 Timers, 4 Serial Ports, CAN0, EHRPWM(0,2), XDMA Interrupt, Power Button, Expansion Board ID (Up to 4 can be stacked)
- Misc – Indicators: 1-Power, 2-Ethernet, 4-User Controllable LEDs; Buttons: User input, boot, and power.
- PMIC – TPS65217C PMIC regulator and one additional LDO
- Power Supply – +5V via miniUSB USB or DC Jack, 5VDC external Via expansion Header
- Dimensions – 8.6 x 5.3 cm – 6 layers PCB
- Weight – TBD
And if you’d like to get a clearer picture of the differences between BeagleBone, BeagleBone Black and BlueSteel-Basic, there’s a table that for that!
| BeagleBone | BeagleBone Black | BlueSteel-Basic | |
| Processor | AM3359ZCZ72, 720MHz | AM3358BZCZ100, 1GHz | AM3358BZCZ100, 1GHz |
| HDMI | No | Yes | No |
| DRAM | 256MB DDR2 400MHz | 512MB DDR3L 800MHz | 512MB DDR3L 800MHz |
| Flash | uSD | 4GB eMMC, uSD | uSD |
| Onboard JTAG | Yes, over USB | Optional | Optional |
| Serial | via USB | via header | via header |
| PWR Exp Header | Yes | No | No |
| Power | 300-500 mA@5V | 210-460 mA@5V | TBD |
Just like the BeagleBones, BlueSteel-Basic will be open source hardware simply because it’s exactly the same as the BeagleBone Black, but without the components required for HDMI and eMMC flash. That also means the capes, Beaglebone’s expansion boards, will be supported. The board will also leverage all the software brought to the the BeagleBone Black with support for Debian and Angstrom, but also Android, Gentoo, ArchLinux ARM, Minix, and more. You can find more technical details on BlueSteel-Basic Wiki.
BlueSteel-Basic will cost the same as BeagleBone Black Rev C, that is $55 and start shipping on June 30. You can pre-order BlueSteel-Basic on Boardzoo.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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